Lotus Pond in Moonlight

Araki created both of these arresting compositions, each on a single horizontal panel, in the summer of 2000. Although their compositions are complementary, they were not intended to be a pair. Featuring pink and white blossoms peeking through a murky tangle of black leaves and stalks, these works represent some of Araki’s earliest uses of metallic pigments, including gold, silver, and mica, in combination with mineral pigments like malachite green and natural pigments such as white made from ground oyster shells, all of which feature heavily in his late works.