Lotus Pond

Minol Araki met his future mentor Zhang Daqian by chance in the summer of 1973 in Taipei, Taiwan, not long after Zhang, who was known for his paintings of lotuses, relocated to the city. Their chance encounter initiated a decade-long relationship, until Zhang’s death in 1983, during which time Zhang served as a mentor to Araki, took him to see old Chinese paintings, including several in Zhang’s own collection, and provided feedback on Araki’s work. No subject matter seen in Araki’s body of work is as intimately tied to Zhang Daqian as lotuses, a rich pictorial theme that Araki explored and reimagined through his final years. This painting offers a view of delicate pink lotus blossoms amid a tangle of gray and black leaves and stalks. The influence of Zhang Daqian and his splashed-ink approach to rendering lotuses is clear in Araki’s washy handling of the leaves and in the composition itself. Araki combines this with a greater interest in description, evident in his execution of the blossoms and detailed rendering of the underside of the large leaf at far right.