Isamu Noguchi: Master Sculptor

October 28, 2004 January 16, 2005

Resources for K-12 Educators

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Isamu Noguchi: Master Sculptor

October 28, 2004 January 16, 2005

These pre- and post-visit materials were prepared by the Education Department of the Whitney
Museum of American Art. Special thanks to Julie Brooks, Andrew Cappetta, Margaret Krug, Lisa
Libicki, and Jane Royal, Education Department, Whitney Museum of American Art, for their
contributions.

For further information, please contact the Education Department:

Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Avenue
New York, New York 10021
(212) 570-7722
www.whitney.org

We welcome your feedback!

Please let us know what you think of these materials. How did you use them? What worked
or didnt work? Email us at education@whitney.org
This exhibition is co-organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, DC, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
The Whitney wishes to acknowledge the support of Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond J. Learsy.
The Whitney Museum of American Art's School and Educator Programs are made possible by Citigroup.
Additional support is provided by the Louis Calder Foundation; Rose M. Badgeley Residuary Charitable Trust,
HSBC Bank USA Trustee; JP Morgan Chase; public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts; public
funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; National Endowment for the Arts; Erpf
Endowment; Susan Greenwald; William Randolph Hearst Foundation; Helena Rubinstein Foundation; May and
Samuel Rudin Family Foundation; and by members of the Whitney's Education Committee.

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Dear Educator,
We are delighted that you have scheduled a visit to the exhibition, Isamu Noguchi: Master
Sculptor. This exhibition features sculpture and related drawings by the renowned sculptor.
When you and your students visit the Whitney, a Museum educator will give you a tour of
the exhibition. The enclosed information consists of resources for you to use in the
classroom with your students prior to your visit.
To make your museum experience enriching and meaningful, we strongly encourage you to use
this packet as a resource to work with your students in the classroom before your museum
visit. The materials will serve as the starting point from which you and your students will view
and discuss the exhibition.
This packet contains resources about the artist and his work and suggested activities that
address core curriculum subject areas, the New York City Department of Education
Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts, and the New York State Learning
Standards, including art, English language arts, social studies, and technology. The goal of
these materials is to enhance understanding and knowledge of the richness and diversity of
American art and culture through research, visual literacy, and inquiry-based learning.
Included are topics for discussion, art projects, and writing activities designed to introduce
some of the exhibitions key themes and concepts. Please feel free to adapt and build on
these materials and to use this packet as the basis for other classroom lessons.
We look forward to welcoming you and your students to the exhibition.
Sincerely,

Dina Helal
Head of Curriculum and Online Learning

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Isamu Noguchi: Master Sculptor

An Introduction

About the Exhibition

Marking the centenary of his birth, this fall the Whitney presents Isamu Noguchi: Master
Sculptor, a celebration of Noguchis sculptural achievements. Co-organized by the
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC and the
Whitney Museum of American Art, the exhibition features many of Noguchis most
innovative sculptures, including some works rarely or never seen before in public. Curated
by the Hirshhorn's Valerie Fletcher, the exhibition opens at the Whitney (October 28,
2004January 16, 2005) before traveling to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
(February 10May 8, 2005).
This exhibition is the first major retrospective of Noguchis work in America since 1978.
Featuring approximately 60 sculptures and 20 related drawings, Isamu Noguchi: Master
Sculptor presents cohesive groupings of works set within a chronological sequence, with
special emphasis on sculptures made between 1932 and 1962.
Noguchis 100th year is also being celebrated with the reopening of the Noguchi Museums
renovated studio and garden in Long Island City, New York. The opening exhibition Isamu
Noguchi: Sculptural Design complements the Hirshhorn-Whitney show by focusing on the
artists designs for furniture, stage sets, and plans for public spaces. A subsequent
exhibition, Isamu Noguchi and Martha Graham, opens at the Noguchi Museum in November.
For additional information, visit www.noguchi.org. The artists centenary is also being
celebrated in Japan with an exhibition of his little-known photographs, which opens at the
Kagawa Prefecture Museum on October 24.
The spare organic forms of Isamu Noguchis sculpture reflect both a bold modernism and
a respect for Japanese aesthetic traditions. Seeking spiritual expression and material
innovation, Noguchi carved in stone and wood. Yet throughout his career he also
experimented endlessly with diverse and unusual materials, including plaster, wood,
terracotta, paper, string, magnesite, steel, chrome, bronze, plastic, and electric lights. His
sculptures hang on walls, suspend from armatures, repose on the floor, and stand like
apparitional figures. In addition to sculpture, he was a prolific designer of stage sets,
gardens, and furniture.
Noguchis drawings include pencil studies for sculptures, collages, proposals for stage sets,
and scrolls brushed with ink in a modern version of Sino-Japanese painting traditions.
Throughout his career, Noguchi embraced aspects of Asian, American, and European
culture and strove to incorporate art into everyday life.

