Nobuyoshi Araki (*1940)
Untitled (Kinbaku), Japan, 1988
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: 1990s
Image dimensions 40,4 x 32 cm (40,4 x 32 inch)
Object dimensions 43 x 35,6 cm (43 x 35,6 inch)
Mounting, Framing Archival cardboard mat 60 x 50 cm, frame upon request
Condition
Double weight paper, semi-matte surface; good condition
Annotations
Signed by the artist in pencil on the reverse
Literature
Nobuyoshi Araki, Pure Heart Photo Stories, Tokyo: Million Shuppan 1989, p. 73; Bondage. The Works of Nobuyoshi Araki. vol 18, Tokyo 1997, p. 192; Nobuyoshi Araki, Self-Life-Death, London: Phaidon 2005, p. 604.
Prints / Japanese Photography /
