The Art Institute of Chicago

Figure, 1946 by Isamu Noguchi Author(s): Stephanie D'Alessandro Reviewed work(s): Source: Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, Vol. 25, No. 1, Modern and Contemporary Art: The Lannan Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago (1999), pp. 14-15+101 Published by: The Art Institute of Chicago Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4112976 . Accessed: 08/01/2012 10:58
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Isamu

Noguchi

(AMERICAN; 1904-1988)

Figure, 1946
168.3x 49.5 x 38.1 cm(661/4 191/2 15 in.) [see p. 93] x x marble; Georgia

n 1946Isamu Noguchi carvedFigure, a gray-andwhite, life-sizedmarblesculpturecomposedof inter~ secting,planarunits.That sameyear,The Museumof ModernArt, New York,featuredsimilarabstracted sculptures by Noguchi in a group show, "FourteenAmericans." The exhibition markeda new directionfor the artist,who had been known until then primarily for his portraits. in reductive of Inspired partby the elegant, carvings his menthe Romanian ConstantinBrancusi, by the and tor, sculptor of evocative, biomorphicshapesthathad becomea hallmark these new works earnedNoguchi critical Surrealism, praise. In a statement in the show's catalogue, he articulatedhis the desireto producework thatmediated against destruction of WorldWarII, offering significancein a post-war world that seemeddevoid of meaning."Theessenceof sculpture," he wrote, "is for me the perceptionof space,the continuum of existence.. . . Our knowledge of the universehas filled chaosandnew spacewith energy, drivingus towarda greater ... It is the sculptorwho ordersand animates equilibriums. The sense of universalitythat the space,gives it meaning."' artist-whose fatherwas Japaneseand motherAmerican-Figure. hoped to achievecanbe seenin the Art Institute's Noguchi investedFigurewith a sense of timelessness by referencingkouroi, archaicGreek stone sculptures of standing male youths (he even entitled the first of many such pieces Kouros [1944; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art]). With its weight equally distributed on two "legs,"one of which is planted at a right angle to the massive plane behind it, the sculpture stands quietly and confidently, echoing the still, enigmatic poses of kouroi. The vertical element emerging at an angle from the oval aperture near the top of Figure echoes a kouros'sgently raised forearm. Beyond formal similarities, Figure and its Greek antecedents share symbolic aspects. Evoking the heroic, generativepower of youth, the ancient statues markers. servedas steles,or grave Perhaps Noguchi intended Figureand relatedsculpturesto function as witnesses and The antidotes deathanddestruction. work'selegantforms to andcool,polishedsurface indeedsuggesta stateof transcenwhile its self-containment denceandtransformation, evokes a kindof existential isolationin an eraof upheaval.
14 MuseumStudies

At the time Noguchi madeFigure,he was involvedin several projectsthatextendedbeyondhis activityas a sculptor but contributed significantly to it. Between 1944and a sets 195o,he produced numberof theatrical for the mythology-inspiredwork of moderndancerMarthaGrahamand her company. The skeletonlike elementshe designedin 1945 for Graham's for example, organicin form are "Herodiade," and flexiblein construction;like Figure,they connote the humanform and invite meditationon mortality.Noguchi expressedhis desireto evoke in these sets "thedesecration of beauty,the consciousnessof time."2 In 1943Noguchi hadalso becomeinvolvedwith furniture design.Figureconsists of four discrete,carvedpieces: one largeelement,punctuated with curvilinear rectilinand ear openingsand depressions, three sectionsthat hang and or slide into place and are held there by gravity. This constructionrecallsa traditional kind of furnituremakingthat had been revived in modern times by such designers as Americans GreeneandGreeneandthe Dutch, De Stijlartist Gerrit Rietveld.Noguchi's furniture,which was manufactured and sold by the Herman Miller Company,revealsa love of simpleconstructionand naturalmaterials reflected in Asian art and architecture,as well as the streamlined look of modernist industrial design, as embodied in the Dymaxion Car (I93I) designed by the sculptor's friend R. Buckminster Fuller or in Kem Weber'sself-assembly Airline Chair (I934-35).Thus linkingthe classicalwith the atomicage,Figuremaybe considered embodiment the the of post-nuclear"new man."For Noguchi all of these sources helped him return to the elemental-in meaning, materials, and construction-as a way to begin anew after a time of destruction and chaos. s. D.

FIGURE IsamuNoguchiassemblingAvatar 1 (Otterlo,Rijksmuseum Kriller-Miiller) for "Abstract Surrealist and Art,"TheArt Institute of Chicago,1947.

MuseumStudies 15

BRICE MARDEN, Houston, Rice University, Institute for the Arts. Marden, Novros, Rothko: Painting in the Age of Actuality. Exh. cat. by Sheldon Nodelman. 1978. Kertess,Klaus.BriceMarden: Paintingsand Drawings.New York,1992. London, Tate Gallery. Brice Marden:Prints, i96i-I99g: A Catalogue Exh. cat. and cat.rais.by JeremyLewison. 1992. Raisonnd. New York,Dia Centerfor the Arts. BriceMarden--ColdMountain.Exh. cat. by BrendaRichardson.1992. ROBERT MOTHERWELL, et Arnason,H. Harvard, al. Motherwell.2d ed. New York,1982. Buffalo, Albright-KnoxArt Gallery,et al. Robert Motherwell.Exh. cat. by Dore Ashton andJackD. Flam;intro.by RobertT. Buck. 1983. Mattison, Robert Saltonstall.Robert Motherwell:The Formative Years. Ann Arbor,1987. Motherwell,Robert. The CollectedWritingsof Robert Motherwell.Ed. Terenzio.New York/Oxford,1992. by Stephanie New York,The Museum of ModernArt, et al. RobertMotherwell.Exh. cat. by FrankO'Hara. 1965.
Wall Painting with Stripes, 1944, p. 12-13

