Untitled

Joel Shapiro

1988

A small woodcut in which Joel Shapiro translates his pared-down, sculptural vocabulary into a printed image of looping contours and circular voids against a textured woodgrain ground.

What strikes you first is the dark, almost tactile square of woodgrain pierced by crisp white, handlike loops and five round apertures that float between figure and ground, making a simple shape feel ambiguous and animated.

This print brings Shapiro’s minimalist, biomorphic concerns into printmaking, emphasizing surface, negative space, and the dialogue between material texture and abstract form that marked late-20th-century sculpture and print practice.

Palette

Art Terms

Abstraction Biomorphic Minimalism Woodcut Relief print Figure/ground relationship

Exhibitions

Committed to Print

1988

Handmade Paper Prints and Unique Works

1976

American Prints from the International Program

1971

Prints by Sculptors

1975