Japanese-American, 1904–1988

Noguchi was a prolific artist and one of the twentieth century’s most important American modernists with a 60 year long career. Though born in Los Angeles, California - he spent his youth in Japan until he returned to the US to attend high school. Then in 1926, at an exhibition in New York, he was introduced to the Romanian artist Constantin Brancusi, which inspired him to embark on an artistic path which would come to define his legacy. In 1927, went off to Paris with the help of a John Simon Guggenheim fellowship, and found himself as an assistant in Brancusi’s studio. It was there Noguchi was able to meet and learn from other leading sculptors of the time, and where he learned how to sculpt in stone. During this time he got to meet and learn from some of the leading sculptors of the time - one of which was Alexander Calder. After his fellowship he spent time  traveling and spent time in India and the U.K., but eventually returned to New York in 1929. It was during this period he prepared his first solo exhibition of abstract sculptures he made while in Paris. It received a   lukewarm reception and essentially forced him to switch from abstract sculpting to commissioned portrait busts to make a living and allowed him to continue to travel and develop his artistic practice. Though, he struggled to earn a living most of his career, in the 1950s during one his visit to Japan he became inspired by traditional washi paper lanterns which lead to the creation of his iconic Akari light sculptures where he eventually found some commercial success. His lamps were to go on and be sold at the famous French gallery Steph Simon alongside Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé, and other notable designers of the time. Noguchi had a lifetime artistic experimentation creating sculptures, gardens, furniture and lighting, ceramics, architecture, and exhibitions at MoMA, TATE, The Whiney Guggenheim and many more. Then in 1985, he found3e and designed The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum, which is now known as The Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, New York.