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Isamu Noguchi: Master Sculptor An Introduction (continued)

About the Artist

Isamu Noguchi (19041988) was born in Los Angeles to an American mother who was a
writer and a Japanese father who was a poet. Noguchi spent most of his early childhood in
Japan and moved back to the United States when he was thirteen. As a teenager, he
attended a progressive high school and became interested in sculpture while he was an
apprentice to a portrait sculptor in 1922. After two years in a premedical program at
Columbia University, Noguchi decided to become a sculptor.
As a young artist, Noguchi studied in New York, Paris, London, Beijing, and Kyoto, Japan.
From 1927 to 1928, he worked in Constantin Brancusis Paris studio, an experience that
pushed him toward abstraction and confirmed his respect for the intrinsic qualities of
materials. During this time he developed his own style of abstraction. Brancusis influence
reinforced ideas that Noguchi had encountered in Japan, including the virtue of simplicity
and the importance of embracing nature by using materials such as wood, clay, and stone.
While in Paris Noguchi also met the sculptors Alexander Calder and Alberto Giacometti.
During the Great Depression, Noguchi planned several visionary public sculptures,
including Lightning Bolt, (which was realized 50 years after Noguchi designed it, in 1984),
a monument to Benjamin Franklin representing his kite-flying experiment.
[http://www.noguchi.org/monument.html] The artists life changed abruptly after the United
States entered World War II. Noguchi voluntarily entered an internment camp for JapaneseAmericans in order to improve their living conditions, but was unable to influence harsh
government policies. Seven months in the internment camp inspired him to create
landscape-like sculptures alluding to his dreams of escape and his fears of destruction.
In the mid-1940s and the postwar period, Noguchi produced some of his most original
works, which were characterized by interlocked, rounded forms in materials such as wood
and gray slate. These sculptures express elements of Surrealism and Noguchi's lifelong
interest in ancient Japanese art. In addition to their visual beauty and technical skill, they
also reflect the artists feelings about his own identity and the precarious state of the
world after World War II, which he described as "the encroaching void."
During the 1950s, Noguchi experimented with iron, ceramics, and light, as he traveled
extensively in Asia and worked for months in Japan. At this time and in the 1960s, he
focused on ceramics, metal constructions, light sculptures, monumental stone carvings, and
landscape projects. His ceramics and stone sculptures in particular had an enormous
influence in postwar Japan, where he maintained a studio.

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Isamu Noguchi: Master Sculptor An Introduction (continued)

About the Artist (continued)

Noguchi knew and worked with some of the inventive American architects, choreographers,
and painters of his time. With Buckminster Fuller, he constructed models, planned
outdoor projects, and explored ways in which people live and thrive in their environments.
He also created stage sets for choreographers Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and
George Ballanchine. [http://www.noguchi.org/people.html]
In 1961, Noguchi moved to Long Island City, Queens. From the 1960s to the early 1980s,
he carved his sculptures from many kinds of stone to emphasize the inherent beauty and
variety of the material. During the 1980s, he collaborated on the design of three gardens,
including the Isamu Noguchi Museum with Shoji Sadao on land adjacent to his Long Island
City studio. It opened to the public in 1985. In 1986 Noguchi represented the United
States at the Venice Biennale [http://www.labiennale.org/en/] in Italy. Noguchi died in
December 1988 at the age of 84.

Vocabulary

Aesthetic
A particular theory or conception of beauty or art.
Abstract/Abstraction
A work of art that is not recognizable as a picture of a person, place, or thing. An abstract work of
art may reflect an emotion, a sensation, or some aspect of the real world that has been
generalized, simplified, distorted, or rearranged.
Asymmetrical
The condition of an object or form whose two halves are not similar when the object is divided in half
by a vertical line. For example, a potato. [IS THERE ANOTHER EXAMPLE YOU COULD USE? FACES ARE
PRETTY SYMMETRICAL]
George Ballanchine 190483
Choreographer and artistic director of the New York City Ballet. For more information, go to:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/balanchine_g.html
Constantin Brancusi 18761957
A Romanian sculptor who used simplified forms and focused on subjects such as birds and fish. For
more information, go to:
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/brancusi_constantin.html

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Vocabulary (continued)

