Collaboration with Martha Graham
Clockwise from left: 1) Cris Alexander, Photograph of Martha Graham performing in Cave of the Heart, 1946. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 01619, © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society; 2) Isamu Noguchi, Serpent for Martha Graham's “Cave of the Heart”, 1946, magnesite, fabric, wire mesh, plywood, wood. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York, 251-2A, © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society; 3) Isamu Noguchi, Spider Dress for Martha Graham's “Cave of the Heart”, 1946, brass wire. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York; gift of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, 251-1A, © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society
Groundbreaking choreographer Martha Graham (1894‐1991) was one of Noguchi's most important artistic collaborators. Noguchi was frequently commissioned to create sculptural set designs for her dance performances, many of which were modern reinterpretations of Greek myths. For Graham's performance Cave of the Heart, a reimagining of the betrayal of Medea and her violent revenge, Noguchi designed this transfixing Serpent platform and Spider Dress worn by Medea. With each performance, these mythic fragments are inhabited and invested with new life, and the line between past and present is captivatingly blurred.