Taiji Arita

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Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Nihongo". was a Japanese commercial photographer who exhibited non-commercial nudes and other work, and later a painter and sculptor.

Early life

Taiji Arita was born on January 31, 1941, in what is now Kitakyūshū, Japan. After briefly studying law at Chuo University, he opted to instead pursue a career as a photographer and studied under Yasuhiro Ishimoto at Tokyo College of Photography.[1]

Artistic career

Photography

From 1964 to 1966 Arita worked at Nippon Design Center;[2] from 1967 to 1977 he freelanced for numerous publishers and the advertising industry, also working as a movie cameraman.[1]

In 1977, Arita published "First Born",[3] a series of monochrome and color images of his first wife and son taken over three years.[4] That same year, Arita left Tokyo for Ontario where he continued freelance photography for Canadian and Japanese advertising and publishing industries.

In 1980, he returned to Tokyo and opened Arita Studio, specializing in photography for advertising and publishing industries and cinematography for television commercials. Among his photographic assistants was Yoshihiko Ueda.[5] He married Masako Koiso in 1984.

Painting

From about 1980 on, Arita started to paint in oils as well as continuing to be active as a photographer.[6] In 1988, he published "The Forest of the Naked", a collection of 71 paintings of the human figure in contorted positions. Arita's paintings are similar to his photographs in transforming the physical body into part of an object.[6]

For Arita, art was not just painting, sculpting or photographing, rather it was a way of living. Despite having attained professional acclaim while living in Japan, he became disillusioned. He yearned for a freer existence in which he could create for the sheer joy of creating. In 1991, he left Tokyo for Southern California where he worked as contributing photographer and videographer to Japanese publishers and television broadcasting companies, and began spending more time creating paintings and sculptures.

Move to California

In 2000, Arita moved to the coastal area of Mendocino County in Northern California to begin a life devoted solely to the creation of art with his second wife Masako. There he designed and built a house and studio where he, along with Masako, created his final body of work, "Fruit of the Redwoods" using Coast Redwood salvaged from the remnants of 1000-year-old trees. This project became a point of reference for several of the area's woodworkers, many of whom studied at the Fine Wood Working Program founded by James Krenov.

Death

Arita died in Fort Bragg, California, on July 17, 2011, at 70. A posthumous printing of Arita's First Born folio was undertaken by Yosihiko Ueda in late 2011 for publication November 2012, with accompanying exhibits in Tokyo and Paris Photo 2012. Also published in 2012, Pure: Taiji Arita in California: Life and Work, which photographically chronicles the last twenty years of Arita's life.[7]

Solo exhibitions

  • 1977 Fāsuto bōn (Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler) / "First Born". Ginza Nikon Salon, Tokyo.[8][9]
  • 1980 Arita Taiji shashinten (Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler) / "Retrospective". Photo Gallery International, Tokyo.[9]
  • 1982 "The Photographs of Taiji Arita". Photo Gallery International, Tokyo (photographs)Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
  • 1982 "18 Paintings". Tokyo Designer's Space, Tokyo (paintings)[9]
  • 1983 Sutorīto faito (Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler) / "Street Fight". Tokyo Designer's Space, Tokyo (paintings and photographs)[9]
  • 1983 Serufu pōtorēto (Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler) / "Self Portraits". Polaroid Gallery, Tokyo.[9]
  • 1984 Hyakka ryōran: Nihon no ie (Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler) / "Extravaganza: Japanese Buildings". Pentax Forum, Tokyo.[9]
  • 1988 Rasha no mori (Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler) / "Forest of the Naked". Seed Hall, Tokyo (paintings)[9][10]
  • 1989 Akai tsuchi (Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler) / "Red Earth". Gallery Face, Tokyo (paintings)[9]
  • 2000 "Forest of the Naked 2". The Loft Gallery, Santa Monica, CA (paintings)Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
  • 2007 "Ovalism". North Coast Artists Gallery, Fort Bragg, CA (paintings)Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
  • 2008 "Prime". Art3g, Fort Bragg, CA (paintings and sculpture) [11]
  • 2009 "Fruit of the Redwoods" (with Masako Arita). Art3g, Fort Bragg, CA (reliefs)[12]

