The Noguchi Museum

Recognition has been a long time coming for this artist, and though her work has found its moment, one hopes that a more expansive presentation is not far away. Read Amanda Millet-Sorsa’s review of ‘Koho Yamamoto: Under a Dark Moon’ in The Brooklyn Rail. Thanks to everyone who came to see Koho Yamamoto’s first New York museum exhibition, now in its final weekend. The Noguchi Museum will release a publication commemorating ‘Koho Yamamoto: Under a Dark Moon’ in summer 2021.

Noguchi was someone who taught himself how to generate power to shape the world from the margins. Dakin Hart, Senior Curator, speaks with Nina Azzarello about ‘Noguchi: Useless Architecture,’ now on designboom.

On view through May 8, 2022: ‘Noguchi: Useless Architecture’ explores how Isamu Noguchi used architecture to reimagine a social purpose for sculpture. https://www.noguchi.org//view/noguchi-useless-architecture/

Great piece by author Tamiko Nimura on the work and life of artist Koho Yamamoto (b. 1922), for Discover Nikkei. Last chance to see ‘Koho Yamamoto: Under a Dark Moon’ at The Noguchi Museum, closing May 23.

Thursday, June 3, 1 pm ET, join Liesl Olson, Director of Chicago Studies at Newberry Library, for an #ArchivesDeepDive exploring the mutually inspiring relationship between Isamu Noguchi, Ruth Page, and their creative orbits in Chicago in the 1930s. https://www.noguchi.org//2021-06-03-1300-archives-deep-di/ Olson will build on themes and research presented in her digital feature, ‘Flicker of an Eyelid: Isamu Noguchi, Ruth Page, and the Universe of Chicago,’ available on noguchi.org. She is curator of an upcoming Newberry exhibition, ‘Chicago Avant-Garde: Five Women Ahead of Their Time’ (September 10December 31, 2021), which will illuminate the lives and work of Ruth Page, Katharine Kuh, Gertrude Abercrombie, Katherine Dunham, and Gwendolyn Brooks.

Christian Boltanski’s sound work ‘Animitas’ is filling the Noguchi Museum’s garden with a music of lost souls through September 5. Boltanski’s extended video ‘Animitas, La Forêt des Murmures’ (2016), which documents a permanent version of the work on the island of Teshima in Japan, is on view in Area 4. Weaving together multiple instances of these gardens, and the souls they memorialize, Boltanski continues to extend the intimate, borderless, ephemeral network of loss and m...emory that constitutes his life’s work. noguchi.org/animitas The Noguchi Museum would like to thank Christian Boltanski and Marian Goodman Gallery for their assistance and support in realizing the exhibition. Photo Ashley Cho. Artworks Christian Boltanski and The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum / Artists Rights Society #ChristianBoltanski #Animitas #NoguchiMuseum #NoguchiGarden #IsamuNoguchi #

Our featured Dance Oral History for May is Isamu Noguchi - renowned Japanese American artist and sculptor who collaborated extensively with Martha Graham. Noguc...hi spoke with Tobi Tobias in 1979 about meeting Martha Graham; creating sets/sculptures for Graham’s prominent dance works including Chronicle, El Penitente, Frontier, Diversion of Angels, and Seraphic Dialogue; and his thoughts on the relationship between his dance-related work and his art as a whole. Listen to Noguchi’s story here: https://on.nypl.org/3xrR2R2 The JRDD has been conducting original, long-form interviews in the dance field since 1974. Learn more about the #danceoralhistoryproject here: https://www.nypl.org/oral-history-project-dance. Isamu Noguchi in his studio, 1967. Photo by Martha Swope. Accessible anywhere via #NYPLDigitalCollections (image ID swope_202616). #OralHistoryOfTheMonth #JeromeRobbinsDanceDivision #JRDD #DanceArchives #OralHistory #Dance #NYPL #Sculpture #Art #SetDesign #AAPI #AsianAmericanAndPacificIslanderHeritageMonth Martha Graham Dance Noguchi Museum New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

