Clockwise from top left: 1) Isamu Noguchi, constructed with Nishimura Sekito, Lunar Table, 1961–1965, granite. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York, 511, © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society; 2) Isamu Noguchi, Origin, 1968, African granite. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York, 635, © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society; 3) Isamu Noguchi, Model for Octetra, 1968, plaster. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York, 649-m3, © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society; 4) Isamu Noguchi, Re‐Entry Cone, 1970, Sswedish granite. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York, 692, © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society
In the 1960s to the 1970s, when space travel came to represent the pinnacle of modern human technological achievement, Noguchi was thinking as much about the past as he was about the future. He once remarked, “I like to think, when you get to the furthest point of technology, when you get to outer space, what do you find to bring back? Rocks!” The granite works from this period—represented in the exhibition by Lunar Table, Origin, and Re‐Entry Cone—blur the lines between the Stone Age and the Space Age.
Noguchi was also deeply inspired by the idea that sculpture could facilitate new means of observing the cycles of celestial bodies, allowing us to better appreciate our place in the cosmos and the relative timescales of human life. Noguchi's public sculptures and play equipment, represented here by miniature models in plaster and steel, chronicle the artist's continued efforts to tilt our gaze skyward through the apertures of his sculptural forms.
Clockwise from top left: 1) Isamu Noguchi, Skyviewing Sculpture Maquette, c. 1980, fabricated by Marco Dalessi, nickel‐plated steel. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York, 672-m-⅔, © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society; 2) Isamu Noguchi, Model for Slide Mantra, 1966, plaster. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York, 605-m4, © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society; 3) Isamu Noguchi, Model for Sky Gate, 1976–1977, plastic tubing, paint. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York, 757m-A, © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society; 4) Isamu Noguchi, Model for Skyviewing Sculpture, 1969, plaster. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York, 672-m5, © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society; 5) Isamu Noguchi, Sky Mirror, 1970, basalt. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York, 697, © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society
