Isamu Noguchi
Isamu Noguchi (野 口 勇jap, Isamu Noguchi, born November 17, 1904 in Los Angeles, † December 30, 1988 in New York ) was an American sculptor and designer with Japanese roots.
Life and work
Noguchi's fundamental interest in sculptural shapes made him switch between working as a designer (among other things for Hans Knoll ) and as a sculptor, stage designer, landscape architect. His works show both the influence of Western art as well as the Japanese and Chinese tradition.
Born the son of a Japanese poet Noguchi Yonejirō and the American writer Leonie Gilmour, he studied from 1923 to 1926 at Columbia University and the Leonardo da Vinci Art School; In 1927 he received the Guggenheim Fellowship for two years. As of March 1927, he was assistant to Constantin Brancusi in Paris, which made him familiar with wood and stone reliefs. With the end of the scholarship Noguchi in 1929 returned to New York. In the same year his first solo exhibition at New York's Eugene Schoen Gallery was shown. Between 1930 and 1932 undertook Noguchi trips to Paris, Beijing and Japan; in China, he studied brush drawing in particular, in Japan working with clay on the potter Uno Jinmatsu.
Between 1933 and 1937, Noguchi developed designs for public spaces, monuments, playgrounds and stage; in the years 1942 to 1948 he intensified his work in the theater, however, also created and produced furniture and lamps. After 1949, he traveled several times through Europe, the Middle East and Japan; during trips he produced drawings and photographs. In Kamakura, Japan, he built a studio. In the following 1950s, he constantly traveled between Japan and New York back and forth and established in 1961 a studio in Long Iceland City, New York, a. From 1971 to 1979 he entertained another studio on the Japanese island of Shikoku.
In 1980 he founded the Isamu Noguchi Foundation, Inc.; 1981 to 1985 was followed by the construction of the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum in Long Iceland City, New York.
Another Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum is located in a suburb of Takamatsu, Japan. This was originally Noguchi's studio, which he had established in 1969 because he liked the granite of the area. There, important works were created. The museum is open only to a limited, pre-registration is essential.
Honors and Awards
In 1984, Noguchi was awarded an honorary doctorate from Columbia University, 1986, the Kyoto Prize, the 1987 National Medal of Arts from the President of the United States. In 1988 he received the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Third Class.
Exhibitions
Isamu Noguchi was, among others, participated in the documenta II (1959) and Documenta III (1964 ) in Kassel. In 1986 he represented the United States at the Venice Biennale.
Work
Only a few sculptors of the early twentieth century did before the country way to expand the view of sculpture so that the landscape area not more background, but true object of artistic creation was. Isamu Noguchi, one of the most important sculptors in the United States is undoubtedly one of these pioneering pioneers. His strict, minimalist sculptures, gardens and urban spaces are in their clarity, simplicity and timeless beauty for many contemporary landscape architects and artists undisputed models of a contemporary dealing with landscape and garden as spatial art. It would be the work of Noguchi justice in any way you looked at his work just as Japanese art in the West. "My father, Yone Noguchi, is Japanese and his poetry has long been known as an interpreter of the East to the West. I want to do the same with the sculpture, " Noguchi wrote in his application for a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1927.
Among the most important works by Isamu Noguchi are in addition to his numerous sculptures, furniture and lamps creations following:
- Undine ( Nadja ) ( 1927)
- Two bridges for the Peace Park in Hiroshima (1951-1952)
- Gardens for the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (1956-1957)
- Garden for the UNESCO in Paris (1956-1958)
- Billy Rose Sculpture Garden, Israel Museum, Jerusalem (1960-1965)
- Twin plastic, Munich ( 1972)
- Bayfront Park in Miami, Florida ( 1978)
- California Scenario in Costa Mesa, California (1980.1982)
- Ken Domon Museum Garden, Sakata, Japan ( 1984)
- Moere - Ken Park, Sapporo, Japan ( 1988)