Isamu Noguchi (1904 – 1988) was an American artist, sculptor, designer and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned over six decades. He is known for his sculptures and public artworks as well as his designs for stage sets and mass furniture. His work is characterized by its fusion of art and design and its abstract and organic forms. Noguchi’s unique style combined traditional and modern elements in a new way and had a profound influence on the world of art.
As the son of the Japanese poet Yone Noguchi and the American writer Leonie Gilmour, Noguchi grew up between two cultures, which had a lasting influence on his art. After spending his early childhood in Japan, Noguchi returned to the United States at the age of thirteen to attend high school. His artistic work began in the 1920s. During his studies, he attended evening sculpture classes with the sculptor Onorio Ruotolo at the Leonardo da Vinci School of Art on New York’s Lower East Side.
In 1926, he saw an exhibition by Constantin Brâncuși at the Brummer Gallery in New York, which inspired him greatly. A Guggenheim scholarship finally gave him the opportunity to study with the older sculptor six months later. His time in Paris had a lasting impact on his style and provided him with important impulses for his future works. While his earlier sculptures were mostly realistic depictions and portraits, his works now became increasingly abstract.
Noguchi used the years between 1930 and 1932 for extensive study trips, during which he learned how to draw with a brush in China and how to work with clay in Japan. These trips strengthened his cultural understanding and significantly influenced his future work. From 1933 onwards, he worked on public squares, monuments, playgrounds, and stage sets.
During the Second World War, Noguchi personally experienced the consequences of the war. Imprisonment in an internment camp for Americans of Japanese descent after the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1942 had a lasting impact on his worldview. This experience undoubtedly influenced his engagement with political and social issues and found expression in some of his artistic work.
In 1947, Noguchi’s table with glass top was produced by Herman Miller. This and other designs by Noguchi, such as his Akari light sculptures (modern adaptations of Chochin paper lanterns), are still in production today.
In 1985 he opened The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum (now known as The Noguchi Museum) in Long Island City, New York. The museum has a serene outdoor sculpture garden and many galleries that display Noguchi’s work, along with photographs, drawings, and models from his career. The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum Japan, located in Mure, Japan, was opened in 1999 to preserve Noguchi’s studio and inspire artists and scholars.
Impressive creative power
His work is still exhibited around the world. Noguchi is for sure one of the most important sculptors and trend-setting pioneers in the USA. His austere, minimalist sculptures, gardens, and urban squares are undisputed role models for many contemporary landscape architects and artists of a contemporary approach to landscape and garden as spatial works of art.
During his lifetime he created more than 1000 works of art. I am deeply impressed by the fact that he always pursued his passion. If you want to learn more about his art and him, I highly recommend checking out the website of his museum. In The Isamu Noguchi Catalogue Raisonné, they have made it their mission to record and document all of his works.
Further Reading / Ressources
https://www.noguchi.org/isamu-noguchi/biography/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isamu_Noguchi
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/isamu-noguchi
