Black Slide mantra, in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. The viewer can enter the sculpture in the back, climb up a short tunnel inside, and then slide down the slope.

The tunnel inside the Black Slide mantra

Isamu Noguchi (イサム・ノグチ, November 17, 1904 - December 30, 1988) was a notable 20th century artist.

Isamu Noguchi was born in Los Angeles to an American writer, Leonie Gilmour, and a Japanese poet, Yonejiro Noguchi, on November 17, 1904. In 1906 he moved with his mother to join his father in Japan, where he spent the rest of his childhood.

In 1918 he was sent to the United States for schooling. He graduated from La Porte High School in La Porte, Indiana in 1922.

In 1924 Noguchi dropped out of Columbia University to pursue sculpture full-time. In the ensuing years he gained in prominence and acclaim, leaving his large-scale works in many of the world's major cities. Such works include:

• a bridge in Hiroshima's Peace Park
• sculpture for First National City Bank Building in Fort Worth, Texas
• Sunken Garden for Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut
• Billy Rose Sculpture Garden, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
• Sunken Garden for Chase Manhattan Bank Plaza in New York, New York
• Gardens for the IBM headquarters in Armonk, New York
• Kodomo no Kuni, a children's playground in Tokyo, Japan
• Dodge Fountain and Philip A. Hart Plaza in Detroit, Michigan (created in collaboration with Shoji Sadao)

His works were not limited to sculptures and gardens. He designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions; he designed some mass-produced objects such as lamps and furniture some of which are still manufactured and sold today. His work lives on around the world and at the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum in New York City.

Sculpture in the Moerenuma Park

His final project was the design of a 400 acre (1.6 km²) park for Sapporo, Japan. Designed in 1988 shortly before his death, Moerenuma Park is almost completed and already open to the public as of 2004.

Additional Reading

• Altshuler, Bruce (1995). Isamu Noguchi (Modern Masters). Abbeville Press, Inc. ISBN 1558597557.
• Ashton, Dore; Hare, Denise Brown (1993). Noguchi East and West. University of California Press. ISBN 0520083407.
• Noguchi, Isamu et al (1986). Space of Akari and Stone. Chronicle Books. ISBN 0877014051.
• Torres, Ana Maria; Williams, Tod (2000). Isamu Noguchi: A Study of Space. The Monticelli Press. ISBN 1580930549.

External links

• Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum (http://www.noguchi.org)
• Noguchi's Indiana experience (http://homepage.mac.com/gralston/oneNoguchi_000.htm)

ja:イサム・ノグチ