One of the most international, as well as one of the most versatile of modern artists, is Isamu Noguchi. Noted primarily as a sculptor, he is also a highly successful landscape architect as well as a designer of interiors and furniture, with widespread influence for his developments in design.
Source: DMAC Bulletin, Summer, 1966
The child of an American teacher and a Japanese poet, and eventually trained in both Western art making and Japanese philosophy and art, Noguchi struggled throughout his career to reconcile these two distinct and often opposing histories. His unique point of view, however, resulted in a successful and influential body of work as a sculptor, designer, architect, and craftsman.
Noguchi’s work combines organic and geometric elements. In Solitude, cubes connect thin, arm-like forms that seem only tenuously attached to the sculpture. The simple shapes hold together with an elegant balance.
July 22, 2020
Exhibition History"The Abstract Tradition in American Art," Des Moines Art Center, Dec. 7, 1991 - Feb. 23, 1992
"Selected works from the Des Moines Art Center's Permanent Collection," organized by the National Bank of Waterloo, Waterloo Municipal Galleries, Oct. 24 - Nov. 20, 1983; (Circulated to: Charles H. MacNider Museum, Mason City, Jan. 15 - Feb. 26, 1984; Muscatine Art Center, April 1- May 13, 1984; Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, May 27 - July 1, 1984; Sioux City Art Center, July 15 - Aug. 26, 1984)
Published ReferencesNATHAN EMORY COFFIN COLLECTION, a portfolio of fifty selections from the collection, pubDes Moines Art Center to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Nathan Emory Coffin, 1981, b/w ill.
DMAC Bulletin, Summer 1966, cover ill.
DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ref. pp.163 & 164
"Selected works from the Des Moines Art Center's Permanent Collection," Waterloo Municipal Galleries, 1983, exh. cat. no.29
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