Isamu Noguchi, Vol. 16

A man of inexhaustible energy and invention, the sculptor Isamu Noguchi was always in motion. His career extended for more than sixty years, during which he often worked simultaneously on many diverse endeavors.

Born in the United States of mixed parentage, Noguchi had a Japanese childhood and an American adolescence. His notion of modern art was forged in the Paris studio of Constantin Brancusi and modified through the utopianism of R. Buckminster Fuller. Combined with his experience of the traditional Japanese house and garden and with his work on the avant-garde stage of Martha Graham, these influences led him toward a broadened conception of sculpture as the creation of social space. In pursuit of this ideal, Noguchi created plazas and gardens, furniture and interiors, ignoring the boundary between art and design. But he also continued the carving of stone and wood that brought him critical attention in New York during the 1940s, and the stonework he did during his last decades, in his studio complex on the Japanese island of Shikoku, allowed him to integrate his metaphysical concerns with modernist sculptural practice.

Ranging across this century and filled with engaging persons and places, Noguchi's story is a compelling one, told with refreshing verve and insight. Little-known documentary photographs from the artist's own archives and striking full-color images from every aspect of his multifaceted career complement the perceptive and gracefully written text.

About the Modern Masters series:

With infomative, enjoyable texts and over 100illustrations—approximately 48 in full color—this innovative series offers a fresh look at the most creative and influential artists of the postwar era. The authors are highly respected art historians and critics chosen for their ability to think clearly and write well. Each handsomely designed volume presents a thorough survey of the artist's life and work, as well as statements by the artist, an illustrated chapter on technique, a chronology, lists of exhibitions and public collections, an annotated bibliography, and an index. Every art lover, from the casual museumgoer to the serious student, teacher, critic, or curator, will be eager to collect these Modern Masters. And with such a low price, they can afford to collect them all.

Other Details: 115 or more illustrations, approximately 48 in full color 128 pages 8 1/2 x 8 1/2" Published 1994

taken control of his career in order to accomplish his work, so Noguchi founded sites of personal myth to govern how he would be seen by the public, and how he would appear to himself. In such dichotomy Noguchi regularly found strength—in tensions between Asia and the West, ancient and modern, the practical and the utopian, social engagement and personal isolation. In the end, he could think of no fewer than two places as home.

Those who knew Noguchi rarely fail to mention that he was always in motion, a man of incredible energy and ambition. His working life extended for more than sixty years, and much of that time he was engaged simultaneously in many fields. Ranging across some of the dominant cultural movements of the century and intersecting crucial persons and places, his is an amazing story, apparently larger than life. But it begins at the outset of the century with a small boy in Japan, who soon would have to make his way alone.

This invaluable new monograph offers a provocative chronicle of the man and an enlightening analysis of his art.

A man of inexhaustible energy and invention, the sculptor Isamu Noguchi was always in motion. His career extended for more than sixty years, during which he often worked simultaneously on many diverse endeavors.

Born in the United States of mixed parentage, Noguchi had a Japanese childhood and an American adolescence. His notion of modern art was forged in the Paris studio of Constantin Brancusi and modified through the utopianism of R. Buckminster Fuller. Combined with his experience of the traditional Japanese house and garden and with his work on the avant-garde stage of Martha Graham, these influences led him toward a broadened conception of sculpture as the creation of social space. In pursuit of this ideal, Noguchi created plazas and gardens, furniture and interiors, ignoring the boundary between art and design. But he also continued the carving of stone and wood that brought him critical attention in New York during the 1940s, and the stonework he did during his last decades, in his studio complex on the Japanese island of Shikoku, allowed him to integrate his metaphysical concerns with modernist sculptural practice.

Ranging across this century and filled with engaging persons and places, Noguchi's story is a compelling one, told with refreshing verve and insight. Little-known documentary photographs from the artist's own archives and striking full-color images from every aspect of his multifaceted career complement the perceptive and gracefully written text.

About the Modern Masters series:

With infomative, enjoyable texts and over 100illustrations—approximately 48 in full color—this innovative series offers a fresh look at the most creative and influential artists of the postwar era. The authors are highly respected art historians and critics chosen for their ability to think clearly and write well. Each handsomely designed volume presents a thorough survey of the artist's life and work, as well as statements by the artist, an illustrated chapter on technique, a chronology, lists of exhibitions and public collections, an annotated bibliography, and an index. Every art lover, from the casual museumgoer to the serious student, teacher, critic, or curator, will be eager to collect these Modern Masters. And with such a low price, they can afford to collect them all.

Other Details: 115 or more illustrations, approximately 48 in full color 128 pages 8 1/2 x 8 1/2" Published 1994

taken control of his career in order to accomplish his work, so Noguchi founded sites of personal myth to govern how he would be seen by the public, and how he would appear to himself. In such dichotomy Noguchi regularly found strength—in tensions between Asia and the West, ancient and modern, the practical and the utopian, social engagement and personal isolation. In the end, he could think of no fewer than two places as home.

Those who knew Noguchi rarely fail to mention that he was always in motion, a man of incredible energy and ambition. His working life extended for more than sixty years, and much of that time he was engaged simultaneously in many fields. Ranging across some of the dominant cultural movements of the century and intersecting crucial persons and places, his is an amazing story, apparently larger than life. But it begins at the outset of the century with a small boy in Japan, who soon would have to make his way alone.

Library Journal

Ninety-year-old Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi is one of the most important sculptors of this century. Blending Asian and Western styles in his art, Noguchi has produced an incredible range of works-from large public pieces to coffee tables and set designs. This well-written volume has been carefully compiled by the director of the Noguchi Garden Museum in Long Island City, New York. The sharp illustrations include a wide variety of the artist's output while the text, which follows Noguchi's career, elucidates the development of his oeuvre. Altshuler (coauthor of Isamu Noguchi: Essays and Conversations, Abrams, 1994) provides a very useful chronology, a list of public collections in which the artist's work appears, and an informative bibliography. An essential purchase for every public and art library.-Martin Chasin, Adult Inst., Bridgeport, Ct.