A Woman A

A standing female figure — "A Woman A" — rendered in Karhu's early figurative style from circa 1968, this woodblock print reflects a period before he had fully committed to the architectural streetscape subjects that would define his mature reputation. The figure is rendered with the clean, flat color areas and strong contour lines that characterize his early prints, drawing on both the Japanese figurative tradition and the bold graphic sensibility of mid-twentieth-century Western printmaking. The work shows a versatility that his later, more focused Kyoto work deliberately set aside.