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. He produced sculptures, gardens, furniture and lighting designs, ceramics, architecture, and set designs throughout his lifetime of creative experimentation. His work, both subtle and bold, 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 all his life extensively. (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 discovered earthy ceramics and tranquil gardens. In China, he discovered subtle ink-brush techniques, and in Italy, he discovered 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, in 1918, he returned to the USA.
- In c1922, he assisted the director of the Leonardo da Vinci Art School 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, 1949 IN20 rudder dining table, IN52 rudder coffee table, and 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 Bienecke Rare Book Library of Yale University, fused design, sculpture, and architecture.
His chochin-type lighting fixtures were made of mulberry paper and spirally woven bamboo (in 1944 and 1951-66), produced by Ozeki, Gifu, and called Akari (‘light’), which 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 1955 group of wire-and-Formica tables for Knoll, and biomorphic tables, a sofa, and an ottoman for Herman Miller.
The stuffed sofa and ottoman of the late 1940s, originally 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.
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
More on Japanese Designers
-
Kyohei Fujita: Master of Japanese Glass Artistry
Kyohei Fujita, born in 1921, gained exposure to glass art through apprenticeship with Toshichi Iwata. He developed a unique style and established the Japan Glass Artcrafts Association in 1972. Kyohei Fujita, a prominent Japanese artist, combines traditional Japanese elements with modern spirit, creating a lasting legacy in the international studio glass movement.Read More →
-
Masakichi Awashima (1914 – 1979) Japanese Glassware Designer
After studying design at the Japan Art School in Tokyo, Awashima worked for artisan Kozo Kagami, who had studied Western glass methods in Germany from 1935 to 1946. Read More →
-
Naoto Fukasawa ( b.1956) Japanese product designer
Fukasawa is well-known for his designs and design theories, endowed with a quiet strength that represents people’s dreams and expectations. Conveying them using such terms as “design dissolving in behaviour”, “centre of consciousness”, “normality”, “outline”, and “archetype”, he continues to put these philosophies into practice in his designs.Read More →
-
Makio Hasuike Japanese (b.1938) Japanese Industrial Designer
Hasuike founded his firm in Milan after studying architecture and industrial design in Tokyo and working for Seiko for a year. He has designed for various well-known brands, including Gaggia coffee machines, Panasonic electronic items, Villeroy & Boch sanitary ware and tableware, Grand Gourmet kitchen knives (1994), and WMF cookware. Read More →
-
Introducing Kazuhide Takahama (b.1930) Japanese Designer
At the X Milan Triennale exhibition in 1954, he met the furniture manufacturer, Dino Gavina, who subsequently invited Takahama to work for him in Italy. Takahama’s first design for Gavina was the geometrically severe Naeko sofa-bed (1957). Read More →
-
Hello Kitty a Japanese media franchise
When the Japanese company Sanrio first launched “Hello Kitty” in 1974 as a greetings card for children, this patented brand cartoonlike image of a cat (a lucky emblem in Japan) was applied to over 1,000 products ranging from domestic appliances, computer keyboards, personal stereos, and credit cards to sweet wrappers, T-shirts, and eyelash curlersRead More…
-
Noguchi lamp space without clutter
Isamu Noguchi designed the first of his lamps to be produced by traditional construction methods in Gifu, Japan, known for its manufacture of lanterns and parasols made from mulberry bark paper and bamboo. Akari is handcrafted with washi paper from the inside bark of the mulberry tree and bamboo ribbing stretched across sculptural moulded wood…
-
Junichi Arai (1932 – 2017), Japanese textile designer and producer
