Isamu Noguchi
(1904 - 1989)
An eclectic artist, with a Japanese father and an American mother, Noguchi embodied two cultural roots in himself, Eastern and Western.
He is the complete artist in every sense and worked in a very wide variety of artistic fields, from landscape design, pottery and Chinese calligraphy to stage design. As regards this we want to recall the stage sets designed for masters of contemporary dance such as George Balanchine, Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham.
During his versatile artistic career Noguchi experimented with very varied techniques and materials such as marble, bronze, granite, paper, bone and iron wire. After living in Japan until the age of 14, Noguchi moved to America and, for a certain period, worked as an apprentice to sculptor Gutzor Borglunn, the creator of the gigantic portraits of American Presidents carved in the rock of South Dakota.
After a stay in Paris, where he worked in the studio of the artist Constantin Brancusi perfecting his abstract sculpture, in the Thirties he travelled to the Far East, China in particular, and learned the delicate art of calligraphy.
An absolute formal unity can be seen in his furniture, an identity between shape and meaning, between the object and space. The essential quality of the external space is an introduction to the plastic integrity of the object in regard to the surrounding enviroment.