Selected group exhibitions

  • 1978 "Japan: A self portrait", International Center for Photography, New York (photographs)[8]
  • 1986 "Sūpā imēji no sekai" (Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler) / "Works in 20×24 Polaroid", Seed Hall, Tokyo (photographs)[9]
  • 1991 "Nihon no shashin, 1970 jidai: Tōketsu sareta 'toki' no kioku" (Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler) / "Japanese Photography in the 1970s: Memories Frozen in Time". Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography[9]
  • 2007 "One" art3g, Fort Bragg, CA (painting)Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
  • 2007 "The Power of Six", Odd Fellows Hall, Mendocino, CA (sculpture)Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
  • 2007 "Found Objects", North Coast Artists Gallery, Fort Bragg, CA (sculpture)Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
  • 2008 "Green Bones" (with Harry Albrecht), art3g, Fort Bragg, CA (paintings) [13]
  • 2010 "Out of the Woods", NorthCoast Artist Gallery, Fort Bragg CA (reliefs)Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
  • 2010 "Pas de Deux", Odd Fellows Hall, Mendocino CA (paintings)Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
  • 2010 "New American Art", Odd Fellows Hall, Mendocino CA (paintings)[14][15]
  • 2010 "Watakushi o mite: Nūdo no pōtoreito" (Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler). Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.[16]
  • 2011 "Work & Love", Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino CA (paintings & reliefs)[17]
  • 2012 "Taiji Arita Memorial Retrospective & Group Show" Odd Fellows Hall, Mendocino CA (sketches, paintings & sculptures) [18]

Permanent collections

Publications showing Arita's works

  • "First Born", serialized in Camera Mainichi, May 1973 – February 1975.
  • Shōji Yamagishi, ed. Japan: A Self-Portrait. New York: International Center of Photography, 1979. Template:ISBN / Template:ISBN. (This should not be confused with the 2004 book Japan, a Self-Portrait: Photographs 1945–1964, ed. Osamu Hiraki and Keiichi Takeuchi.)
  • Rasha no mori: Arita Taiji, 1981–1987 (Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler) / The Forest of the Naked: Taiji Arita, 1981–1987. Tokyo: Libro Port, 1988. Template:ISBN. A book of paintings.
  • Nihon no shashin, 1970 jidai: Tōketsu sareta "toki" no kioku (Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler) / Japanese Photography in the 1970s: Memories Frozen in Time. Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 1991. Template:In lang Pp. 98–107.
  • Nihon nūdo meisakushū (Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler, Japanese nudes). Camera Mainichi bessatsu. Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbunsha, 1982. Template:In lang Pp. 246–47.
  • PURE Taiji Arita in California: Life & Work: Blurb Books, 2012, ed. Inga Peterson and Jason Cowan. A photographic chronicle of Arita's daily life & artwork from 1991-2011.[21]

Notes

  1. ↑ a b Combination of two sources: (1) Fuminori Yokoe (Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler), "Arita Taiji", in Nihon shashinka jiten (Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler) / 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers (Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000; Template:ISBN), p. 30. (2) Shashinka wa nani o hyōgen shita ka: 1960–1980 (Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler, What were photographers expressing? 1960–1980; Tokyo: Konica Plaza, 1992)p. 93.
  2. ↑ デザインとメディアについての対話 小西啓介×長友啓典, Nippon Design Center. Accessed 2011-12-11.
  3. ↑ Shashinka wa nani o hyōgen shita ka: 1960–1980, p. 94.
  4. ↑ Nihon no shashin, 1970 jidai: Tōketsu sareta "toki" no kioku / Japanese Photography in the 1970s: Memories Frozen in Time (Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 1991) pp. 98–107.
  5. ↑ Ueda's biography, Ueda's website. Accessed 2011-12-11.
  6. ↑ a b Yokoe, "Arita Taiji", in Nihon shashinka jiten, p. 30.
  7. ↑ Page about it at blurb.com.
  8. ↑ a b Shōji Yamagishi, ed., Japan: A Self-Portrait (New York: International Center of Photography, 1979; Template:ISBN / Template:ISBN), pp. 75–79.
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Nihon no shashin, 1970 jidai / Japanese Photography in the 1970s, pp. 98–99.
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "Lang".Template:Category handler, Yomiuri Shinbun, Tokyo morning edition, 17 March 1988.
  11. ↑ Exhibition Notice, Accessed 2012-08-16
  12. ↑ Exhibition notice, art3g. Accessed 2011-12-10.
  13. ↑ Exhibition notice, Accessed 2012-08-16)
  14. ↑ Exhibition notice, Accessed 2012-08-16.
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Exhibition notice, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. Accessed 2011-12-10.
  17. ↑ [1] Curator's Blog
  18. ↑ Exhibition Notice & Curator's Statement, Accessed 2012-8-16.
  19. ↑ Nihon no shashin, 1970 jidai / Japanese Photography in the 1970s, pp. 171, 174.
  20. ↑ Catalogue entry Template:Webarchive, Sapporo Art Park. Accessed 2011-12-10.
  21. ↑ Page about it at blurb.com, accessed 2012-08-16

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