On the occasion of its next Design auction, which will take place on Wednesday, January 20th, 2021 in Brussels, PIASA is offering for sale several pieces by American designer Isamu Noguchi.
Born in Los Angeles to a poet father and a writer mother, Isamu Noguchi will spend the first years of his life in Japan before beginning medical studies at Columbia University. He turned towards sculpture and from 1924 onwards he took classes at the Leonardo da Vinci Art School in New York alongside the Italian-American artist Onorio Ruotolo (1888-1966).
He then opened his first studio and in 1927 received a scholarship from the Guggenheim Foundation. The many trips he undertook, particularly to Asia in the second half of the 1920s, would considerably influence his approach and his practice of art. He became passionate about traditional Chinese painting.
In New York, just as the city was about to supplant Paris as the world capital of art, Isamu Noguchi became familiar with the creation of the Western avant-garde. He will work for a time in the workshop of the Romanian-born sculptor Constantin Brâncuşi. The artist then takes pleasure in crossing the frontiers of the arts. From the mid-1930s onwards, he collaborated with the American choreographer Martha Graham.
In 1951, on his way to Hiroshima, Isamu Noguchi began to design the luminous sculptures Akari, a Japanese word meaning light. Inspired by the traditional paper lanterns used by cormorant preachers, these creations allowed the designer to explore the concept of sculpting in lamps that, instead of reflecting light, could become translucent objects.
Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988)
Model n° BB1-30XN
Estimate: 4000 / 6000 €
All handmade, the Akari are made from the same materials used for the original lanterns: washi, paper from the heart of the mulberry tree bark which is particularly suitable for transmitting light, and bamboo, which can be bent and shaped in many ways. Some of these lights also have lacquered metal elements.
Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988)
Model n° 20N
Estimate: 3500 / 4500 €
For Isamu Noguchi, the functionality of these lamps was of course an initial consideration, but his main aim was to link art to everyday life, so that light and fragility seem to offer a magical environment far removed from the world.
"The magic of paper transforms cold electricity back into its original light - the sun - so that its warmth can continue to fill our rooms at night. »1
Among the pieces offered for sale during this session, the model lamp n° UF4-L8 published by Ozeki in 1985 is estimated at between 4,000 and 6,000 euros. It is a very faithful reflection of the designer's virtuosity in his relationship with space.
Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988)
Model n° UF4-L8
Estimate: 4000 / 6000 €
1Citation Isamu Noguchi
