ARAKI MINOL (1928-2010)

Subject: Lotus in Moonlight

Signed: 實 (Minoru)

Sealed: 荒木實 (Araki Minoru)

Dated: 1996

Dimensions: 31 x 44 1/2 in. (unframed)

34 1/2 x 48 in. (framed)

Media: Ink and color on paper

Lotuses figured prominently in Araki Minol's oeuvre and were a subject he explored continuously for decades. And it was that subject matter that led him to be introduced to Zhang Daqian through Zhang's artist friend, Yao Menggu, who, by chance, had spotted Araki sketching lotuses in front of the National Museum of Taiwan in 1973. Though they carry deep meaning in Chinese history and literature, Araki's interpretations are drawn from this long tradition while not weighed down by its many rich associations. This painting of lotus flowers in moonlight was exhibited in the 1999 Minol Araki exhibition at the Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona, and at the National Museum of History in Taipei, Taiwan. In the accompanying exhibition catalogue, Steven D. Owyoung writes of this work:

“Lotus (plate 32)…displays the full flower against a field of blue and gray, the blossom shown clear and unobscured; the single lotus bud on a thin, black prickly stalk is thrust emphatically above and beyond the jungle of the surrounding leaves. The leaves, on the other hand, are subsumed in a formula of similar, stamp-like shapes or as mere color and texture, as in the blue background.”

An artist who lived between many worlds, Araki Minol was a prodigious talent who successfully bridged the painting traditions of China and Japan, nature scenes and portraiture, classicism and modernity, and later, the artistic styles that had taken hold in the East and West. His unique hybridity, both biographically and creatively, laid the foundation for his vigorous paintings, which not only synthesized these various influences but further revealed a highly original artistic viewpoint. Delicate botanical studies, intimate in scale, were as much a part of his repertoire as soaring mountain vistas, which could grow to multi-panel, room-sized installations. 

Works of this scale are in the permanent collections of Western institutions including the Minneapolis Institute of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Saint Louis Art Museum. Significant works by Araki can also be found in major museums, such as the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.