Nobuyoshi Araki (*1940)
Untitled (Kinbaku), Japan, 1985
Since the late 1970s, the photographs of bound naked women's bodies have been an integral part of Araki's repertoire. For them, he is equally well known - even outside a photo-interested public - as he is controversial. Within Araki's oeuvre, they can be read as a play on the stylised depiction of an all-pervasive sexual desire, which, in the dichotomy of Eros and Thanatos repeatedly invoked by Araki, ultimately stands for life itself and which he positions against restrictive social conventions and state censorship.
The term »kinbaku« refers to a Japanese tradition of artful binding driven by sexual motivation, which developed from the second half of the 19th century onwards.
Gelatin silver print, print date: 2005
Image dimensions ca. 32 x 40 cm (32 x 40 inch)
Object dimensions 42,5 x 62,5 cm (42,5 x 62,5 inch)
Mounting, Framing Mounted in black wooden frame c. 56 x 66 cm
Condition
Double weight paper, semi-matte surface
Annotations
Signed by the artist on the reverse
Literature
Araki by Araki. The photographer's personal selection 1963-2002, Tokyo: Kodansha International 2003, p. 204/205; Nobuyoshi Araki, Self-Life-Death, London: Phaidon 2005, p. 620.
Prints / Japanese Photography / Nudes / Inszenierte Fotografie / Eros / Akt /