Alexander Calder 18981976

Calder is best known for his innovative sculptures and mobiles. For more information, go to:
http://www.calder.org/
Merce Cunningham b. 1919
Renowned American choreographer and performer. For more information, go to:
http://www.merce.org/home_page/home2/HOMEPAGE.htm
The Great Depression
After the stock market crash in 1929, the United States experienced an extended period of
economic collapse. Unemployment remained high and many businesses failed. For more information,
go to: http://newdeal.feri.org/
Buckminster Fuller 18951983
American inventor, architect, engineer, mathematician, poet and cosmologist, best known for the
invention of the geodesic dome. For more information, go to:
http://www.bfi.org/introduction_to_bmf.htm
Martha Graham 18941991
American choreographer and central figure of the modern dance movement. For more information,
go to: http://www.noguchi.org/graham.html
Alberto Giacometti 190166
Swiss painter and sculptor. For more information, go to:
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/giacometti_alberto.html
Magnesite
Magnesium carbonate that occurs in nature as a white crystalline salt. It is used to make
magnesium oxide for cement, insulation, and fertilizers among other things. The magnesite that
Noguchi used is a cement-like construction material, a compound of magnesium, carbon and
oxygen.
Modernism/ Modern art
Modernism or modern art are art historical terms used to describe new styles and attitudes toward
the past and the present from about the 1860s through the 1970s. Modernism began as a
response to the urbanization and industrialization of Western society and often challenged the
traditional values and beliefs of the middle class and others. During this time artists viewed
contemporary events, feelings and ideas as viable subjects for their work, rather than limiting
themselves to historical or biblical events. By seeking to create new styles and ideas in opposition
to those traditions, modern artists created works that many at the time considered to be
unsettling.
Surrealism
An art movement in which artists aimed to express the unconscious, non-logical sensations and
inspirations. Surrealists often created hallucinatory, dream-like images, in a realist style. (1924 to
1945)

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Context

Japanese internment in the United States

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8420/main.html
Extensive information, images, and links for Japanese internment camps in the United
States.
http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/index.html
Children of the Camps, a PBS documentary and related information about children in
Japanese internment camps.
http://www.teacheroz.com/Japanese_Internment.htm
Links and resources for Japanese internment.
http://www.42explore2.com/japanese.htm
Links, resources, webquests and lessons about Japanese internment.
http://www.uwec.edu/Geography/Ivogeler/w188/j1.htm
Resources and key questions about Japanese Internment.
After the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. Based on ethnicity, this order
permitted the military to bypass the constitutional rights of certain American citizens in
the name of national defense.
The order excluded people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast from residing and
working in certain locations. It resulted in the mass evacuation and incarceration of
Japanese Americans, most of whom were U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.
120,000 Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes, farms, schools, jobs, and
businesses. In some cases, family members were separated. From 1942 to 1945, they lived
in internment camps. There were ten internment camps in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona,
Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. These camps were officially called "relocation centers."
Though the Axis powers who threatened the allies included Japan, Germany, and Italy, only
Americans of Japanesenot German or Italiandescent were forced to move to the
relocation centers.
Japanese Americans were detained for up to four years, without due process of law. In
addition, they were forced to live in bleak, remote camps behind barbed wire, and under the
surveillance of armed guards. Japanese American internment raised questions about the
rights of American citizens as defined by the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Context (continued)

Noguchi was in California when the West Coast was declared a military zone and there was
rising fear of invasion and anti-Japanese sentiment. Instead of fleeing back to New York,
Noguchi spoke out in defense of the loyalty and civil rights of the Nisei (American citizens
of Japanese ancestry). With disturbing speed new federal laws began to force thousands of
Nisei into internment camps situated in the desert regions of the Southwest.
Concerned that he might face internment despite his exemption status as a resident of the
East Coast, Noguchi flew to Washington D.C. on March 27, 1942 to advocate for internees.
There he was persuaded that his design expertise could improve the internees living
conditions. In May 1942 he voluntarily entered the Colorado River Relocation Center in
Poston, Arizona. While there he carved a few sculptures, including a relief called Fighting
for Freedom. To relieve the unrelenting grid of the temporary housing at Poston, Noguchi
created a plan for irrigated parks for recreation. Discouraged by the authorities refusal to
consider his proposals, the artist left Poston to return to New York in September 1942
one full year after he had departed from New York in high spirits.
Although he later tended to downplay the emotional and psychological impact of those
months in California and Arizona, Noguchi was profoundly shaken to find that his mixed
parentage could cause many of his fellow citizens to consider him an enemy alien. The
experience of racism and internment left him bitterly disillusioned and depressed. Settling
into a studio at 33 MacDougal Alley in Greenwich Village, Noguchi immersed himself in his
work. Anxious about events in the outside world, he adopted the Surrealist approach of
exploring ones own psyche and using art to express hidden emotions and subjective
perceptions.1
Surrealism
An art movement in which artists aimed to express the unconscious, non-logical sensations
and inspirations. Surrealists often created hallucinatory, dream-like images, in a realist
style. (1924 to 1945)

Valerie J. Fletcher, Isamu Noguchi: Master Sculptor, exhibition catalogue, Washington, D.C.: Hirshhorn
Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution; New York: Whitney Museum of American Art; London:
Scala, 2004, p.70.

