Wall of Art (Geijutsu no kabe) No. 3

Created in 1965 as edition 5 of 30, this color woodblock print is the third in a series whose Japanese title "Geijutsu no kabe" translates literally as "the wall of art." The title positions art itself as a barrier, a surface to be confronted, examined, and possibly broken through. Masaji may be reflecting on the limits of his own medium: what can woodblock printing express, and where does it reach a wall beyond which further progress requires new methods? The limited edition of thirty impressions and the 1965 date place this work in the final phase of Masaji's career, when his exploration of abstract themes had been sustained for nearly two decades. The "wall" metaphor also connects to the physical flatness of the print surface, which Masaji's spatial investigations had spent years trying to transcend.