Distant Road

The composition presents a bird’s-eye view of a distant landscape and focuses on a long, winding, white path, created by reserve, which traces the top of a narrow mountain ridge and eventually descends into a valley. This long, horizontal ink-painting, executed on paper and mounted on a panel, features wet-on-wet washes often referred to as the “splashed ink” technique. One of a standard repertoire of ink painting methods developed in China, the “splashed ink” technique was later transported to Korea and Japan. The contemporary artist Minol Araki, an industrial designer by trade, was born to Japanese parents in Liaoning Province during the Japanese occupation, and the painting’s style is in part a reflection of his training in ink painting as a youth. It may also be considered the product of his friendship with the prolific Chinese painter and master forger Zhang Daqian (1899–1983), to whom he was introduced five years before creating the landscape.

The painting is dated and signed in a spidery script, and sealed with a red square seal at the lower right reading “m a” and resembling a contour drawing of a landscape.