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Context (continued)

On the Colorado River Relocation Center, Poston, Arizona, 1942

With a flash I realized I was no longer the sculptor alone. I was not just
American but Nisei. A Japanese-American. (I had received a medal from
somewhere; 'Nisei of the year' just before leaving New York). I felt I must do
something. But first I had to get to know my fellow Nisei; I had had no reason
previously to seek them out as a group. Secondly, I sought out those of us
who were sympathetic and with whom I thought I could work to counteract
the bigoted hysteria that soon appeared in the press. I organized a group
called 'Nisei Writers and Artists for Democracy'. All to no avail. With the
evacuation command I escaped from California ( I was luckily a New Yorker)
and went to Washington, thinking to make myself useful. Instead, I met John
Collier of the American Indian Service. One of the projected war relocation
camps was to be situated on Indian territory under his jurisdiction at Poston,
Arizona, and he suggested that I might be of help there in its development.
Thus I willfully became a part of humanity uprooted.
There could have been some question of my position, whether on the side of
the administration or of the internees, but with the harshness of camp life
came a feeling of mutuality, of identity with those interned and against the
Administration, in spite of personal friendships. The desert was
magnificentthe fantastic heat, the cool nights, and the miraculous time
before dawn. I became leader of forays into the desert to find ironwood roots
for sculpting. Though democracy perish outside, here would be kept its
seeds, cried Mr. Collier through clouds of dust. My work for the most part
was to design and help develop park and recreation areas.
It soon became apparent, however, that the purpose of the War Relocation
Authority was hopelessly at odds with that ideal cooperative community
pictured by Mr. Collier. They wanted nothing permanent nor pleasant. My
presence became pointless, but as I had voluntarily become an internee, it
took me seven months to get out and then on a temporary basis. So far as I
know, I am still only temporarily at large. 2
Isamu Noguchi

http://www.noguchi.org/intextall.html#poston

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Context (continued)

1939

September 1: World War II erupts in Europe after the Nazis invade Poland; two days later,
France and Great Britain declare war on Germany.

1940

September: In an agreement with Vichy France, Japan occupies French Indochina (Vietnam) and
joins the Axis Powers.
October 14: U.S. Nationality Act specifies that American citizens of foreign parents can lose
their citizenship if they reside abroad for more than six months, work for a foreign
government, or vote in a foreign election.
After the German occupation of France, Denmark, Norway, Holland, and Belgium, a wave of
European artists and intellectuals emigrate to the United States.

1941

December 7: Japan attacks the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, prompting the United
States to enter World War II
Within forty-eight hours after the attack, the United States government arrests more than
1,000 citizens of Japanese descent identified at community leaders and security risks. On
December 11, The Western Defense Command is established and the West Coast is declared a
military zone.

1942

Noguchi organizes the Nisei Writers and Artist mobilization for Democracy. Avoids internment as
New York resident, but then voluntarily enters the Colorado River Relocation Camp in Poston,
Arizona in May in hopes of improving the living conditions at the camps. After seven months, he
returns to New York and moves into a studio at 33 MacDougal Alley.
On February 19, Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, which authorizes military commanders
establish military areas to detain suspicious citizens considered potentially dangerous to
national security.
March 18: The War Relocation Authority is established to coordinate the evacuation of more
than 77,000 Japanese American residents of California, Washington, Oregon, and Arizona to
sixteen temporary assembly centers, from which they will later be transferred to ten
internment camps in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming.
May 8: "Volunteers" From California arrive at the Colorado River Relocation Center in Yuma
Country, Arizona, also known as Poston. By the end of the war, more than 120,000 Japanese
Americans were incarcerated in these "relocation centers," which President Roosevelt rightly
called "concentration camps."
November 14: An attack by inmates at Poston on another internee suspected of being an
informer leads to a ten-day mass strike protesting their trial in an Arizona court.

1943

February: "Loyalty Questionnaires" are distributed in the ten internment camps, resulting in a
mass segregation of all "disloyal" internees to Tula Lake, California that fall.

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Context (continued)

1944

June 6: U.S. invades Normandy on D-Day.

August 25: Paris is liberated from German Occupation.
Dec 17th: Public Proclamation No. 21 rescinds the mass exclusion orders.
December 18: Supreme Court case Korematsu vs. the Unites States rules that the internment
of Japanese Americans was justified to ensure national security.

1945

Jan 2: West Coast resettlement is once again allowed, though strong anti-Japanese American
resentment remained.
May 7: Germany offers an unconditional surrender, ending the war in Europe.
August 6: After firebombing Tokyo, United States drops the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima;
three days later they bomb Nagasaki, prompting Japan to surrender on June 14th.

