In the years following the Second World War, Abstract Expressionism became the most influential movement to emerge from America and inspired many British painters. Alan Davie's work is deeply informed by Abstract Expressionism and by seeing works by Picasso and Paul Klee in London exhibitions in 1945. Zurich Improvisations is a series of prints Davie produced for Editions Alecto in 1965. It was a collaborative experiment between the artist and the studio and grew into a much bigger project than the original concept of a batch of three different prints. The final series contained an edition of 34 prints 'each made up from up to ten different plates, some printed upside down'.