Signed "R. Motherwell" in pencil lower right

Numbered in pencil lower right; workshop chop mark lower right

16, inscribed “Proof A”-”Proof P”

2 TP (1 overpainted with gouache)

Universal Limited Art Editions, West Islip, New York

Ben Berns and David Umholz, Universal Limited Art Editions

1 color printed in 1 run from 1 aluminum plate: black – plate

B 75; ULAE 11

The Samurai image was composed as a brush drawing. The technique is comparable to that used by calligraphers to arrive at a simulation of form. Printed on large sheets of rice paper cut from a roll, the image registered differently each time as if it was monoprinted. Motherwell's interest in calligraphy focused on the brush as a medium itself, with an almost limitless range of stylistic expressiveness.