Minol Araki or was a Japanese painter and industrial designer.

Life and education

Araki was born in Dalian, in Japanese-occupied

Kwantung Leased Territory The Kwantung Leased Territory () was a Concessions in China, leased territory of the Empire of Japan in the Liaodong Peninsula from 1905 to 1945. Japan first acquired Kwantung from the Qing dynasty, Qing Empire in perpetuity in 1895 in the Tre ...

, in 1928. His father owned a restaurant and died when Araki was a teenager. Araki began painting at an early age and at age seven entered the tutelage of an old Chinese painter who his parents were friends with. He studied traditional

Chinese painting Chinese painting () is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Painting in the traditional style is known today in Chinese as , meaning "national painting" or "native painting", as opposed to Western styles of art which b ...

until moving back to Japan after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He then pursued

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...

and

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

, and studied under

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

and

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

artists in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. Araki died in 2010.

Work

Inspired in part by

Raymond Loewy Raymond Loewy ( , ; November 5, 1893 – July 14, 1986) was a French-born American industrial designer who achieved fame for the magnitude of his design efforts across a variety of industries. He was recognized for this by ''Time'' magazi ...

's book ''Never Leave Well Enough Alone'', Araki started a career in industrial design in the 1950s. In the 1960s, he started a network of design studios. During his career as a designer, Araki worked on housewares such as lamps, calendars, and organizers, and

byōbu are Japanese folding screens made from several joined panels, bearing decorative painting and calligraphy, used to separate interiors and enclose private spaces, among other uses. History are originated in Han dynasty China and are tho ...

, traditional Japanese folding screens. In the 1970s, Araki was mentored by painter

Zhang Daqian Chang Dai-chien or Zhang Daqian (; 10 May 1899 – 2 April 1983) was one of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century. Originally known as a '' guohua'' (traditionalist) painter, by the 1960s he was also renowne ...

. After Zhang's death, Araki created five paintings demonstrating his mentor's influence and his personal interest in modern Japanese painting methods. These paintings, which are each over 70 feet long, contain multiple panels illustrating landscapes, dragons, and other natural scenes. In addition to influences from Zhang, these paintings also demonstrate influence from

Bada Shanren Zhu Da (), also known by his pen name Bada Shanren (), was a late-Ming and early-Qing dynasty Chinese painter, calligrapher, and poet. He was born in Nanchang, Jiangxi, in 1626, at during the Ming-Qing Transition. Zhu was mentally ill and disp ...

Ben Shahn Ben Shahn (September 12, 1898 – March 14, 1969) was an American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as ''The Shape of Content''. Born Benjamin Shahn in Ka ...

, and medieval

Japanese Zen :''See also Zen for an overview of Zen, Chan Buddhism for the Chinese origins, and Sōtō, Rinzai school, Rinzai and Ōbaku for the three main schools of Zen in Japan'' Japanese Zen refers to the Japanese forms of Zen, Zen Buddhism, an orig ...

painters. Araki's work was also influenced by his travels, and by painters

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Count, ''Comte'' Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901), known as Toulouse-Lautrec (), was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator whose immersion in the colour ...

and

Egon Schiele Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele (; 12 June 1890 – 31 October 1918) was an Austrian Expressionist painters, painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude sel ...

. Another interest was

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

and other contemporary abstract painters. Through various styles, Araki is known for his

literati painting Ink wash painting ( zh, t=水墨畫, s=水墨画, p=shuǐmòhuà) is a type of Chinese ink brush painting which uses washes of black ink, such as that used in East Asian calligraphy, in different concentrations. It emerged during the Tang dynas ...

and expressing his unique perspective as someone with various cultural influences, both from upbringing and his travels. Araki's best-known piece is ''Snow Monkeys at Play in Autumn and Winter'', a work that is inspired by the

Nihonga ''Nihonga'' () is a Japanese style of painting that typically uses mineral pigments, and occasionally ink, together with other organic pigments on silk or paper. The term was coined during the Meiji period (1868–1912) to differentiate it from ...

painting style of 20th-century Japan. He is also known for a series of lotus paintings. Unlike most artists, Araki did not collect old paintings, preferring to save antique painting instruments, like brushes, ink and

inkstone An inkstone is traditional Chinese stationery. It is a stone mortar for the grinding and containment of ink. In addition to stone, inkstones are also manufactured from clay, bronze, iron, and porcelain. The device evolved from a rubbing tool ...

s, and paper. This may have been inspired by his mentor Zhang's work in textile dyeing. For most of his career, Araki did not exhibit or sell any of his pieces. His business work allowed him the financial freedom to pursue his art without having the need to sell it. On his art, Araki said, "My painting is a celebration of nature, a grateful song to all forms of creation expressed through brush painting. By drawing from both East and West, I hope to achieve a perspective which is international, a bridge between cultures."

Collections

Araki's work has been exhibited in the collections and/or traveling exhibits of the following: * Erik Thomsen Gallery in New York *

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

* Minneapolis Institute of Art *

National Museum of History The National Museum of History (NMH; ) is located in the Nanhai Academy in Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan. After the Republic of China government moved to Taiwan, the National Museum of History was the first museum to be established in Tai ...

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

Phoenix Art Museum The Phoenix Art Museum is the largest art museum, museum for visual art in the southwest United States. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is . It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,0 ...

(1999)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Araki, Minol 20th-century Japanese painters Japanese interior designers 1928 births 2010 deaths Artists from Dalian Painters from Liaoning