Original Akira Oil Painting

Original Oil Painting

I came across an intriquing oil painting that is simply signed ' 67 Akira. There was something about it that just wouldn't let go of me. The paint is cracked in places but I just had a feeling.....

I bought it in spite of what looked like white paint splashes on the very old frame and painting. I rubbed a spot on the frame and was so relieved to see that, whatever the white stuff was, it wasn't paint. It just wiped right off, of both the frame and the painting. There are still just a few tiny specks that are on areas I was afraid to touch due to the delicate condition of the oils. A collector could safely remove them, I'm sure, based on how easy all the others wiped away.

I was very hopeful that it might be one of the earliest known works of a well-known Japanese artist named Akira Arita, who came to Rhode Island from Japan in 1966 to study art.

Unfortunately, I've since learned, from someone who knows a person who shared an art studio with Arita in Rhode Island, that this is not his work. So, I don't know who painted it.

About Akira Akita's work.....I've read descriptions which indicate that Akira favors letting object rest on stuccoed surfaces or that they often seem to float in space. Akita is also known for geometric motifs of doughnut like rings, cubes, spheres, etc. This painting certainly has those qualities. It is amazing if it is a painting from Akira Akita's student days in Rhode Island because it shows that, even at the beginning, the style and theme were already presenting themselves in the work.

In any case, even though it isn't Akira Arita's work it's still a remarkable original oil painting and a unique, lovely frame that is most likely from the 60's as well.

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