Zoran Mušič devoted a lot of time to printmaking after 1952, when he moved to Paris and thus gained the opportunity to work in the most modern and well-stocked printing shops, although he kept his apartment and studio in Venice, which became his second home.
In seeking new motifs when living in Venice, Mušič traveled to the less visited islands near Chioggia, admiring the fishermen there, along with their boats and nets. Their traps drying in the sun inspired him to produce prints with a net-like structure and large spots of colour. He made them using aquatint, allowing him to make prints with more intense coloration that were closer to paintings in expressiveness. The motif was developed in Mušič’s typical method: the majority of the work was drawn, from there he moved on to the print and watercolor, and then returned to drawing. He experimented broadly with various color impressions in his prints, while the motif itself progressed as the artist converted real objects into symbols. He aimed with his motifs of fishing nets and traps to transcend his own constructs and typical imagery, though he kept his characteristic arches and hills, which can be found in his prints from the same time Dalmatian Woman (Otočanke) and Sienese Landscapes (Sienske pokrajine).
The artist even exhibited his Fishing Nets at Chioggia with success: in 1956 he was awarded grand prize for prints at the Venice Biennale, and again a year later in Ljubljana at the city’s 2nd international biennale in printmaking.