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FROM PLASTER TO STONE
February 18, 2009 - May 31, 2009
Beginning in the 1940s, Isamu Noguchi began using small paper models as an aid in creating his larger biomorphic sculptures. Noguchi continued this practice for the rest of his career, using plaster maquettes to envision larger stone or metal works, often including penciled instructions on them to guide different technical effects. In this small exhibition created in conjunction with The Noguchi Museum’s Education Department, a selection of Noguchi’s maquettes is presented with photographs and finished sculptures to illustrate both Noguchi’s faithfulness to his original ideas and his flexibility in response to the unpredictable nature of stone.
Asian/ American/ Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900–1970
February 18 – August 23, 2009 (Cancelled)
This exhibition is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in association with the Asian American Art Project at Stanford University.
WHAT IS SCULPTURE? AKARI FROM THE 1986 VENICE BIENNALE
February 18, 2009 - May 31, 2009
When Isamu Noguchi was invited to represent the United States in the 1986 Venice Biennale, he juxtaposed stone sculpture with his Akari Light Sculptures to communicate his ideas on the reflexive relationship between the material he employed and his belief in the inner “essence” of sculpture. Noguchi had been experimenting with the conventional Japanese lamp’s mulberry paper and bamboo construction for over three decades, adapting its form to express the contrast between permanence and the transitory, between the traditional and modern invention, and between fine and functional art. Akari translates as “light as illumination”. For Noguchi, light acted as one aspect of the perception of space, and space was a central concern of his career. The Noguchi Museum will present a small but significant display of Noguchi’s Akari Light Sculptures, as they were featured in the American Pavilion at the 1986 Venice Biennale exhibition, with several one-of-a kind designs balanced by smaller, iconic forms that remain in production today.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE COLLECTION
February 18, 2009 - May 31, 2009
The Noguchi Museum presents a survey of over 20 works drawn from its collection, including a number of rarely seen sculptures. Objects representing many aspects of Noguchi’s career are installed in the second floor galleries, ranging from ceramics completed during Noguchi’s visits to Japan in the early 1950s to works from the last two decades of his life when he was increasingly dedicated to working with the natural properties of a variety of stones.
THE FULL FIGURE AND PORTRAITURE 1926-1941
February 13, 2008 - March 15, 2009
The Noguchi Museum exhibited a full figure bronze sculpture, entitled Undine (Nadja), in its first public exhibition since the 1920s. Isamu Noguchi’s unique vision emerged in response to the Western figurative traditions and techniques he experienced firsthand in the workshop of the sculptor Gutzon Borglum and through his mentor, Onorio Ruotolo. Organized around Undine, this exhibit also highlighted a selection of portrait busts from the permanent collection which illustrate Noguchi’s growing confidence owing to his formative academic training and a natural gift for incisive portraiture.
DESIGN: ISAMU NOGUCHI AND ISAMU KENMOCHI
September 20, 2007 - May 25, 2008
In 1950, Isamu Noguchi and Isamu Kenmochi, who is credited with the invention of "Japanese Modern," worked together, developing a fruitful association and friendship that lasted until Kenmochi's death in 1971. This important exhibition explored their collaboration and its legacy with some eighty-five works borrowed from collections in Japan and the United States. Design: Isamu Noguchi and Isamu Kenmochi illuminated the two men's shared interest in Japanese traditions of simplicity, craft, and functionality, and their commitment to combining these with experimental techniques and materials.
SURVEY OF PARIS ABSTRACTIONS
May 24, 2007 - August 26, 2007
This exhibition highlights the formal vocabulary
of geometric abstraction that Noguchi first explored in 1928
after his apprenticeship to Constantine Brancusi.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION
May 24, 2007 - August 26, 2007
Some 250 works from the permanent collection of which include
several new acquisitions are installed in the second floor
galleries.
SHIN BANRAISHA: A Cultural Memory
November 1, 2006 - April 15, 2007
Approximately forty photographic panels document the creation and destruction of this collaboration between architect Yoshirō Taniguchi, interior designer Isamu Kenmochi, and Isamu Noguchi.
BEST OF FRIENDS: R. Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi
May 19, 2006 – October 15, 2006
Best of Friends: Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi, curated by Shoji Sadao, looks closely at the vital friendship and collaboration between Buckminster Fuller, an icon of modern creative and scientific thought, and Isamu Noguchi, one of the of twentieth century's most acclaimed sculptors and designers.
THE IMAGERY OF CHESS REVISITED
October 21, 2005 – April 16, 2006
Guest curated by Larry List, The Noguchi Museum recreates and expands the groundbreaking
1944 exhibition organized by Marcel Duchamp and Max Ernst
at the Julien Levy Gallery. In addition to Isamu Noguchi,
the exhibition features original designs by artists such as
Man Ray, Arshile Gorky and Yves Tanguy.
CHESS SET DESIGN COMPETITION PROTOTYPES
October 21, 2005 – April 16, 2006
Winning entries from The Noguchi Museum’s collegiate design
competition will be exhibited in The Design Gallery during
the run of The Imagery of Chess Revisited.
Highlights from the Permanent Collection
June 1, 2005 - September 10, 2005
Works from the permanent collection are reinstalled in the
second floor galleries as originally conceived by Isamu Noguchi.
NOGUCHI'S COLLECTIBLES
June 1, 2005 - September 10, 2005
This installation at The Noguchi Museum displays a number
of never before exhibited objects from Noguchi's personal
collection, revealing his private sense of design, simplicity
and its cultural basis. Noguchi's Collectibles presents
a rare opportunity to better understand Noguchi's approach
to sculpture and design.
NOGUCHI AND GRAHAM: Selected Works for Dance
December 2, 2004 - May 1, 2005
Noguchi and Graham: Selected Works for Dance includes
nine of the nineteen dance sets Isamu Noguchi designed for
Martha Graham, as well as supplementary footage of the dances
being performed, archival photographs, and ephemera.
The Design Gallery
December 2, 2004 - May 1, 2005
The inaugural design gallery exhibit features never before
seen collage studies for a theater curtain in Tokyo, unique
and vintage table designs, as well as an early stand prototype
for Akari lamps.
ISAMU NOGUCHI: Sculptural Design
Organized by the Vitra Design Museum, conceived and installed
by Robert Wilson. June 12, 2004 through October 3, 2004
THE BOLLINGEN JOURNEY: Noguchi's
Travels Through Photographs and Drawings 1949-51 February
13 through October 13, 2003
The
Noguchi Museum - Sunnyside (Temporary
location)
ZEN NO ZEN:Aspects of Noguchi's Sculptural Vision
February 23 through June 2, 2002
The Noguchi Museum - Sunnyside (Temporary location)
NOGUCHI: SCULPTURE AND
NATURE Bringing the Garden into the Gallery
June 29, 2002 through January 13, 2003
The Noguchi Museum - Sunnyside (Temporary location)
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