Improvisation No. 3: Line

Date:: 1951
Medium:: Woodblock print
Edition:: Self-printed
Source:: Art Institute of Chicago

Typical Price

Museum-quality abstract Poem series composition: $30,000–$100,000+
Fine signed Poem or abstract work: $8,000–$30,000
Good condition abstract print: $2,000–$8,000

Description

"Improvisation No. 3: Line" of 1951 pursues the musical analogy that structured Onchi's late abstract work — the improvisation as a composition made in the moment, following formal impulse rather than preconceived plan. "Line" specifies the formal element given primacy in this composition: the quality, movement, and expressive character of drawn or printed lines as independent subjects, not boundaries around shapes or edges of forms. Onchi's engagement with line as pure formal element placed him in dialogue with international abstraction of the period, particularly gestural abstraction.