Word: noguchi
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Sculptors, by the nature of their bulky craft, are the most tied down of all artists. The exception seems to be Los Angeles-born Isamu Noguchi, 54, who travels at the drop of a toothbrush, is equally at home in New York, Paris and Tokyo, believes in using tools to finish the job and then, if necessary, abandoning them. Last week Noguchi came to rest long enough to put together, at Manhattan's Stable Gallery, his first major exhibition in eleven years-36 pieces ranging from iron forms forged in Japan to towering monoliths in the famous Pentelic marble...
Ironically, the reason Noguchi has not shown more often is that he is too busy. Long an architects' favorite, he has been swamped with commissions in recent years, including statues and gardens for Connecticut General's new offices near Hartford, Conn. (TIME color, Sept. 16, 1957) and the highly praised modern Japanese garden for Paris' new UNESCO headquarters. Not all commissions work out as planned. In his present exhibition, Noguchi displays a towering column...
Swedish granite originally designed for Manhattan's Lever House (the budget ran out) and a torchlike form in Greek marble, planned as a 30-ft, focal point for the International Arrivals building at Idlewild Airport (the New York Port Authority turned it down). Often, Noguchi complains, "architects want something that is timely. I want to get back to the real problem of sculpture and do something timeless...
...Sculptor Alexander Calder. Another was Joan Miró's free-standing ceramic walls (TIME color page, Nov. 3). Also widely admired was the almost-too-pretty 20th century Japanese garden, complete with arched bridge and 82 tons of imported Japanese stones, created by Japanese-American Sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Mexico's Rufino Tamayo, with his mural of Prometheus, gave viewers one of the few art works with a recognizable theme. Unfortunately, it was set in the rear of the main commission room, visible to delegates only on leaving. Staff members also discovered some unexpected rough spots in the building...
Following the 1950 rediscovery of Haniwa sculpture by U.S.-born Isamu Noguchi (TIME, Jan. 10, 1955), who spotted the archaic objects as prize examples of primitive sculpture, Haniwa blossomed into a collector's craze from Japan to Manhattan. A rare piece brings as much as $10,000 today, and a good one worth $10 in 1952 currently costs $1,000 or more. Counterfeiters, doing a thriving trade, have learned to duplicate the primitive process of coiling ropes of clay into the rough form, then smoothing it into shape. They even grind up old Haniwa fragments to powder...