Junichi Arai (1932 – 2017) was a Japanese textile designer and producer born in Kiryu, Gunma. As the sixth generation of a mill-owning family, Arai grew up with fabrics being woven for obis and kimonos. He held traditional weaving methods in high regard and the skills that only the human hand can have in the…
-
Kisho Kurokawa (b.1934) Japanese Architect and Designer
In 1960, at the age of 26, he made his debut into the world as one of the founders of the Metabolism Movement. Read More →
-
Arata Isozaki (b. 1931) is a Japanese architect, urban designer
Arata Isozaki is a Japanese architect, urban designer, and theorist from Ōita. He was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1986 and the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2019.Read More →
-
Osamu Tezuka (1928 – 1989) Japanese manga artist and cartoonist
OSAMU TEZUKA, who was revered as the “god of manga,” watched Bambi eighty times, until he had memorised every frame, and dreamed of equaling or surpassing Disney realism in his own animation.Read More →
-
Exploring the Life and Legacy of Shiro Kuramata (1934 – 1991)
Shiro Kuramata is a Japanese interior and furniture designer who has executed many interiors for Issey Miyake shops. His best-known pieces are his glass chair (1976) and homage to Hoffmann, Begin the Beguine (1985). His interior designs make use of expanded lattice metal and moiré effects. His portfolio includes furniture in irregular forms and large…
-
Shoji Hamada (1894 – 1978) Japanese Potter
Shoji Hamada, along with Bernard Leach, was one of the key figures in the development of studio pottery in the 20th century. His influence both in England and the US as well as in his native Japan cannot be underestimated. Read More →
-
Ikko Tanaka (1930 -2002) 🇯🇵 Graphic Design blend of East and West
Ikko Tanaka was a Leading Graphic Designer in Japan. He had an enormous impact on the post-war visual culture in Japan.Read More →
-
RIP – Issey Miyake, the Japanese fashion designer, dies 84.
Issey Miyake died on August 5, 2022, in a Tokyo hospital of liver cancer. He founded the Miyake Design Studio in 1970.Read More →
-
Masakazu Kobayashi (b.1944) Japanese textile designer
Masakazu Kobayashi studied at the University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan. He manifested traditional textile techniques and aesthetics in his work. Between 1966 and 1975, he worked as a textile designer for Kawashima. His 1982 fabric evoked komon, a textile dyeing technique which uses paper patterns with small motifs.Read More →
-
Yoshitomo Nara (b.1959) Japanese Artist and Designer
Nara grew up in Aomori Prefecture, Japan, about 300 miles north of the Tochigi Prefecture. His exposure to Western music on the American military radio station Far East Network in Honshu influenced his artistic imagination early. Later, he would provide cover art for bands including Shonen Knife, R.E.M., and Bloodthirsty Butchers.Read More →
-
Poster for Nikon (1957) by Yusaku Kamekura
Yusaku Kamekura’s poster emphasises the brilliance and clarity attained with the Nikon lens and the technical perfection of his client’s camera by using brilliant optical patterns and powerful, white letter-forms against an intensely dark background. Read More →
-
Soichiro Sasakura (b.1949) Japanese Glassware Designer
He worked for Sasaki Glass, for which he designed the 1988 San Marino glassware range.Read More →
-
Hiroshi Awatsuji (1929 – 1995) Japanese Textile Designer
Hiroshi Awatsuji (1929- 1995) was a Japanese textile and graphic designer: born in Kyoto. He was considered the first Japanese textile designer to be recognised for contemporary design rather than for traditional art and craft. The main characteristic of his work was over sized motifs.Read More →
-
Hiroshi Yamano – Exquisite Japanese Glass Designs
Kiroshi Yamano is a Japanese Glass Designer. He studied at the Tokyo Glass Crafts Institute to 1984 and Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, to 1989. Read More →
-
Toshiyuki Kita (b.1942) Japanese Furniture and Interior Designer
He set up his own design office in Osaka in 1964; in 1969, he began designing furniture for Italian and Japanese firms; he collaborated with Silvio Coppola, Giotto Stoppino, and Bepi Fiori for Bernini. He is best known for the 1980 Wink articulated armchair produced by Cassina, which took four years to design; Read More…
