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.Combination of two sources: (1) Fuminori Yokoe (), "Arita Taiji", in Nihon shashinka jiten () / 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers (Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000; ), p. 30. (2) Shashinka wa nani o hyōgen shita ka: 1960–1980 (, What were photographers expressing? 1960–1980; Tokyo: Konica Plaza, 1992)p. 93.
Artistic career
Photography From 1964 to 1966 Arita worked at Nippon Design Center;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. from 1967 to 1977 he freelanced for numerous publishers and the advertising industry, also working as a movie cameraman.
In 1977, Arita published "First Born",Shashinka wa nani o hyōgen shita ka: 1960–1980, p. 94. a series of monochrome and color images of his first wife and son taken over three years.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. 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.Ueda's biography, Ueda's website. Accessed 2011-12-11. 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.Yokoe, "Arita Taiji", in Nihon shashinka jiten, p. 30. 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.
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.Page about it at blurb.com.
Solo exhibitions 1977 Fāsuto bōn () / "First Born". Ginza Nikon Salon, Tokyo.Shōji Yamagishi, ed., Japan: A Self-Portrait (New York: International Center of Photography, 1979; / ), pp. 75–79.Nihon no shashin, 1970 jidai / Japanese Photography in the 1970s, pp. 98–99. 1980 Arita Taiji shashinten () / "Retrospective". Photo Gallery International, Tokyo. 1982 "The Photographs of Taiji Arita". Photo Gallery International, Tokyo (photographs) 1982 "18 Paintings". Tokyo Designer's Space, Tokyo (paintings) 1983 Sutorīto faito () / "Street Fight". Tokyo Designer's Space, Tokyo (paintings and photographs) 1983 Serufu pōtorēto () / "Self Portraits". Polaroid Gallery, Tokyo. 1984 Hyakka ryōran: Nihon no ie () / "Extravaganza: Japanese Buildings". Pentax Forum, Tokyo. 1988 Rasha no mori () / "Forest of the Naked". Seed Hall, Tokyo (paintings), Yomiuri Shinbun, Tokyo morning edition, 17 March 1988. 1989 Akai tsuchi () / "Red Earth". Gallery Face, Tokyo (paintings) 2000 "Forest of the Naked 2". The Loft Gallery, Santa Monica, CA (paintings) 2007 "Ovalism". North Coast Artists Gallery, Fort Bragg, CA (paintings) 2008 "Prime". Art3g, Fort Bragg, CA (paintings and sculpture) Exhibition Notice, Accessed 2012-08-16 2009 "Fruit of the Redwoods" (with Masako Arita). Art3g, Fort Bragg, CA (reliefs)Exhibition notice, art3g. Accessed 2011-12-10.
Selected group exhibitions 1978 "Japan: A self portrait", International Center for Photography, New York (photographs) 1986 "Sūpā imēji no sekai" () / "Works in 20×24 Polaroid", Seed Hall, Tokyo (photographs) 1991 "Nihon no shashin, 1970 jidai: Tōketsu sareta 'toki' no kioku" () / "Japanese Photography in the 1970s: Memories Frozen in Time". Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography 2007 "One" art3g, Fort Bragg, CA (painting) 2007 "The Power of Six", Odd Fellows Hall, Mendocino, CA (sculpture) 2007 "Found Objects", North Coast Artists Gallery, Fort Bragg, CA (sculpture) 2008 "Green Bones" (with Harry Albrecht), art3g, Fort Bragg, CA (paintings) Exhibition notice, Accessed 2012-08-16) 2010 "Out of the Woods", NorthCoast Artist Gallery, Fort Bragg CA (reliefs) 2010 "Pas de Deux", Odd Fellows Hall, Mendocino CA (paintings) 2010 "New American Art", Odd Fellows Hall, Mendocino CA (paintings) Exhibition notice, Accessed 2012-08-16. 2010 "Watakushi o mite: Nūdo no pōtoreito" (). Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.Exhibition notice, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. Accessed 2011-12-10. 2011 "Work & Love", Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino CA (paintings & reliefs) Curator's Blog 2012 "Taiji Arita Memorial Retrospective & Group Show" Odd Fellows Hall, Mendocino CA (sketches, paintings & sculptures) Exhibition Notice & Curator's Statement, Accessed 2012-8-16.
Permanent collections Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of PhotographyNihon no shashin, 1970 jidai / Japanese Photography in the 1970s, pp. 171, 174. Sapporo Art Park (Sapporo)Catalogue entry , Sapporo Art Park. Accessed 2011-12-10.
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. / . (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 () / The Forest of the Naked: Taiji Arita, 1981–1987. Tokyo: Libro Port, 1988. . A book of paintings. 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. Nihon nūdo meisakushū (, Japanese nudes). Camera Mainichi bessatsu. Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbunsha, 1982. 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.Page about it at blurb.com, accessed 2012-08-16
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