From May 5 to September 5, 2021, Christian Boltanski’s ‘Animitas,’ a sound work consisting of 180 small bronze bells on steel stems, will fill the Noguchi Museum’s garden with a music of lost souls. Boltanski’s extended video ‘Animitas, La Forêt des Murmures’ (2016), which documents another, permanent version of the work on the island of Teshima in Japan, will also be on view. noguchi.org/animitas

Today’s the day!! Don’t miss the premiere of noise/SILENCE featuring Argus Quartet and Paul Wiancko tonight at 7:30PM ET. Hit the link below now and click Se...t reminder to be notified when we are live and we will see you soon! We can’t wait to share this beautifully crafted concert film of innovative music with you, which was filmed in and is co-presented by The Noguchi Museum, filmed by Xuan. View the full digital program at: http://5bmf.org/events/noise-SILENCE Argus Quartet is Clara Kim and Giancarlo Latta (violins), Marin Rothfritz (viola), and Audrey Chen (cello). #5bmf #argusquartet #paulwiancko #johncage #noguchi #isamunoguchi #noguchimuseum #nycchambermusic #xuanfilms

Sunday, April 25, 7:30 pm ET, Five Boroughs Music Festival premieres ‘noise/SILENCE,’ a concert featuring and co-produced by Argus Quartet and filmed at The Noguchi Museum. The program includes works by John Cage, Rolf Wallin, Dorothy Rudd Moore, and Paul Wiancko, who joins the quartet as a guest performer for his piece, Vox Petra. Join the live premiere on April 25, 7:30 pm ET at youtube.com/5ivebmf or stream through December 31, 2021 at 5BMF.org/events/noise-silence.

New on noguchi.org: Author Liesl Olson, Director of Chicago Studies at Newberry Library, explores the mutually inspiring relationship between Isamu Noguchi, dancer and choreographer Ruth Page, their creative orbits and the city of Chicagoa space and time of possibility for these artists in the 1930s. https://www.noguchi.org//flicker-of-an-eyelid-isamu-noguc/

Wednesday, March 31, 3 pm ET, Brett Littman, Director of The Noguchi Museum, joins artist Sam Moyer for a virtual conversation about her current solo exhibition, ‘Tone’ at Sean Kelly Gallery. Free; register at https://us02web.zoom.us//7616147/WN__9PS8GOgSDC0Y-YvYBimUg Image: Sam Moyer, Little Pitcher, 2020 (detail). Marble, acrylic on plaster-coated canvas mounted to MDF. 52 x 40 1/4 x 1 inches. Photo: JSP Art Photography / Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York. #SamMoyer

The Noguchi Museum is closed to visitors today, Thursday, December 17, due to travel conditions in the winter storm. Ticket holders have been contacted and issued a credit to visit on a future date. Please stay safe and healthy. Image: Isamu Noguchi, ‘Uruguayan,’ 1973. Granite. CR 733.01 The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS) #snowguchi #noguchimuseum

Thursday, Dec 17, 1 pm EST, architect and educator Naomi Frangos presents a talk exploring Isamu Noguchi’s practice with special attention to the theoretical and functional implications of his work through the lens of architecture. Free; register here: https://www.noguchi.org//2020-12-17-1300-archives-deep-di/

Monday, Dec 14, 7:30 pm ET, join educator Luned Palmer for an evening of culinary play with ‘Synergetic Stew: Explorations in Dymaxion Dining,’ a cookbook created for Buckminster Fuller on his 86th birthday with contributions by his friends, including Isamu Noguchi. Register: https://www.noguchi.org//2020-12-14-1930-virtual-hands-on/

Now online in The New York Times and in this weekend’s Arts section, read Max Lakin’s moving portrait of the artist #FUTURA2000 and his coinciding exhibitions ‘Futura 2020,’ Eric Firestone Gallery, 40 Great Jones St, through Jan 9; and ‘Futura Akari,’ The Noguchi Museum, through Feb 28. https://www.nytimes.com//futura-graffiti-gallery-fashion.h

Thursday, September 24, 1 pm EDT, writer Lisa Yin Zhang leads us on an #ArchivesDeepDive into her new research on the life, work, and intellectual world of writer and translator Léonie Gilmour (18741933), Isamu Noguchi’s mother. Free; register at http://noguchi.org/events.

