Untitled (Abstraction)
1932

Blanche Lazzell’s color block print Untitled (Abstraction) is comprised of interlocking, superimposed shapes that create a lively two-dimensional surface. This arrangement closely adheres to the Cubist language espoused by Albert Gleizes and Fernand Léger, with whom Lazzell studied in Paris in the years following World War I. In Paris, she mastered the lessons of planar abstraction, simplifying forms by deleting details and reducing her compositions to flat planes and bold outlines. Untitled (Abstraction) adapts these principles to woodblock printmaking, a medium in which Lazzell specialized. This image exemplifies one of her comments about wood block printing: “I am working for color values, form relationship, rhythm of movement, interplay of space, and sincere expression.”