“Each sculpture is a miracle of chance. The size, the shape, the color, the blemish, its correction. And time, which completes all things, brings the sun into alignment, when stone becomes mirror.” — Isamu Noguchi.
Winter light in The Noguchi Museum. January, 2025.
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Isamu Noguchi, ‘Another Land,’ 1968. Granite. Isamu Noguchi, ‘To Intrude on Nature’s Way,’ 1971. Basalt. Isamu Noguchi, ‘The Void,’ 1970. Portuguese Rose, Aurora marble. © INFGM / Artists Rights Society (ARS)
Quote: Isamu Noguchi, “The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum” (New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1987), 62.
#IsamuNoguchi #イサムノグチ #NoguchiMuseum #Noguchi
Through November 26, save 10% on select Akari light sculptures online and in the Museum Shop. A discount code for online orders is available at shop.noguchi.org.
Or, become a Noguchi Museum Member to save 20% and receive additional discounts and access to exclusive events throughout the year.
To guarantee shipping by the holidays, place all online orders before December 5.
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Akari light sculptures on display in The Noguchi Museum Shop © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS)
“When you see how nature, trees and stones come together, this is the appreciation of life. To have sculpture that partakes of this is to me a great joy. This is the story of this garden, should you ever come to Japan, you can see it…It is a wonderful place to be at, almost anytime…Nature rampant” — Isamu Noguchi.
Today we celebrate Isamu Noguchi’s 120th birthday (1904–1988) and the 25th anniversary of The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum in Mure, Japan.
In 1969, Noguchi established a studio in the village of Mure on the island of Shikoku, where he carved the large granite and basalt sculptures that culminated his career. Three decades later, The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum Japan opened in fulfillment of Noguchi’s wish that this former studio would become an extension of his Museum in New York, and a space to inspire future artists and scholars.
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Films courtesy of The Noguchi Museum Archives. ©️The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, NY / Artists Rights Society
#IsamuNoguchi #NoguchiMuseum #イサムノグチ
This week marks the annual Obon (Bon) festival in Japan, a celebration which commemorates and honors deceased ancestors. Isamu Noguchi’s ‘Awa Odori’ is inspired by this festival and the Awa Odori dance, which takes place each year in Tokushima, Japan, located to the south of Noguchi’s studio in Mure.
“For three nights in the middle of August the dance flows down the streets, wave after wave of the most spectacular dancers of the Bon Festival. The rims of their straw hats tied beneath their chins make all women beautiful, dancing on the points of their sandals in formal formation, while the men display the most abandoned violence and skill.” –Isamu Noguchi, 1982.
‘Awa Odori’ is on view at the Museum as part of the permanent installation.
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Isamu Noguchi, ‘Awa Odori,’ 1982. © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS)
#Obon #AwaOdori #IsamuNoguchi #イサムノグチ #NoguchiMuseum
‘Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within’ is now on view through July 28. This retrospective, the largest ever devoted to the artist, traces Takaezu’s (1922–2011) art from early functional ceramics to the majestic, environmental installations of her later years. The Museum is open Wednesdays–Sundays, 11 am–6 pm.
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[1] Toshiko Takaezu, ‘Cherry Blossom,’ 1997. Stoneware. Private Collection.
[2] Toshiko Takaezu, ‘Unas’ and ‘Canopus’ (c. 1995–98) from the ‘Star Series,’ c. 1994–2001. Stoneware. Racine Art Museum, gift of the artist.
[3] Toshiko Takaezu, various multi-spouted vessels from the mid-1950s and ‘60s. Stoneware. Private collections, The Cleveland Museum of Art, and Racine Art Museum.
[4] Toshiko Takaezu, ‘Form,’ c. 1965. Stoneware. Collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art. Purchase, 1973 (4117.1). ‘Black Tom,’ 1962. Stoneware. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, gift of the artist, 2007.114.1. ‘Form,’ 1964. Stoneware. Delaware Art Museum, gift of Mr. and Mrs. E.P. Richardson, 1965.
[5] Toshiko Takaezu, ‘Gaea (Earth Mother),’ 1979. Stoneware, hammocks. Racine Art Museum, gift of the artist.
[6] Toshiko Takaezu, Closed Forms (“Ocean Edge”), 1990s. Private Collection.
#ToshikoTakaezu #NoguchiMuseum
“I hope it may be shown that my interest in Akari is other than that of a mere device for illumination. The use of lanterns happened to fit into my preoccupation with the quality and sensibility of light. This has to do, not with general illumination, but with the luminous object which, like fire (like sculpture), has an evocative power.”
On view through Sunday, May 28, in The Noguchi Museum Shop, explore six rare models of Akari light sculptures designed by Isamu Noguchi in the early 1950s, along with archival materials related to the history of Akari. These early designs were first shown in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, in 1952, and at the Chuo Koron Gallery, Tokyo, in 1954. In the decades following, these particular models became available only in limited quantities in Japan and France, until now, as The Noguchi Museum reintroduces them, expanding its offerings to showcase the entire range of what remains in production of Noguchi’s iconic light sculptures.
Available in person in the #NoguchiShop coinciding with NYCxDESIGN, and then online beginning May 29.
Learn more: noguchi.org/calendar
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Video: Justin R. Baez
Quote: Isamu Noguchi’s notes on ‘Akari Lamps’ exhibition at Bonniers, April 19, 1955. The Noguchi Museum Archives, MS_AKA_014_001
#noguchi #noguchimuseum #akari #nycxdesign #IsamuNoguchi #akarilamp
The Noguchi Museum mourns the loss of artist Daniel Brush, 2022 Isamu Noguchi Award honoree, who passed away on November 26. Over the last five decades, Brush has created astonishing works transcending the boundaries of sculpture, jewelry, and painting, guided by a relentless search for the essence of materials and the outer limits of the possibilities of craft.
In the words of Museum trustee Spencer Bailey in this short film created for the award ceremony, “Central to Daniel’s work is this idea of clarity, trying to go after what he describes as an ‘ethereal delicacy’. It’s a quest. It’s something that’s unending in him. He’s searching for this experience, this feeling, this atmosphere, this thing that can only be achieved by the sum of its parts. It’s something that occurs with duration. It occurs as you’re moving forward and progressing and chipping away at every last detail to get that feeling, that thing. And maybe it’s something that can one day never actually be achieved, but it’s the quest, it’s the search, it’s the longing.”
We grieve the loss of this masterful seeker and extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends.
#DanielBrush #IsamuNoguchiAward #NoguchiAward #maestro
Film by Alex Meillier, Ager Meillier Films
Portrait by Nathan Crooker
Argus Quartet: noise/SILENCE (trailer)
Sunday, April 25, 7:30 pm ET, Five Boroughs Music Festival premieres ‘noise/SILENCE,’ a concert featuring and co-produced by Argus Quartet and filmed at The Noguchi Museum. The program includes works by John Cage, Rolf Wallin, Dorothy Rudd Moore, and Paul Wiancko, who joins the quartet as a guest performer for his piece, Vox Petra.
Join the live premiere on April 25, 7:30 pm ET at youtube.com/5ivebmf or stream through December 31, 2021 at 5BMF.org/events/noise-silence.
Complementing the upcoming exhibition ‘Jorge Palacios at The Noguchi Museum,’ (Sep 26, 2018–Jan 20, 2019), the monumental accoya wood sculpture ‘Link’ (2018) by Jorge Palacios is installed at Flatiron Plaza North (23rd St & Broadway) through Nov 6. Video by Imagen Subliminal. http://bit.ly/PalaciosLink