1946

July 1: United States detonates the first of twenty-three atomic explosions on Bikini Atoll in
the South Pacific.
October 1: Nuremburg Trials of Nazi war criminals end with fourteen convictions.

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Sculpture

10

What is the point of soft without hard, or weight without lightness?3

I for one return recurrently to the earth in my search for the meaning of
sculptureto escape fragmentation with a new synthesis, within the
sculpture and related to spaces. I believe in the activity of stone, actual or
illusory, and in gravity as a vital element. Sculpture is the definition of form
in space, visible to the mobile spectator as participant. Sculptures move
because we move.4
A purely cold abstraction doesnt interest me too much. Art has to have
some kind of humanly touchingquality. It has to recall something which
moves a persona recollection, a recognition of his loneliness or tragedy or
5
whateverthings that happen at night, somber things.
On Sculpture
New concepts of the physical world and of psychology may give insights into
knowledge, but the visible world, in human terms, is more than scientific
truths. It enters our consciousness as emotion as well as knowledge; trees
grow in vigor, flowers hang evanescent, and mountains lie somnolentwith
meaning. The promise of sculpture is to project these inner presences into
forms that can be recognized as important and meaningful in themselves. Our
heritage is now the world. Art for the first time may be said to have a world
6
consciousness.
Isamu Noguchi
Isamu Noguchi believed that art could be a catalyst for individual insight and change. He
was interested in using opposing dualities or principles in his ideas, styles, compositions,
materials, and methods. Over time he developed a personal, yet accessible visual language
to express a wide variety of ideas and emotions. His primary consideration was the
material quality of each sculpturethe size, material, shapes, colors, and textures, and the
different responses and associations that might be suggested by the physical reality of the
work. For example, vertical sculptures alluded to figures and human emotions in multiple
ways; horizontal compositions presented visual metaphors for place and space. Noguchi
completed almost a thousand sculptural works in his lifetime.

Valerie J. Fletcher, p.17.

John Gordon, Isamu Noguchi, New York: Whitney Museum of American Art) p. 14.
5
Isamu Noguchi, Interview with Katherine Kuh, (1962) in Essays and Conversations, 131.
6
http://www.noguchi.org/intextall.html#sculp
4

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

11

Sculpture (continued)

Sculpture materials used by Isamu Noguchi

Acetate
Aluminum
Bamboo
Basalt
Bone

Brass
Bronze
Cardboard
Cork
Electric lights

Granite
Iron
Limestone
Magnesite
Marble

Plastic
Plastic resin
Rice paper
Rope
Slate

Stainless steel
Steel
String
Terracotta
Wood

"Noguchi with akari light sculptures in his New York studio", 1960s
Photograph courtesy of The Noguchi Museum

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

12

Sculpture (continued)

Humpty-Dumpty, 1946. Gray ribbon slate, 59 x 20 3/4 x 17

1/2 in. (149.9 x 52.7 x 44.5 cm). Whitney Museum of
American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Howard
and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc. 47.7a-e

The title and oval shape of Humpty Dumpty refer to

the childrens rhyme:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the kings horses
and all the kings men
Couldnt put Humpty together again.
At first, this apparently lighthearted work suggests
nostalgia for the innocence of childhood, but the
rhyme has a cautionary and pessimistic moral: when
a fragile whole is shattered, it can never be the
same again. Like the shattered egg-man, Noguchi
had resumed his life in New York, but his
experiences in California and Arizona had changed
him; he was put together again differently. The
appeal of Humpty Dumpty is not limited to the
artists state of mind; the message applies to
millions of people. Who has not felt broken at some
point? Very few individuals make it through life
without a few scars of one sort or another.
Noguchis sculpture may also refer to historical
events: after World War II the world may be
reassembled but not as it was before, not without
7
permanent damage.

The sculpture's overall egg-like form, the brittle slate that it is made of, and the interlocked
design all play into the Humpty Dumpty story. Noguchi created Humpty Dumpty in 1946,
shortly after the atomic devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The flat pieces of ribbon
slate lock into a greater whole, even as they mirror the layered quality of the stone. "Wood
and stone, alive before man," Noguchi believed, "have the greater capacity to comfort us
with the reality of our being." The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was never far
from Noguchis mind. In 1950, he went to Hiroshima to design two bridges and several
memorials to the Atomic-bomb victims. [http://www.lclark.edu/~history/HIROSHIMA/dircarts.html]
7

Valerie J. Fletcher, p.103.

