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Indepth Arts News:
"Noguchi and Iconic Designers"
2008-07-18 until 2009-02-22
Yorkshire Sculpture Park / Garden Gallery
Wakefield, ,
UK United Kingdom
One of the great artists of the 20th century, Isamu Noguchi often blurred the
boundaries between art and design, creating a broad range of products for
everyday living, including tables, chairs, sofas, lamps, and tableware, and with
Charles Eames, Paul Laszio and George Nelson, produced a catalogue of
modern furniture widely considered to be the most influential of its time.
As part of the first major European exhibition of work by Isamu Noguchi,
Yorkshire Sculpture Park presents Noguchi and Iconic Designers; a focus on
Noguchi’s innovative furniture and design alongside a select display of work
by other iconic designers. All work is manufactured by Vitra and available
to purchase.
The Noguchi exhibition at YSP will be introduced by a dramatic wave of Akari
light sculptures in the Visitor Centre’s long concourse. Noguchi created more
than 100 Akari models, many of which are still in production half a century later.
The YSP display will feature lights of various forms and sizes, including
a globe six feet in diameter.
But then why did it have to be fine art? Why not objects of use and
popularity? By use I meant enjoyment – things for everybody’s
enjoyment. I thought that a really new creation (invention) could rise
above the demeaning categories of applied art and the like. Originality
might survive mass production. Isamu Noguchi.
Noguchi and Iconic Designers will cover the history of the artist’s work from
early design classics such as his glass topped Coffee Table, elegantly resting
on sculpted wooden supports and Cylinder Lamp designed in 1944 through
to the Prismatic Table. A selection of work by other design icons, many of
whom were influenced by, or collaborated with Noguchi, will include pieces by
Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Frank Gehry and Ronan and Erwan
Bouroullec.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park is one of the few places in the world able to provide
the gallery and landscape context to fully appreciate the breadth and diversity
of Noguchi’s work. Noguchi and Iconic Designers is part of a larger exhibition
which includes a magnificent outdoor display of Noguchi’s monumental stone
carvings ranging in size from 25 tonnes to small interior works, ceramics, set
designs, drawings, models and works on paper.
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