-
Katsuji Wakisaka ( b.1944 ) 🗻 Japanese Textile Designer
Katsuji Wakisaka is a Japanese textile designer. Between 1960 -1963 he studied textile design in Kyoto.Read More →
-
Suehari Fukami (b.1947) Japanese Studio Potter
Suehari Fukami (b.1947) is a Japanese studio potter based in Kyoto. He works in the bluish-white porcelain known in Japanese as seihakuji, developed in the Song dynasty JINGDEZEN wares. Read More →
-
Listening to Stone (paperback) – Art and Life of Isamu Noguchi
A master of what he called “the sculpturing of space,” Isamu Noguchi was an essential figure for modern public art. Noguchi, born to an American mother and a Japanese father, never felt at home anywhere and spent his life creating identities through his sculptures, monuments, and gardens. Read More →
-
Susumu Ilkuta Japanese Ceramicist
He worked as a fashion designer in Tokyo. In 1958, he moved to New York at the invitation of hatter Lilly Daché. He studied ceramics in night classes in New York. In 1973, he returned to Japan, where he studied with Kohbei and painted on unfired porcelain.Read More →
-
Black Wire Chair by Oki Sato
Oki Santo designed this chair; it was a part of a series called Thin Black Lines. The series includes a chair and clothes rack intended to appear as sketches in the air or calligraphy symbols. Thin black lines like the traces of sketches drawn in the air made transparent surfaces and volumes appear, which we…
-
Etsuko Nishi (b.1955) Japanese Glass Designer
Etsuko Nishi is a Japanese Glass Designer. She is a leading expert in pâte de verre, one of the oldest and most difficult glass-making forms. The desired shape is first made of clay, which is used as the basis for the mould. The glass powder is then mixed with a special type of paste, and…
-
Teruo Yamada (b.1945) Japanese Glassware Designer
His work was shown at 1980 ‘Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition,’ Tokyo; 1981 and 1990 ‘Glass in Japan,’ Tokyo; 1985 ‘New Glass in Japan,’ Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe; 1987 ‘The Art of Contemporary Japanese Studio Glass,’ Heller Gallery, New York; 1991 (V) Triennale of the Japan Glass Art Crafts Association, Heller Gallery.Read More →
-
Dorodango Japanese polished dirt balls
The hand-rolling of this soil-based mixture can be relaxing and comfortable to do. Dorodango is not without its difficulties and needs a high degree of skill, patience and concentration. Given the fragility and inclination of the dorodango to break, the perfectly formed ball is elusive. It can also be a challenging process to achieve the…
-
Yūsuke Aida (1931 – 2015) – Japanese ceramics & industrial designer
Yūsuke Aida (1931-2015) – Japanese ceramics designer and industrial designer. He studied town planning at Chiba University and ceramics under Ken Miyanohara. Read More →
-
Yuri Masaki Japanese glass designer
Yuri Masaki is a Japanese glass designer she was president of the Masaki Glass and Art Studio. Her work was included in 1987 and 1990…Read More →
-
Sori Yanagi – Japanese Industrial Designer
Sori Yanagi (1915-2011) was an industrial designer from Japan. Although previously trained as a fine artist and worked in an architectural studio, Yanagi went on to study industrial design in 1947.Read More →
-
Fujiwo Ishimoto Japanese born textile & ceramic designer
The natural world and its phenomena influence Ishimoto’s works. His designs have basic forms that are coupled with vibrant exterior constructions and lavish ornamentation. Ishimoto has won the State Industrial Arts Prize, the Kaj Franck Design Prize, and Honourable Mentions at the Finland Designs show in 1983, 1989, and 1993, among other awards. He was…
-
Jiro Kosugi (1915 – 1981) Japanese Industrial Designer
After WWII, he worked as an independent designer, designing a series of three-wheeled trucks for the Toyo Kogyo Company (now Mazda) in Hiroshima, which he worked on from 1948 until 1960. These designs were trendy since they were both practical and reasonably inexpensive to purchase. Read More →
-
Harue Koga delightful illustrations and paintings ♥︎
