Isamu Noguchi was a renaissance man of design even though he declared in 1949 “I am not a designer.” In an age of specialization, he single-handedly produced works in architecture, industrial design, ceramics, furniture, lighting, stage sets, and landscape design, many of which are considered iconic. This post showcases all facets of the artist’s output, highlighting Noguchi as a multidisciplinary artist who was ahead of his time.
Background
Isamu Noguchi was born in 1904 in Los Angeles to an American mother and a Japanese poet father who abandoned the family before he was born. As a child, he moved to Japan, but never truly felt accepted there. At 13, his mother sent him alone to America for school. He later called it his first experience of exile.
Noguchi first studied medicine, but to the dismay of his mother, he left it for sculpture. Even his mentor, Gutzon Borglum told him he would never succeed. Still, he kept going. He left for Paris and worked under the renowned abstract sculptor, Constantin Brancusi. Thus began his search for pure forms in sculpture. During the attack on Pearl Harbor, Noguchi voluntarily entered an internment camp in Arizona to support imprisoned Japanese Americans, only to find himself trapped there too. After the war, he devoted himself to stone sculpture, creating sculptures and public works such as gardens and fountains across the world. He chose stone as his primary medium because he viewed it as a direct essence of matter and nature. Though he spent almost his entire life in the West, his Japanese roots stayed with him, manifesting in works that blended Western abstract art with the traditional Japanese reverence for simplicity and natural materials. Near the end of his life, a child invited him to climb inside one of his sculptures. When he came out, he cried perhaps in gratitude for what insert stones have given him through the years.
Noguchi died in 1988, after spending decades turning stone into something deeply human. If you spend your whole life searching for where you belong, maybe the search itself will become your home as it probably did for Isamu Noguchi.
Selected Works of Isamu Noguchi
The Kiss is of Noguchi’s early sculptures. Influenced by his mentor, Constantin Brancusi, it depicts two smooth, rounded forms that appear to melt into each other. The sculpture was carved from alabaster which imparts a soft, glowing luster. Unlike Brancusi’s famous sculpture with the same title, Noguchi’s piece does not show faces or limbs, just an intimate moment represented by the physical union of the two abstract forms.
Moerenuma Park in Sapporo (Hokkaido, Japan, completed in 2005) can be justifiably regarded as both the summation of Noguchi’s prior work and his swan song. The park combines the green spaces of the city of Sapporo within a loop. Construction began in 1982 and was completed posthumously in 2005. Noguchi created the basic design based on his concept of “the whole being a single sculpture.” A fountain and many gentle hills form many geometric shapes in the expansive grounds. facilities for play equipment are arranged in an orderly manner, and the landscape can be enjoyed as a fusion of nature and art.
Finally, here’s one of Noguchi’s final sculptures.
