799

This 1983 woodblock print, numbered 799 in Funasaka's catalog, belongs to his sustained investigation of geometric abstraction through the traditional woodblock medium. The number places it in the early 1980s phase of a practice that would eventually generate over a thousand individually numbered works. Funasaka's compositions from this period typically employ flat planes of color arranged in configurations that create the illusion of three-dimensional space on the two-dimensional surface of the paper. The tension between the print's physical flatness and the spatial depth suggested by overlapping and intersecting geometric forms generates the visual interest that sustains attention. Funasaka's choice of woodblock printing over more mechanically precise methods introduces subtle organic variations that prevent the geometry from becoming sterile or purely mechanical.