Asagao, 1961

During the early 1960s, Yves Gaucher’s imagery was quasi representational; the shapes in prints like Asagao resemble rough flat stones, sometimes layered. He made prints using multiple irregular plates so that the individual forms were self-contained and palpably textured. The absence of plate marks precludes interpreting the paper surface as anything other than itself. There is little in these early prints to hint at the geometry soon to come.