. He dropped out of junior high school to pursue a career as a painter, and in 1912, he relocated to Tokyo. He studied at the Taiheiyoga-institute kai’s and then the Japan Watercolor Painting Society’s institute. Koga became a priest in 1915 and studied Buddhism at Taisho University. Read More →
-
How High the Moon armchair (1986) by Shiro Kuramata
Shiro Kuramata’s inventive transformations of everyday industrial materials, including steel mesh, terrazzo, corrugated aluminium, and steel cables, pushed material technology to new design limits. Read More >Read More →
-
‘A Strong Identity is an Icon’ Says the Designer Behind the Uniqlo Logo
Kashiwa Sato sees the world through icons, and just about anything can be an icon, the leading Japanese designer told the Brainstorm Design conference in Singapore on Wednesday. “The purpose of branding is to create a strong identity.Read More →
-
Yohji Yamamoto (b.1943) Japanese Fashion Designer
Yohji Yamamoto fashion is exemplified by ease and wearability. READ MORE about this innovative radically different Japanese Designer.Read More →
-
6 Works That Explain Yayoi Kusama’s Rise to Art World Stardom
In 1965, Kusama erected the first of her now-famous immersive environments. Infinity Mirror Room – Phalli’s Field (Floor Show) fused her interests in repetition, sexual exploration, psychology, and perception by filling a roughly 25-square-meter mirrored room with a thick carpet of soft, twisting phalluses camouflaged in the artist’s signature polka dots.Read More →
-
Osamu Tezuka book collection – the godfather of Japanese Manga comics
Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989) is widely regarded as the godfather of Japanese manga comics. He originally wanted to be a doctor and earned his degree before turning to what was then a children’s medium. Among his many early masterpieces was the Astro Boy series, which was popular in the United States.Read More →
-
Ukiyo-e inspired gifts – available now
Ukiyo-e is a Japanese art form that flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of female beauties, kabuki performers, and sumo wrestlers, historical and folk tale scenes, travel scenes and landscapes, flora and fauna, and erotica, among other subjects. “Pictures of the Floating Planet” is how the word…
-
Tanaka Ikko: Graphic Master (DESIGN)
Tanaka Ikko (born 1930 in Nara) is a well-known master of graphic design. His work combines influences from the East and the West, acknowledging the vocabulary of European Modernism while remaining distinctively Japanese.Read More →
-
Japan Style: Architecture + Interiors + Design (hardcover)
Japanese homes speak to the soul and provide a contemplative environment from which to experience the world.Read More →
-
Kimono, Vanishing Tradition: Japanese Textiles of the 20th Century
Kimono, Vanishing Tradition: Japanese Textiles of the 20th Century. The lovely design of this revised 2nd edition also renders it a “coffee table worthy” purchase or gift. The subject is particularly timely now—since although people have been talking about the Japanese “vanishing” kimono tradition” for years, the most wondrous of the vintage garments from 1970s…
-
Forms Stackable Stool by Ookkuu
The Forms Stackable Stool features a lovely circle seat with a convenient stacking capability. Solid wood frame and plywood wood veneer seat.Read More →
You may also be interested in
Hiroshi Yamano – Japanese Glass Designer. – Encyclopedia of Design
Kiroshi Yamano is a Japanese Glass Designer. He studied at the Tokyo Glass Crafts Institute to 1984 and Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, to 1989. Yamano was attracted to the medium after seeing a display of Scandinavian glass in Kyoto. Yamano spent some time travelling around Europe before starting to study glass in depth.
Katsuji Wakisaka (1944 – ) Japanese Textile Designer – Encyclopedia of Design
Katsuji Wakisaka is a Japanese textile designer. Between 1960 -1963 he studied textile design in Kyoto. Between 1963 and 1965 he worked for Itoh, Osaka and, 1965 – 68 for Samejima, Kyoto. Between 1968 and 1976 he designed printed fabrics for Marimekko in Helsinki.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.