Standing Youths

Akino's second son, Isamu, who had just become a young adult, was the model for this piece. This work is likely the last work in her series of works modeled on children, including Boys in the Nude and Children in the Nude. The artist herself stated that the piece is an attempt to portray the figure of a young man, and it symbolically celebrates the beauty of young bodies through the color blue. This expressive style where the face and ends of the feet are cut out of the frame is one of Akino's characteristic compositional styles.