Abstract

Titled simply Abstract, this print sits at the center of Yamaguchi's sosaku-hanga practice, where the named subject has been wholly absorbed into the formal life of the image. Compositions of this type typically consist of a small number of weighted shapes — quadrilaterals, irregular curves, or torn-edge forms — arranged across the sheet with deliberate asymmetry, set against a textured ground where the wood's grain and the carver's gouge marks remain visible as part of the design. Yamaguchi printed in successive runs from multiple blocks, often using rough or unconventional materials (sand, board, fiber) to produce surfaces that no etched plate or lithographic stone could replicate. The result is a print whose visual interest comes from material and process rather than subject matter, embodying the sosaku-hanga ambition that the artist's hand at every stage — design, carving, printing — be legible in the finished sheet.