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Akari

13

In the early 1950s Noguchi began to design akari (paper lamps) for commercial production.
He used traditional Japanese rice paper and bamboo to devise many shapes and sizes to be
sold inexpensively. Noguchi developed larger versions of the lights that were exhibited as
sculptures.
On Akari
My other preoccupation at this time [1952] was the development of akari,
the new use of lanterns that I had conceived on my previous trip. It was a
logical convergence of my long interest in light sculptures, lunars, and my
being in Japan. Paper and bamboo fitted in with my feeling for the quality and
sensibility of light. Its very lightness questions materiality, and is consonant
with our appreciation today of the less thingness of things, the less
encumbered perceptions.
The name akari which I coined, means in Japanese light as illumination. It also
suggests lightness as opposed to weight. The ideograph combines that of the
sun and moon. The ideal of akari is exemplified with lightness (as essence)
and light (for awareness). The quality is poetic, ephemeral, and tentative.
Looking more fragile than they are akari seem to float, casting their light as
in passing. They do not encumber our space as mass or as a possession; if
they hardly exist in use, when not in use they fold away in an envelope. They
perch light as a feather, some pinned to the wall, others clipped to a cord,
and all may be moved with the thought.
Intrinsic to such other qualities are handmade papers and the skills that go
with lantern making. I believe akari to be a true development of an old
tradition. The qualities that have been sought are those that were inherent to
it, not as something oriental but as something we need. The superficial
shapes or functions may be imitated, but not these qualities.8

http://www.noguchi.org/intextall.html#akari

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Isamu Noguchi: Public Sculpture in the United States

California

14

California Scenario, 198082, sculpture, Costa Mesa

http://www.noguchi.org/cascen.htm
Plaza for the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, and To Issei,
sculpture, 197983, Los Angeles
http://you-are-here.com/sculpture/issei.html

Garden Element, 1962, sculpture, Los Angeles

http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/la/pubart/UCLAArt/garden.html
Connecticut

Sunken Garden for Beineke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 196064, New
Haven
http://www.noguchi.org/beinecke.htm
Sculpture garden for Connecticut General Life Insurance, 195658, Bloomfield Hills

Washington, DC

Great Rock of Inner Seeking, sculpture, 1974

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/washdc/natlgalleryeastsc/noguchi.jpg

Florida

Slide Mantra, 1986, sculpture, Miami

http://www.co.miami-dade.fl.us/publicart/noguchi_pop.htm
Bayfront Park 1979, Miami
http://www.bayfrontparkmiami.com/pages/park_photos.html
Tetra Mist Fountain, 197476, West Palm Beach
http://www.noguchi.org/intetra.htm

Georgia

Playscapes, Piedmont Park playground, 1975-76, Atlanta

http://www.noguchi.org/playscapes.htm

Hawaii

Sky Gate, 1976-77, sculpture, Honolulu

http://www.noguchi.org/skygate.htm

Illinois

Fountains, Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the Founding of the Republic,

197677, Chicago

Louisiana

Mississippi fountain, 196162, New Orleans

Michigan

Horace E. Dodge Fountain at Philip A. Hart Plaza, 197279, Detroit

http://www.noguchi.org/dodgefount.htm

Minnesota

Theater Set Element from Judith, sculpture, 1950, Minneapolis

Missouri

American Stove Company Building ceiling design, 1948, St. Louis

http://www.noguchi.org/ceilingasc.htm

New Jersey

The Letter, 193940, sculpture, Hadden Heights

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Public Sculpture in the United States (continued)

New York

15

Water Stone, 1986, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan

Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum, 198183, Long Island City

Unidentified Object, 1979, sculpture, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan

Momo Taro, 197778, sculpture, Mountainville
http://www.noguchi.org/momotaro.htm

Red Cube, 1968, sculpture, Marine Midland Bank, Manhattan

http://www.noguchi.org/redcube.htm
Garden of the Future for IBM Headquarters, 1964, Armonk
http://www.noguchi.org/gardenfuture.htm
Sunken garden for Chase Manhattan Bank Plaza, 196164, Manhattan
http://www.noguchi.org/sunkgard.htm
666 Fifth Avenue lobby ceiling and waterfall wall, 1957, Manhattan
http://www.noguchi.org/6665thww.htm
Associated Press Building Plaque, 1939-40, wall sculpture, Manhattan
http://www.noguchi.org/news.htm
Ohio

Rock Carvings: Passage of the Seasons, 1981, sculpture, Cleveland

Portal, 1976, sculpture, Cleveland
http://www.noguchi.org/portal.htm

Pennsylvania

Bolt of Lightning, 1984, Monument to Benjamin Franklin, sculpture, Philadelphia

Texas

The Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, 197886, Houston
http://www.houstontravelguide.com/conservatories/sculpturegarden.shtml

Constellation (For Louis Kahn), 1980-83, sculpture, Fort Worth

http://www.noguchi.org/constel.htm

Spirits Flight, 1979, sculpture, Dallas

The Texas Sculpture, 1960-61, Fort Worth
Sculptures for the First National Bank, 196061, Fort Worth
Washington

