nōg`chē), 1904–88, American sculptor, b. Los Angeles. The son of a Japanese poet father and an American mother, he was a student of Gutzon Borglum Borglum, Gutzon (John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum) , 1867–1941, American sculptor, b. Idaho; son of a Danish immigrant physician and rancher. He studied at the San Francisco Art Academy and in Paris at Julian's academy and the École des Beaux-Arts...... Click the link for more information. and won Guggenheim fellowships (1927 and 1928) that permitted him to study in Paris under Brancusi. Brancusi, Constantin , 1876–1957, Romanian sculptor. Brancusi is considered one of the foremost of modern artists. In 1904 he went to Paris, where he worked under Mercié. He declined Rodin's invitation to work in his studio.
..... Click the link for more information. In his work in stone, wood, and metal he integrated European modernism with Japanese traditionalism, harmonizing rough and smooth, geometric and organic. He created many independent pieces of sculpture and is also well known for the abstract sculptural elements he designed as adjuncts to architecture, highly integrated environmental work such as the massive red cube made for the Marine Midland Bank building, New York City, and the entrance to the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (1969). Noguchi also created many playgrounds and stone sculpture gardens, e.g., in Mexico City and the UNESCO garden, Paris (1958). He also designed numerous striking stage sets and props for the Martha Graham dance company and items for the home, many of which have become modernist classics, such as his kidney-shaped, glass-topped, wood-based coffee table and his airy paper lanterns. He is the author of A Sculptor's World (1968). There are Noguchi museums in his former studios in Long Island City, New York, and in Japan.
Bibliography
See studies by S. Takiguchi et al. (1953) and J. Gordon (1968); C. Zwerin, dir., Sculpture of Spaces: Noguchi (documentary film, 1995).
Noguchi, Isamu
(born Nov. 17, 1904, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.—died Dec. 30, 1988, New York, N.Y.) U.S. sculptor and designer. He spent his early years in Japan. After premedical studies at Columbia University, he became Constantin Brancusi's assistant in Paris. He was influenced as well by Alberto Giacometti, Alexander Calder, Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miró. His medical training suggested to him the interrelatedness of bone and stone. Much of his work consists of elegantly abstracted, rounded forms in highly polished stone. His long collaboration with Martha Graham resulted in stage sets for many ballets, and he also designed many public sculptures, sculptural gardens, and playgrounds, as well as furniture.
Noguchi, Isamu (1904–88) sculptor; born in Los Angeles, Calif. He and his Japanese father and American mother moved to Japan (1906), but he returned to study in Indiana (1917) and was briefly apprenticed to Gutzon Borglum. He became a premedical student at Columbia University (1923), then studied sculpture (1924), was an assistant of Brancusi in Paris (1927–29), traveled to China and Japan, and settled in New York City (1932). He created ballet sets for Martha Graham (1935), designed furniture and public gardens, and was known for his organic abstract stone carvings, such as Even the Centipede (1952).
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