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Lot description
Mid Century White Embossed Limited Edition Geometric Abstract by Kazumasa Nagai. Signed and numbered by the artist and dated 1970. Measures 22"x15"x1 1/2". Weight 6 pds 2 oz. PROVENANCE: A Charleston Private Estate Kazumasa Nagai is a master of Japanese graphic design and an acclaimed graphic artist. He started studying sculpture at Geidai—Geijutsu Daigaku (National University of Arts) in Tokyo, from which he withdrew in 1951 due to health problems. The same year he was hired at Daiwabo Co., a textile manufacturing company where he was in charge of advertising, and so began his career as a graphic designer. During the 1960s, he designed some beautiful posters for Nikkor—the brand of lenses produced by Nikon Corporation—based on rigorous geometry and optical perception. Author of numerous excellent marks, in 1965 he designed the logotype of Asahi Breweries, the largest beer producer in Japan. In 1966 the mark he designed for Sapporo ’72 Winter Olympics was selected as the winner of a closed competition in which participated some of the best Japanese graphic designers of that time. In 1973 he designed the mark and official posters for Expo ’75 in Okinawa. During his long career, he moved from a Gestalt-oriented graphic design to figurative and symbolic illustration dedicated to nature started in 1987 with the series “Japan” and culminated with the copperplate engravings titled “Life.” In 2014 he collaborated with Issey Miyake’s Pleats Please, developing a fashion collection and showroom exhibition. Member of JAAC (Japan Advertising Artists Club) since 1953. Founding Member of NDC (Nippon Design Center) in 1959, he was its President from 1975 to 1986, Vice-President until 2001, and Senior Executive Advisor until today. Member of Tokyo ADC (Art Directors Club) since 1965. Member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) since 1966. President of JAGDA (Japan Graphic Designers Association) from 1994 to 2000, he is now its Special Adviser. Chairman of the Japan Design Committee. Past-Member of JIDF (Japan Inter-Design Forum). He was awarded prestigious recognitions including the Art Encouragement Prize from the Japan Ministry of Education in 1988, the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon in 1989, the Mainichi Design Prize—the most prestigious Japanese design award—in 1994, Tokyo ADC (Art Directors Club) Grand Prize in 1996, the Order of the Rising Sun (4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette) and the Yusaku Kamakura Design Award in 1999, the JAGDA Award in 2009, and many others including numerous Gold Prize and Grand Prix from the International Biennale of Brno, Helsinki, Kharkiv, Moscow, Warsaw, Xalapa, and Zagreb. His work is part of the permanent collection of major museums including the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York City, Die Neue Sammlung in Munich, the MOMAT (Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo), and the MOMAK (Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto). In 1964 he participated in Documenta III, Kassel.