Landscape of Time, 1975, sculpture, Seattle

http://www.noguchi.org/landscotime.htm
Skyviewing Sculpture, 1969, Bellingham
Black Sun, 1969, sculpture, Seattle
http://www.noguchi.org/blacksun.htm

For additional images and information, go to: http://www.noguchi.org/public.html

New York City public art curriculum http://www.blueofthesky.com/publicart/works/redcube.htm

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Themes

16

Abstraction
Environment/landscape
Identity/body
Materials and process
Politics and social change
Size and scale

Curriculum Connections

New York State Learning Standards

http://www.nysatl.nysed.gov/standards.html
New York State Learning Standards
http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/home.html
National Performance Standards
http://www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks/
New York City Department of Education
http://www.nycenet.edu/default.aspx
Arts
1. Research and compare Isamu Noguchis work with that of his contemporaries. For
example: Constantin Brancusi, Alexander Calder, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile
Gorky, Philip Guston, and Yves Tanguy. What similarities and differences can students
find?
2. Ask students to view and discuss works by artists that addressed social and political
issues during World War II. For example, Paul Cadmus, Thomas Hart Benton, Jacob
Lawrence, and Isamu Noguchi. Compare them with works by contemporary artists such
as Leon Golub, Dave Mueller, and Raymond Pettibon.
3. Have students explore Noguchis use of asymmetry in his work. Ask students to find
and draw a symmetrical object. For example, a table, chair, window, or part of the
architecture. Next, find and draw an asymmetrical object. For example, a plant, a fruit, a
vegetable, or a persons face.

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Curriculum Connections (continued)

17

4. Ask students to study Noguchis Akari lamps. Find them at

http://store.yahoo.com/akaristore/styles1.html. Have students design their own lamps
by drawing their design on paper and/or constructing a lamp using balsa wood sticks or
strips, glue, and rice paper.
5. Ask students to find a poem or rhyme that interests them and make a drawing or
sculpture that represents it.
English Language Arts, Humanities
1. Have students read a selection of Isamu Noguchis statements in this document or on
The Noguchi Museum website at: http://www.noguchi.org/intext.html. Discuss the ways
in which Noguchis statements relate to his work. Ask students to use the resources in
this document to support their position.
Social Studies, history
1. Research and discuss Japanese internment camps in the United States during World War
II.
2. Research and compare Executive Order 9066 with the PATRIOT Act of 2001. What are
the similarities and differences?
http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/eo9066.html
Full text of Executive Order 9066.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html
The Patriot Act and additional resources.
Mathematics, science, and technology
1. Study a selection of Noguchis sculptures and discuss the principles of math and
physics in his work. For example, proportion, scale, volume, mass, symmetrical balance,
asymmetrical balance, radial balance. How did Noguchi use these principles in his
sculpture?

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Project Ideas

18

Sketchbook Projects: Positive and Negative Shapes

Supplies: Sketchbook or paper; pencils or pens; eraser
1. Find a chair, table, or other object in your classroom. Make a drawing of this object that
show both the positive space(s) of the object itself and the negative space(s) in
between its shape(s).
2. Isamu Noguchis forms developed out of an internal processing of the external world.
These internal, subjective explorations show how Noguchi felt about the world. Notice
the difference between geometric and organic shapes in Noguchis sculpture. Do some
sketches that show the contrast between the two.
3. Make two drawings. In the first drawing, juxtapose a small object or shape against a
vast amount of negative space. Create a sense of tension or movement by placing the
positive shape anywhere except in the center of your drawing.
4. Make a second drawing using an object or shape that completely fills the picture and
crowds out the negative space. For example, you could enlarge a detail of an object or
shape.

2D to 3D: Interlocking Shapes

Supplies: pieces of thin cardboard; scissors; paint, paintbrush
Something that is two-dimensional (or 2D) is flat, like a piece of paper, and only has height
and width. Something that is three-dimensional (or 3D) sticks out into space, like a box,
and has height, width, and depth.
Isamu Noguchis sculpture Humpty Dumpty is made of fairly flat, or two-dimensional pieces
put together to make a sculpture that is three-dimensional, or sticks out in space. It can
also stand on its own! You can do this, toowithout using tape, glue, staples, or any other
kind of fastener!

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Project Ideas (continued)

19

1. Use two cardboard rectangles of about the same size. With scissors, cut slits halfway
up the middle of each rectangle.
2. Turn the rectangles so that one slit is coming down from the top and the other is going
up from the bottom. Fit them together as shown in the diagram.

Step 1.

Step 2.

Insert
one slit
into the
other

Cut a small slit anywhere in

your cardboard shape, as shown

3. Stand your first sculpture up on a table and make another one. This time, experiment!
Cut the pieces of cardboard into different shapes.
Put the slits in different places.
Add more pieces.
Cut out smaller shapes inside the larger ones.
Cut out openings or slits into the larger pieces and then fit smaller shapes through.
4. When youve put your sculpture together, paint it!

