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When we think of the overall artworks of any artist, we tend to think of items which we look at for pleasure such as Michelangelo's David or the Jeff Koon's Balloon Dogs. What we often think less about are those items which we live our lives with. Household goods, furniture and garden products all had to be created by someone. Hence the science of Industrial Design was born. If these few sentences and the story we will tell this week have piqued your interest in learning more about the art and science of industrial design, let me recommend the YouTube History of Industrial Design videos by Matthew Bird. These videos are both entertaining and educational and will change the way you look at your surroundings.
One artist whose artworks walked between the visual art of sculpture and designing things we lived our lives with was Isamu Noguchi. His work in the United States was so impactful and prolific that the United States postal service created a series of stamps in 2004 celebrating the 100th Anniversary of his birth.
Description: Celebratory stamps for the 100th anniversary of Isamu Noguchi.
NOGUCHI EARLY YEARS
Isamu Noguchi was born on November 17, 1904, in Los Angeles. Noguchi’s mother Léonie Gilmour was an editor and translator for the New York Times while his father, Yonejiro Noguchi, was a Japanese poet.
The young Noguchi would move with his mother to Japan when he was only two, and would remain there for the until 1918, when he would move back to the United States alone. He would attend high school in Rolling Prairie and then at La Porte, Indiana. This time in Indiana would result in a new viewpoint of the world, and Noguchi proudly identifying himself as a “Hoosier” (a nickname for those who live in Indiana) for the rest of his life.
Description: Portrait of Isamu Noguchi. Credit: Jack Mitchell and Getty Images
EDUCATION, AWARDS AND PARTNERSHIPS
After Noguchi completed high school, he would briefly work for the sculptor Gutzon Borglum in Connecticut before moving onto New York City to attend Columbia University to study medicine. The name and art of Gutzon Borglum may not ring a mental bell for you, but his work certainly would. Borglum was the creative mind and driving lobbyist behind Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. While at Columbia University, Noguchi would start taking sculpture classes in the evening at the Leonardo da Vinci School of Art. A short while later he would leave Columbia University, and his medical studies, to focus on his sculpting, which he would sell to support himself financially.
It was in 1927 that Noguchi's artworks were first noticed by the artistic world, as he would receive a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship which he would use to travel to Paris and work with the sculptor Constantin Brancusi. This would mark the beginning of a worldwide journey that would last throughout the rest of the 1920s and through the 1930s that would see Noguchi traveling to Asia, Mexico, and Europe.
Upon his return to the United States Noguchi's talents turned to industrial design and he became linked to the most famous crime of the 1920's, the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindburgh, Jr, son of the transatlantic aviator Charles Lindburgh. In 1937 Noguchi partnered with Zenith to develop and patent the bakelite body for their product the Radio Nurse. The radio nurse is acknowledged as the first baby monitor made and its development is credited to the Lindbergh case.
If you are looking for items other than art to thrift store hunt for the Radio Nurse is an excellent thing to put on your list. Radio nurses are rare and can be financially rewarding. The last set with boxes seen in this image sold at auction for $5,500 in 2022.
IMPACT OF WORLD WAR II
For Noguchi, like all Americans, life would change in 1942 after the Japanese surprise attack on Peral Harbor. In the aftermath of the attack, Japanese Americans faced a wave of persecution, the most atrocious of these being the internment of those who happen to have Japanese heritage. This persecution had a dramatic effect on Noguchi and would be the source of his political activism. In 1942, Noguchi would cofound the Nisei Writers and Artists Mobilization for Democracy, which dedicated itself to raising awareness of the issues facing Japanese Americans. That same year he would willingly enter the Colorado River Relocation Center (Poston) concentration camp in Arizona where he remained for six months.
After he was released from Poston, Noguchi would return actively to the artworld focusing on sculpting. He would move into his new studio at 33 MacDougal Alley in Greenwich Village, New York City. There he would remain for the next few decades, working on sculptures and experimenting with materials and methods.
Description: Noguchi in the process of creating the “News” sculpture, which continues to stand over the entrance of 50 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.
Credit: Underwood Archives
MID CENTURY MODERN DESIGN
Along with his artwork portfolio focusing on artistic sculpture and his activism, Noguchi also returned to the art of design for living during period after World War II, he designed lamps, chairs and tables, all of which became key elements of the mid-century modern (MCM) aesthetic. His designs continued to stress elements of sculptural flow and limited linear space, which were also hallmarks of his artistic sculpture.
LATER CAREER
Over the next decades Noguchi would gain greater renowned for his works and would start winning awards. Noguchi would be awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to the Arts in 1982, the Kyoto Prize in Arts in 1986; the National Medal of Arts in 1987; and the Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Japanese government in 1988.
In 1985, Noguchi opened would open The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum (now known as The Noguchi Museum), in Long Island City, New York. The Noguchi Museum now dedicates itself to the preservation of Noguchi’s art and legacy. Noguchi would pass away on December 30, 1988, in New York City.
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