2. On Nauman'suse of photography, Los Angeles,p. 14. see the in 3. For an interesting essaydiscussing use of photography printmakPrint Review 16 ing, see Donna Stein, "Photographyin Printmaking," (1983), 4-20; and more recentlyBoston, Museumof Fine Arts,Photopp. 6os Image:Printmaking to gos, exh.cat.by CliffordS. Ackley(1998). 4. Nauman,quotedin Los Angeles,pp. 66-68. 5. For the films-Pinch Neck (1968) and Pulling Mouth (1969)-see Cordes,nos. 119and 152. 6. Infrared recordsthe imageof an objectby usingfilm sensiphotography tive to invisible infraredradiation,or heat, instead of to ordinarylight. usedin thisinstance because Naumanwas recordAlthoughit wasprobably ing himselfin low light, an analogycan be made betweenthe heat of the on largerinterestin the malleable body beingcaptured film and the artist's human form. Walker Center, Art FirstImpressions: 7. Minneapolis, EarlyPrintsby FortySix Contemporary exh. Artists, cat.by Elizabeth (1989), 68. Armstrong p. 8. PaulSchimmel,"PayAttention,"in Minneapolis, 69. p. ClownTorture, 1987, pp. 62-63 i. Nauman, quoted in Joan Simon, "Breaking Silence:An Interview the with BruceNauman," in America76 (Sept. 1988), 203. Art p.
2. Other works by Nauman using the clown or jesterfigureas a central

i. A photographby Peter A. Juley and Sons shows Motherwellat work in his New York studio; an unfinishedWallPaintingwith Stripesstands on an easel next to the artist.The photographhas been dated in various publicationsfrom 1943to 1945. WallPaintingwith Stripesseems to have been shown publicly for the first time at a one-person exhibitionat the Arts Club of Chicagoin 1946.
2. "Fat" paintis loadedwith oil and driesvery slowly; "thin"paint is cut with turpentineand driesmore quickly.

elementincludeMean Clown Welcome (1985; Cologne,privatecollection), Clown Torture: Dark and StormyNight with Laughter(1987;Chicago, I'm privatecollection),Clown Torture: Sorryand No, No, No, No (1987; New York, privatecollection), No, No New Museum (1987;Stuttgart, FroehlichCollection),and Double No (1988;Stuttgart,FroelichCollection), amongothers. 3. Commentingon musiciansand other performers,Nauman said: "It alwaysseemedto me as if they were court jesters.They were responsible for providing something interesting for everybody else .... I always thoughtthatwas wrong and that everybodyought to be puttingin a little more effort."Nauman, quoted in KristineMcKenna,"BruceNauman: Dan Weinberg Los Jan.27, 1991,p. 4. Gallery," AngelesTimes, ISAMU NOGUCHI, Bruce.IsamuNoguchi.New York,1994. Altschuler, Hunter,Sam.IsamuNoguchi.New York,[1978]. An Minneapolis,WalkerArt Center.Noguchi'sImaginary Landscapes: Exhibition.Exh. cat. by MartinFriedman.1978. World. New York,[1968]. Noguchi, Isamu.IsamuNoguchi:A Sculptor's Ed. -. IsamuNoguchi:Essaysand Conversations. by Diane Apostolosand New York, 1994. Cappadona BruceAltschuler. Figure, 1946, pp. 14-15
i. Noguchi, quoted in New York, The Museum of ModernArt, Fourteen Americans, exh. cat.ed. by Dorothy C. Miller(1946),p. 39. 2.

NAUMAN,BRUCE Bruggen,Coosje van.BruceNauman.New York,1988. ed. Cordes, Christopher, BruceNauman, Prints 1970-89. Cat. rais. New York/Chicago,1989. London, Hayward Gallery. Bruce Nauman. Exh. cat. with essays by Frangois Albera, Christine van Assche, Vincent Labaume,Jean CharlesMass6ra, GijsvanTuyl. 1998. and Art BruceNauman.Exh. cat.with essaysby London,Whitechapel Gallery. NicholasSerota, JoanSimon.1986. and JeanChristophe Ammann, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museumof Art, et al. BruceNauman: Work from 1965 to 1972. Exh. cat. by Jane Livingstonand Marcia Tucker.1972. WalkerArt Center,et al. BruceNauman. Exh. cat. and cat. Minneapolis, rais.with essaysby Neal Benezra,KathyHalbreich,PaulSchimmel, JoanSimon,andRobertStorr.1994.
Second Poem Piece, 1969, pp. 38-39

i. Neal Benezra,"Surveying in Nauman," Minneapolis, 29. p.

2.

Nauman,quotedin Los Angeles,p. 44.

Studies for Holograms, 1970, pp. 40-41

[1968],p. 125. Noguchi

i. Among these 1966 works are Flour Arrangements, group of seven a colorphotographs of documenting varying arrangements flouron Nauman's studio floor,and the famousSelf-Portrait a Fountain. as