Nature in Ink: Landscape Paintings by Minol Araki
Past exhibitions exhibition
Overview
We are delighted to present an exhibition of nature paintings by the Japanese artist Minol Araki (1928–2010), including works which were shown in the recent retrospective exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of art.
Born into a Japanese artistic family in northeastern China, Araki began studying painting at the age of seven. He pursued a successful a career as an industrial designer but continued to paint for himself. A key turning point in his artistic formation was a meeting in 1973 with Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), a charismatic master painter and an influential figure in the East Asian art world. Araki became friendly with the elderly genius and with Zhang's encouragement intensified his efforts to carve out a distinctive individual style.
Araki remained committed to the literati tradition and prized individual expression above all else, seeking to capture the rhythms of nature in his art. His mature work achieves a fusion of elements from diverse cultures: the intimate album painting of China's Song dynasty (960-1279); lively twentieth-century French still lifes; American artists, especially Ben Shahn (1898-1969); and above all the scholar-amateur manner in Chinese and Japanese painting. His atmospheric landscapes and plant paintings, never for sale during his lifetime, were widely exhibited in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the United States and can now be seen in the collections of 19 museums world-wide.
The exhibition will be on view by appointment in our gallery through October 29.