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

20

Project Ideas (continued)

Multiple Sculptures
Supplies: Found objects; sand used for construction; cardboard boxes; papier-mch or
Celluclay; modeling clay or Sculpey; plaster of Paris; Hydrostone (casting material);
plasticine; water; Pam or vegetable oil; paint; brushes; shoe polish; cloth
Note to Educators: Ask students to make two or more sculptures using a found object
and a mold. Use materials such as plaster of Paris, clay, or papier-mch so that they can
produce multiple sculptures that are identical or slightly different from each other. Have
students find small objects with detailssuch as a shell, a brush or toothbrush, a small
plastic toy, or a doll or action figure head. Students can also make multiples by direct
sculpting in their selected medium, or they can sculpt in an intermediate material such as
water based clay, make a mold of it, and then use that mold to cast any number of
additional sculptures in different materials.
Papier-mch
Mix flour, water, and strips of newspaper.
Plaster of Paris
To make a mold, put sand in a box. Press a small object into the sand and remove it,
creating a distinct impression. Spray Pam non-stick coating or a thin layer of vegetable oil
on the inside of the mold so that the sculpture can be easily removed. Mix plaster of Paris
(two parts plaster to one part water) and pour it into the mold before it sets. Let the
plaster dry for fifteen to twenty minutes.
Plasticine or soft clay
Embed a small, detailed object in the clay or plasticine and fill the mold with plaster of
Paris.
Use paint or shoe polish to add a patina to the surface of the sculptures.
View and discuss your multiple sculptures with the class. How are they similar? How are
they different? Was it easy or difficult to make similar multiples? Why?

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Resources

21

A selection of websites, books, and exhibition catalogues related to the artists work.
Isamu Noguchi
http://www.noguchi.org/
The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum s site provides extensive information and resources on
the artists life and work, including images, a chronology, and texts by Noguchi.
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/noguchi_isamu.html
Artcyclopedia link for Isamu Noguchi.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/noguchi_i.html
PBS American Masters information about Isamu Noguchi.
http://www.isamunoguchi.or.jp/
Noguchi Garden Museum in Japan.
Bibliography
Altshuler, Bruce. Isamu Noguchi. New York, New York: Abbeville Press, 1994.
Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane, and Bruce Altshuler, eds. Isamu Noguchi: Essays and
Conversations. New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1994.
Ashton, Dore. Noguchi East and West. New York, New York: Alfred A. Knopf Publishers,
1992.
Beardsley, John, and David Finn. Earthworks and Beyond. New York, New York: Abbeville
Press, 1989.
Bijutsukan, Seibu. Isamu Noguchi: Space of Akari and Stone (exhibition catalogue). Tokyo:
Libro Port Co., 1985.
Bourdon, David. Designing the Earth. New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1995.
Fletcher, Valerie J. Isamu Noguchi: Master Sculptor. Washington D.C.: Hirshhorn Museum
and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution; New York: Whitney Museum of American
Art; London: Scala, 2004.

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

22

Resources (continued)

Greenberg, Jan, and Sandra Jordan. The Sculptors Eye. New York, New York: Delacorte Press,
1993. (Childrens book)
Grove, Nancy. Isamu Noguchi: A Study of the Sculpture. New York, New York: Garland
Publishing Company, 1985.
Noguchi, Isamu. Isamu Noguchi: Stones. Osaka, Japan: Gallery Kasahara, 1985.
. "Manifesto." In Seven Stones. New York, New York: The Pace Gallery, 1986.
. The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum. New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams,
Inc., 1987.
. "Artists Statements." In Isamu Noguchi: Beginnings and Ends. New York, New
York: The Pace Gallery (December 1994-January 1995).
Winther, Bert. Isamu Noguchi: Conflicts of Japanese Culture in the Early Postwar Years. Ann
Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1993.
Making Sculpture
Clough, Peter. Clay in the Classroom. Worcester, Massachusetts: Davis Publications, Inc.,
1996.
Felton Barrie, Bruner. A Sculptors Guide to Tools and Materials. Skillman, New Jersey:
Sculpture House, 1998.
. Mold Making, Casting & Patina. Princeton, New Jersey: A.B.F.S. Publishing; 1992.
Peck, Judith. Sculpture As Experience: Working With Clay, Wire, Wax, Plaster, and Found
Objects. Radnor, Pennsylvania: Chilton Book Co., 1989.
Slobodkin, Louis. Sculpture Principles and Practice. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications,
1983.
Sculpture Parks and Gardens
http://dmoz.org/Arts/Visual_Arts/Sculpture/Parks_and_Gardens/North_America/
An extensive directory of sculpture parks and gardens in the United States..

2004 WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART