Figure with Bird

In the late 1970s, Araki painted dozens of portraits of various human figures, many inspired by the drawings of US artist Ben Shahn (1898–1969), and images of birds adapted from those found in paintings by the Chinese painter Bada Shanren (c. 1626–1705). This work alone depicts both—the face of a person upon whose hand rests a mynah bird and from whose index finger dangles a passion fruit. The bird is clearly related to those painted by Bada, while the hand is reminiscent of drawings by Shahn, whose figures often hide part of their own faces with their hands. Fruit in Araki’s paintings are frequently self-referential (his given name, Minol, means “fruit” in Chinese), suggesting that this work may, in fact, be a quasi-self-portrait.