Space No. 37

Created in 1963 with ink and color on paper, the thirty-seventh "Space" print follows closely on its predecessor, continuing Masaji's relentless investigation of spatial abstraction. The 1963 date places it in the final decade of the artist's life (he died in 1971), a period when his work achieved its greatest formal economy. The ink-and-color woodblock technique anchors the exploration of space in physical material: the viscosity of the ink, the absorbency of the paper, the resistance of the wood grain, all of these tangible properties contribute to the spatial illusions the finished print achieves. Masaji's Space series stands as one of the most sustained investigations of a single abstract concept in the history of Japanese printmaking, rivaling in ambition if not in fame the serial explorations of Western artists like Josef Albers.