Araki Minol: An Artist Between Worlds

An artist who lived between many worlds, Araki Minol (1928-2010) 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 that 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; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the 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.

Lotuses figured prominently in Araki's oeuvre and was a subject he explored continuously for decades. And it was that subject matter that brought him to be introduced to Zhang Daqian by Zhang's artist friend, Yao Menggu, who had, by chance, spotted Araki sketching lotuses in front of the National Museum of Taiwan in 1973. Though they have 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 scroll painting of lotuses 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 exhibition catalogue, Steven D. Owyoung writes of this rendition:

"The growing primacy of the lotus flower is apparent four years later in the 1996 Lotus (plate 31), where the fresh glory of the blossoms contrasts with the decayed, dying leaves that are done in a carefully controlled wash and defined by a drying brush. Even the young, furled leaves of the lotus appear more fleeting and transitory in their bird-swift shapes, readily surrendering to the pure luxury of the bloom."

A consummate twentieth-century figure, Araki's influences are as varied as his personal experiences throughout an international life and career. In addition to his most important relationship with Zhang Daqian (although he was never formally Araki's teacher), he counts among his influences Tomioka Tessai (1837-1924), a Meiji-era literati painter, and Bada Shanren (1626-1705), the seventeenth-century eccentric painter also known as Zhu Da. Araki also cites Ben Shahn (1898-1969), a Russian-born New York artist, and Pablo Picasso as additional artistic influences.

1928                born in Dairen, Manchuria (now Dalian, Liaoning Province) to Japanese parents

1945                studied architecture at Nanman Kosen in Dairen

1945                at the end of World War II, "returned" to Japan with his mother and sisters; set foot in Japan for the first time and settled in parents' hometown Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture

1947                pursued industrial design at newly established Kuwazawa Design School, Tokyo

1950s-60s        professional career as an industrial designer for Nanbu Industries, Tandy Corporation/Radio Shack, Shenpix, and others; frequent travel to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the US. Continued to paint through this period

1959                established his first design company, NOL Industrial Design

late 1960s        founded design studio PIPa in New York. Success as an industrial designer took him to Hong Kong, Miami, New York, the US Southwest, and Europe. Sketched and painted everywhere he traveled

1973                met Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) in Taipei, Taiwan

1976                PIPa design studio folded

1977                Exhibition at Hong Kong City Hall with the support of Yao Menggu

1978                Exhibition at the National Museum of History, Taipei, and again in 1980

early 1980s       two significant gallery exhibitions at Tokyo Central Annex, titled by Zhang Daqian and catalogue essay by Japanese traditionalist painter Masao Murase (1939-2013)

1980s               flourishing period of experimentation, from traditional, Chinese-inspired landscapes to Western-style abstract works and still-life compositions

1983                mentor Zhang Daqian passes at age 84

1999                major retrospective exhibition at the National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan and the Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona

2005                gallery exhibitions in Santa Fe, NM

2010                passed away at age 82

2017                Boundless Peaks: Ink Paintings by Minol Araki, a posthumous exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art curated by Aaron Rio