Nobuyoshi Araki
Nobuyoshi Araki is one of the most well-known Japanese photographers and contemporary artists in the world. He studied photography and film at Chiba University. In 1990, he received the Photographer of the Year Award from The Photographic Society of Japan. His debut museum solo exhibition titled “Sentimental photography, sentimental life” was held in 1999 at Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Japan. Following that, his work has been exhibited extensively at different institutions around the world, such as “Nobuyoshi Araki: Self, Life, Death” at the Barbican Art Gallery (London, UK) in 2005, “Araki Gold” at l’Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica (Rome, Italy) in 2007 amongst other. Over the course of his career spanning 45 years, Araki has published over 450 books. His works are held in numerous museum collections including the Tate in UK and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in the USA.
Araki currently lives and works in Tokyo, Japan.
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Marvellous Tales of Black Ink
Eros and thanatos (sex and death) have been the central themes in Araki’s work. His work reflects an abiding fascination with female genitalia and women’s bodies in Japanese bondage, which has become the signature motif of Araki’s works. In the Marvellous Tales of Black Ink series (1990s), the artist hand-painted directly on gelatin silver prints with Sumi ink which enhances the explicitness and playfulness of sexuality in the images.
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Sentimental Journey / Winter Journey
Eros and Thanatos undergo a tender transformation in Nobuyoshi Araki Sentimental / Winter Journey (1970-1990). This iconic series starts with the honeymoon journey of the photographer and his wife Yoko in 1970, and ends with Yoko’s struggle with ovarian cancer and eventual passing in 1990. The First Year of Heisei (1990) captures the photographer himself wearing a face mask while visiting Yoko in the hospital. His furrowed eyebrow and side-long glance behind the spectacles express a deep concern posing as an unanswerable question to the viewer. Our sentimental journeys are bound by the same destination.
