In a sepia-toned 1970s interview, the late Isamu Noguchi can be heard saying: “I like to think that art may be something that everybody should be able to enjoy and have access to.” His demeanour is calm and measured, but now and then, his startlingly blue eyes twinkle and you get a glimpse of the playfulness that took centre stage in this Japanese-American artist’s designs.
Noguchi’s best-known pieces are the Akari light sculptures and the Noguchi coffee table. The former are modern, artistic reimaginings of Japanese chochin lanterns; the latter, like a home-sized sculpture that, by lucky happenstance, you can keep your beverages on. Both exemplify one of the primary impulses of his oeuvre—the blurring of boundaries between art and design, form and function.
But aside from their playfulness and accessibility, Isamu Noguchi’s designs have always been inimitable. They existed because Noguchi did; because for him, materiality and the process of making were as important as what was made—that, in fact, objects continued to be made as they were seen, used and experienced.
“I think Isamu Noguchi’s work stands the test of time because he often considered time as a theme,” says Evan Scott, of New York’s Noguchi Museum. He points out that even as Noguchi was interested in ancient materials and craftsmanship, he expanded the boundaries of both. “The tension between these interests in the past and future make his works feel fresh and brimming with energy,” Scott adds. In late 2023, Vitra, in association with the Noguchi Museum, reissued the designer’s 1957 Prismatic tables in three new colour variations. The three-legged tables channel the elegance and purity of origami into light yet functional aluminium pieces that, when placed next to each other, create kaleidoscopic patterns. You get the feeling Noguchi would approve.
