The Incomplete Araki: Sex, Life, and Death in the Works of Nobuyoshi Araki
February 8, 2018 – September 3, 2018
“I want to make photographs that maintain their incompleteness. I don’t want them to lose their reality, presence, speed, heat, or humidity. Therefore, I stop and shoot before they become refined or sophisticated.”
— Nobuyoshi Araki
OVERVIEW
Credits
The Incomplete Araki: Sex, Life, and Death in the Works of Nobuyoshi Arakiis the first major retrospective in the United States to showcase the career of the notorious and prolific Japanese photographer. Nobuyoshi Araki (1940–) has worked for nearly 50 years to complicate and challenge the role of intimacy in photography. His commitment to the idea that it should be immediate, unflinching, and deeply personal has resulted in a body of work that ranges from the most sexually explicit and controversial photographs to those that expose the vulnerability of love and loss. The installation is accompanied by the personal perspectives of collaborators, muses, critics, fans, and fellow photographers as well as historical artifacts which situate Araki’s work within the social context of art history and postwar Japanese society. Over 400 books, 150 prints and 500 hundred Polaroids are on view–exploring concepts like obsession, ritual, kinbaku-bi, sentimentality, photographer and subject, and of course, controversy.
LENDERS
Yoshii Gallery, New York
Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Longmen Art Projects, Hong Kong
Ronin Gallery, New York
David Strettel of Dashwood Books, New York
Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo
Juergen Teller
Adam Fuss
Travis Klose
CHIEF CURATORS
Maggie Mustard
Mark Snyder, Director of Exhibitions,Museum of Sex
EXHIBITION DESIGN
Micki Yaroni
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Serge Becker
LOGO AND GRAPHIC DESIGN CONCEPT
Base Design
EXPANDED FOOTAGE/INTERVIEWS FROM THE FILM ‘ARAKIMENTARI’
Directed by Travis Klose
Camera by Brian Burgoyne, Travis Klose and Masa Sakamaki
