Noguchi show, his contemporaries, flow chart.
noguchi museum — november 17, 2010 – april 24, 2011, new york. left: noguchi chart of influences. click photo to enlarge.
A new show celebrating 25 years of the wonderful Noguchi Museum and Garden in Long Island City, Queens, is called “On Becoming an Artist: Isamu Noguchi and His Contemporaries, 1922–1960.” It could have been called Six Degrees of Isamu Noguchi or Linked-in, featuring Isama Noguchi. It even comes with a wall-sized flow chart of connections. Some of the connected names are Bucky Fuller, Alexander Calder, Frieda Kahlo, Martha Graham, George Balanchine.
Noguchi also planned a swimming pool for director Josef Von Sternberg, at his house by Richard Neutra. (It was never built but imagine Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper paddling around together.) He did a bust of Ginger Rogers. More than a sculptor, he was a designer of furniture and lamps for Herman Miller, Knoll and others. He shaped public spaces and playgrounds. He worked with leading artists, designers and architects.
above: my arizona 1943
In 1943 in a wartime internment camp for Japanese Americans he wrote letters to friends like Man Ray and created “My Arizona” a wall sculpture of fiberglass and plastic commenting on the desert village where he lived out the war.
[ noguchi museum—november 17, 2010 - april 24, 2011 ]
1 comment so far ↓
Have you heard this one re Noguchi?
The composer John Cage, visits Noguchi in his studio. The space is large, the ceilings high. The walls are totally bare and the hardwood floor equally so. Cage looks around and says to Noguchi, “An old shoe – would look beautiful in this room.”
Please proceed to add value: