One of Japan's leading graphic designers and art directors since the 1960s, Nagai trained at theTokyo National University of Fine Arts in scultpure but left in 1951 to work as a graphic designer for the Tokyo Spinning Co. in Osaka.
Starting in 1960, he worked for the Nippon Design Center, serving as its president and later as director. By the early 1960s, he had developed a personal style of abstract, geometric, linear forms and patterns that create surreal landscapes. This style appeared in posters for Nikon; GQ magazine; and his freelance work of the 1970s and early 1980s.
Although his first works were abstract at the beginning, he changed for handmade designs of animals and plants in the 1980s.
By the late 1980s realistic elements entered his design vocabularly. There have been several retrospective exhibitions of his work, the most recent at the Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art in 1990.
© 2020. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Kazumasa Nagai or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only
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Advertisement poster for Nikon camera 1960 |
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Poster for exhibition “Designs Today” 1960 |
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Poster for Nikon 1960 |
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Poster for exhibition “Good Design” 1961 |
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The Cell 1966 |
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One-Man Show Ichibankan Gallery, 1968 |
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One-Man Show Imabashi Gallery, 1968 |
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Kazumasa Nagai Exhibition Imabashi Gallery 1969 |
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Light and Vision 1969 |
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Poster for exhibition “Graphic Image” Tokyo Museum of Arts, 1973 |
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Poster for Lilycolor Co. Ltd. Tokyo ,1974 |
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Poster for Kazumasa Nagai exhibition Tokyo, 1975 |
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Adonis. Group of 3 posters 1976 |
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Poster for “Inter Design” 1980 |
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Nagauta Shamisen Poster, 1981 |
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Poster for the magazine TENRI 1981 |
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Poster for The First Festival of Contemporary Art The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, 1982 |
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Artists Paint Toyama: 100 Landscapes by 100 Artists 1983 |
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Poster in Toyama 1985 |
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Japan Poster, 1987 |
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Casa Wolf Poster, 1987–89 |
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Poster for Museum of Modern Art Toyama, 1989 |
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Exhibition poster, 1990 |
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curiosities & clockwork 1991 |
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Poster from “LIFE” series 1993 |
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Poster for Ueno Zoo Tokyo, 1994 |
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