Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) was an American sculptor and designer. He was born in Los Angeles and professionally active in New York. He was influential and well-received in the twentieth century. Throughout his lifetime of creative experimentation, he produced sculptures, gardens, furniture and lighting designs, ceramics, architecture, and set designs. His subtle, bold work, traditional and modern, set a new standard for reintegrating the arts.
Education
Between 1921-22, he studied at Columbia University, New York.
Biography
Noguchi, an internationalist, had also travelled extensively throughout his life. (He had studios in both Japan and New York in his later years.) In Mexico, he discovered the influence of large-scale public works. In Japan, he found earthy ceramics and tranquil gardens. In China, he discovered subtle ink-brush techniques, and in Italy, he found the beauty of marble. All of these impressions were integrated into his work, which included stainless steel, marble, cast iron, balsa wood, bronze, sheet aluminium, basalt, granite, and water, among other materials.
- In 1917, he trained as a cabinetmaker in Japan and returned to the USA in 1918.
- In c1922, he assisted the Leonardo da Vinci Art School director in New York.
- During the 1920s and 1930s, Noguchi was a maker of portrait busts.
- 1927-1929, he was Constantin Brancusi’s assistant in Paris, where he met Alberto Giacometti.
- From 1932, Noguchi lived mainly in New York, where he was a sculptor.
- He designed the 1937 helmet-like bakelite radio for Zenith of Chicago and executed 1940 designs for Steuben Glassworks.
Noguchi designed a 1939 free-form glass-topped coffee table for the house of A. Congers, Goodyear, president of the New York Museum of Modern Art. There were other variations of this table by Noguchi, including the version (IN50) mass-produced from 1944 by Herman Miller, discontinued in 1973 and put back into production in the 1980s.
Other Herman Miller furniture included the 1946 IN70 sofa and matching IN71 ottoman, the 1949 IN20 rudder dining table, the IN52 rudder coffee table, and the IN22 rudder stool.
Noguchi designed ceramics produced in Japan. He married expressive biomorphic forms with Asian elegance in his furniture designs.
His sculpture gardens, including the example at the Beinecke Rare Book Library of Yale University, fused design, sculpture, and architecture.
His chochin-type lighting fixtures, made of mulberry paper and spirally woven bamboo (in 1944 and 1951-66), were produced by Ozeki, Gifu, and called Akari (‘light’). They are still in production today.
His early free-form cocktail tables with glass tops and walnut bases are now considered museum treasures. For mass production, he designed an amusing 1954 rocking stool table and a 1955 group of wire-and-Formica tables for Knoll, biomorphic tables, a sofa, and an ottoman for Herman Miller.
The stuffed sofa and ottoman of the late 1940s, initially produced in a limited edition by Herman Miller, were reproduced by an Italian manufacturer from the 1980s. In the 1980s, he established a museum in Long Island City, New York, to exhibit his work.
Recognition
The first design in the Akari light fixture range was shown at the 1983-84 ‘Design Since 1945 exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Exhibitions of his sculpture included the Whitney Museum in New York in 1968 and 1978 ‘Noguchi’s Imaginary Landscapes’ at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
Collections
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.
Dizik, A. A. (1988). Concise encyclopedia of interior design. Van Nostrand Reinhold.
The Noguchi Museum. (2020, August 22). Isamu Noguchi Biography. The Noguchi Museum. https://www.noguchi.org/isamu-noguchi/biography/biography/.
Books by Isamu Noguchi
Noguchi, I. (1968). A Sculptor’s World. United States: Harper & Row.
Noguchi, I. (1999). The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum. United Kingdom: Harry N. Abrams. https://amzn.to/3I7LFvY
Books About Isamu Noguchi
Isamu Noguchi. (2021). Germany: Prestel. https://amzn.to/3bCiPaV
Duus, M. (2006). The Life of Isamu Noguchi: Journey Without Borders. United Kingdom: Princeton University Press. https://amzn.to/3ukDFlT
Herrera, H. (2016). Listening to Stone: The Art and Life of Isamu Noguchi. United Kingdom: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. https://amzn.to/3QX2WvY
Tiger, C. (2013). Isamu Noguchi. United States: Infobase Learning. https://amzn.to/3yCThnq
Yang, J. (2021). A Boy Named Isamu: A Story of Isamu Noguchi. United States: Penguin Young Readers Group. https://amzn.to/3NB5Sf4
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