Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki (Tokyo, 1940) is without doubt one of the most famous Japanese artists of our time. His inexhaustible creative energy is shown by the large number of more than 450 books that he has published in the past four decades. Since he began his career in the mid-sixties, he has made tens of thousands of pictures. Araki’s work is personal, haphazard, lustful, erotic, anarchic, touching, vulgar, sentimental.
Araki worked on his series qARADISE, which consists of dark photographs of flowers and dolls.
ARAKI Ojo Shashu – Photography for the After Life: Alluring Hell is conceived in close collaboration with the artist. Nobuyoshi Araki is the starting point, and so is the vision that he has today on his oeuvre. This is reflected in a careful selection from his numerous important series. The title of the exhibition refers to the influential Japanese-Buddhist book Ōjōyōshū from 985 AD. It depicts heaven and hell, and inspires Araki in his existential exploration of Life (Sex) and Death through photography.
From the series Sentimental Journey, 1971, Courtesy Nobuyoshi Araki, in collaboration with Galerie Alex Daniëls – Reflex Amsterdam
