The work of Isamu Noguchi spans many forms and has always been inspirational. His story is as interesting as his designs. Being Japanese living in the USA during World War II also has a sense, along with that of Yayoi Kusama and others, of existing between worlds.

How do you reconcile the two halves of yourslef that on the outside are at war? In these cases you get the sense that artists use their art as a process searching for a home and identity and give a physical form tot he contradictions.

In his autobiography he recalls that when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour in 1944 :

“With a flash I realized I was no longer the sculptor alone. I was not just American but Nisei. A Japanese-American.”

On the one hand there is the sense that you don't belong in either place. On the other you get the rare luxury to always be able to see events and the world around you from more than one perspective, so you can choose which of these to follow at any given time. You get to see the humanity behind the labels more easily. Perhaps that is why the work of both Noguchi and Kusama has such universal and timeless appeal.

Art therefore becomes a sanctuary. A global language that resonates across borders where humanity trumps nationality, a new feature for our species in teh mid 20th Century as air travel become mainstream. These are first truly global citizens. Not one nationality or another, they are both at the same time.

I often mention dualies and Noguchi is a perfect example - both in his sense of his identity, but also in his work which presents as both subtle and bold, traditional and modern. It set a new standard for the reintegration of the arts.

I originally heard about Noguchi in the context of his Akari light sculptures which are made out of paper and bamboo, but the two exhibitions in 2021 - at the Barbican and at White Cube Bermondsey showed how his artistic experimentation opened up so much more, with stainless steel, marble, cast iron, balsa wood, bronze, sheet aluminum, basalt, granite, and water.

Sculpture was his preferred medium. As he described it:2Isamu Noguchi, ’Isamu Noguchi: A Sculptor’s World’ (Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2015), 40.

‘After each bout with the world, I find myself returning chastened and contented enough to seek, within the limits of a single sculpture, the world.’²

Isamu Noguchi, ’Isamu Noguchi: A Sculptor’s World’ (Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2015), 40.

Over his six decade career he learned from Brancussi, collaborated with Buckminster Fuller on children's playgrounds and worked across sculptures, gardens, furniture an‘After each bout with the world, I find myself returning chastened and contented enough to seek, within the limits of a single sculpture, the world.’Isamu Noguchi, ’Isamu Noguchi: A Sculptor’s World’(Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2015), 40.d lighting designs, ceramics, architecture, landscapes, and set designs both for private commissions and for more corporate clients like a Bakelite intercom for the Zenith Radio Corporation in 1937, a glass table with Herman Miller in 1947 and a garden for IBM Headquarters.

'Noguchi' the Exhibition was at the Barbican in early 2022.