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 Untitled 1996 |
 Untitled 1996 |
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Chiseled by Will Yoshitomo Kajikawa |
It has been some time since "painter" became just a mere occupation. As usual for the thing called occupation, its importance tends to derive only from how it is received. It adulates, ingratiates and caters to public taste. Recently it seems we are surrounded by nothing but those painters and those paintings even before we realized it. I do not find any value or hold any interest in such work regardless of how much popularity it enjoys.
When I enscountered the works of Akira Arita, pyramids suddenly appeared in a desert, a cathedral stood amid vast and ancient ruins, such were the images that came to my mind. I may have felt the intrinsic form of the human spirit and the creative power, which could be called primal forms as created by ancient peoples, superimposed onto his paintings. Arita was born in 1947 in Osaka. Although his creative activity has continued in the United States since 1966, it was only a few years ago when his work was introduced in Japan. He has been diligently transforming his convictions into paintings in the United States completely isolated from the Japanese art world. When I first met Arita I was instantly taken and asked myself if it is possible that there is a person with such a fine character. I do not merely mean he possesses a fine personality, but rather I felt the innate attributes of abundant simplicity and a quality which can not be tainted by vulgarity or meretriciousness. It is probably because of this integrity that Arita's rich and solid paintings come into being. It must not be unrelated, his choice of the toroid, cylinder, sphere, etc. as a motif and the forthright and bold attitude with which he confronts the subject. I sense this every time I see his paintings. I imagine the painter earnestly chiseling out the "form" which already inherently pre-exists. I see it as being closer to a sculptor's rahter than a painter's method. I would like to define Arita's work as "painting which was chiseled by will". Establishing his own view of painting by chiseling his very existence as well as the form he pursues within a vast quiet time, it could be described as the history of mankind. Here one would find the meaning of creation in the finest sence of the word. When Arita visited the Kahitsukan in the Spring of 1993, he said he would very much wish to see his work in the space. He created thirty seven works within the past three years. During that time, he secluded himself in his studio in New York City and devoted himself entirely to his work. I am taking this intense and concentrated time of Arita Akira seriously and enviously. (Director, Kahitsukan - Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art) |
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