November 16, 2020, 8 pm EST, The Noguchi Museum will hold a virtual celebration of the 2020 Isamu Noguchi Award honoring Sir David Adjaye and Cai Guo-Qiangkindred spirits of innovation, global consciousness, and Eastern and Western cultural exchange. https://www.noguchi.org/benefit

Family programs at The Noguchi Museum are back ... online! Connect with family and friends near and far, engage in conversations about art, and create artwork together using materials found in the home. This live 45-minute program, hosted as an interactive Zoom meeting, is for families with children ages 511. We encourage multiple family members to join from different locations for an art-making virtual play date. Sign up for all dates: noguchi.org/events

The Noguchi Museum will reopen to the public on September 23, with two weeks of early access for members by advance reservation starting September 9. https://www.noguchi.org/the-noguchi-museums-response-to-co/

A ballet for us all: How Martha Graham Dance’s ‘Appalachian Spring’ carries promise for a new beginning

Tuesday, August 11, 8 pm EDT, unwind with us at a remote Center of Attention workshop on ‘Brilliance’ (1982) by Isamu Noguchi. Bring a pencil and paper for a short writing or sketching exercise.

The Noguchi Museum and artist-publisher The Brother In Elysium recently released ‘I Become a Nisei,’ a handmade book collecting an essay by Isamu Noguchi written from a prison camp for Japanese Americans in 1942, with a selection of artworks and documents from The Noguchi Museum Archives. Noguchi voluntarily entered the Colorado River Relocation Center (Poston), Arizona, in May 1942 with ambitious plans to reinvent it as a model community with gardens, recreation areas, and a...rts programs. He arrived into the entirely different reality of what we now know to be concentration camps, with scant resources, intense heat and dust storms, and no support for his plans. To the management he was a prisoner, and to most of the other prisoners he was suspicious due to his background. From this place of alienation, he responded to a request from DeWitt Wallace of Reader’s Digest for an article on the situation with a complex and moving piece which went unpublished at the time. The text intertwines observations on the daily realities of the camps with personal reflections on cultural identity and community, and with formative articulations of visions and conflicts that would resonate through his later work. This book was printed letterpress from hand-set metal type and hand bound by Jon Beacham of The Brother In Elysium, and was designed and published in collaboration with the artist. It includes a foreword by Brian Niiya, Content Director at Densho, an organization which preserves stories of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans in order to promote equity and justice today. Edition of 300. https://shop.noguchi.org/products/i-become-a-nisei

Calling #NYCTeens: Apply by June 3 for Making Your Mark [MYM], a free summer studio art program offered remotely Tuesdays & Thursdays, July 730. Details & apply: https://noguchi.org/mym2020 Isamu Noguchi working on 'News (Associated Press Building Plaque),’ 193840, now at #50RockefellerPlaza, New York City. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 03758. INFGM / ARS #NoguchiTeens #NoguchiArchives

Tuesday, May 19, 6:30 pm EDT, join Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art and The Noguchi Museum for 'Views on View.’ Moderated by Tirza True Latimer, this conversation with five artists and art historians explores how queer artists influenced American modernism during the interwar years, and how their practices still resonate today. The talk coincides with the exhibition 'Other Points of View,’ which looks at the mid-20th century artistic scene in America through the lens of ‘View’ magazine. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/views-on-view-tickets-10540585

Watch LIVE today and Saturday, May 16, 2:30 pm EDT! ‘Hérodiade’ program on Martha Matinees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws_NhmTKr6g

Imperfection is better than perfection. Behold the harrowing process of installing Isamu Noguchi’s beloved ‘Water Stone’ at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in honor of The Met’s 150th anniversary. #MetAnywhere #Met150 #IsamuNoguchi

An iconic Noguchi playscape, preview from the unopened ‘Free Play’ exhibition, Sun Valley Museum of Art: https://svmoa.org/exhibitions/2020/free-play Learn more about this work: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/play-mountain/