Noguchi, Isamu 1904-1988

views updated

NOGUCHI, Isamu 1904-1988

PERSONAL: Born Isamu Gilmour, 1904, in Los Angeles, CA; died December 30, 1988, in New York, NY; son of Yongiro Noguchi (a Japanese poet) and Leonie Gilmour (a writer); married Yoshiko Yamaguchi, 1952 (divorced, 1957). Education: Apprenticed with Gutzon Borglum, 1922; attended Columbia University, 1922-24; attended Leonardo da Vinci Art School, 1923-26; attended Academie Grande Chaumiere and Colarossi School, 1927; studied brush drawings under Chi Pai Shi; studied pottery under Uno Jinmatsu, 1931.

CAREER: Artist and designer. Constantin Brancusi (abstract sculptor), assistant, 1927; began portrait sculpture, New York, NY, 1929—. Theatre work includes mask designs for At Hawk's Well, 1925; set designs for Martha Graham, 1935-66; set designs for dance The Bells, 1946; set design for Stephen Acrobat, 1947; costume and set designer for The Seasons, 1947; set and prop designer for George Balanchine's Orpheus, 1948. American Academy, Rome, Italy, artistin-residence, 1962; Isamu Noguchi Long Island City Garden Museum, founder, 1985. Created monumental sculptures and sculpture gardens all over the world; established studio in Japan; furniture designer. Exhibitions: Works included in permanent collections at Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art; Whitney Museum; Guggenheim Museum; Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY; Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; and Hirshorn Museum, Washington, DC. Individual exhibits include Marie Sterner Gallery, New York, NY, 1928; Museum of Modern Art, 1947, 1952, 1953, 1977; Galerie Gimpel und Hanover, Zurich, 1972; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, 1978; and Pace Gallery, New York, NY, 1983, 1986.

AWARDS, HONORS: John Simon Guggenheim fellowship, 1927; Bollingen Foundation fellowship, 1950; Albert Einstein Commemorative Award, 1978; Mayor's Award of Arts and Culture, 1978; MacDowell Medal, 1982; New York State Governor's Award, 1984; Japanese American Citizens League Award, 1984; fellowship, Israel Museum, 1985; President's Medal, 1985; Kyoto Prize, Inamori Foundation, 1986; National Medal of Arts, President Ronald Reagan, 1987; Order of the Sacred Treasure, Japanese government, 1988.

WRITINGS:

(Author of introduction, with Shuzo Takiguchi and Saburo Hasegawa) Noguchi, photography by Ken Domon and others, Wittenborn (New York, NY), 1953.

Isamu Noguchi: The Sculpture of Spaces, Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY), 1980.

A Sculptor's World, foreword by R. Buckminster Fuller, Harper & Row (New York, NY) 1968.

SIDELIGHTS: Isamu Noguchi is well known for his outdoor sculptures, fountains, and sculptured gardens. His most famous works include a sculptured garden at Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, a Japanese garden at UNESCO headquarters, a sculpture called "Red Cube" on the Marine Midland building plaza in New York, and the Jerusalem Museum's Billy Rose Sculpture Garden. A contributor to The Reader's Companion to American History noted of his sculptured gardens, "He fused modern European and American developments in sculpture with ancient Japanese insights concerning time and space."

Noguchi, born Isamu Gilmour, was influenced by his mixed heritage. He was born out of wedlock in the United States: his father was a Japanese poet and his mother an American writer. He spent time in both Japan and the United States during his upbringing. Noguchi served as an apprentice to sculptor Constantin Brancusi, who influenced Noguchi in the use of stone, wood, and simplicity.

Besides sculptures, Noguchi also designed stage sets and costumes for dance and theater productions. In 1935 he did his first set design for his friend and dancer Martha Graham. Over the next thirty years he designed twenty more sets for Graham and also for dancers and choreographers such as George Balanchine and Merce Cunningham.