Sunday May 29, 2011 - Kokyat and I have been talking about going to the Noguchi Museum for months and today we finally made it there.
Noguchi's Water Stone (1986) at the Met Museum is one of Kokyat's favorite works of art. Every time we go to The Met we make a pilgrimage to sit and observe the stone. The best times are when there are no other museum visitors around. We usually fall silent when sitting there; it creates a peaceful atmosphere. There is a very similar work at the Noguchi Museum (top photo) but it's outdoors, and the surface of the pool refects the sky and trees in every-changing patterns.
The Noguchi Museum is not all that easy to get to from Manhattan. It's a long walk from the nearest subway stop (though there is shuttlebus service from Manhattan) and so it is blessedly free of baby strollers, cellphones and tourist traffic. The atmosphere is wonderfully tranquil and there's a deep connection with nature both in the wood and stone which Noguchi fashioned into masterpieces...
...and in the garden's trees and plants, some of them native to Japan and rarely seen in the States. The blending of art and nature is so calming.
The museum is housed in what was once a run-of-the-mill industrial building. Noguchi saw something in the space and its 'courtyard' (then a run-down parking lot and storage area), transforming the mundane property into a spectacular sculpture garden while creating ten galleries within the building to house a large collection of his works. He also bought a small building across the street where he lived.
Noguchi did not always sign and date his work, but his signature runes (above) can be found on many pieces. Most of the works are simply presented without the title cards and descriptive information one usually sees in a museum. Noguchi wanted the viewers to draw their own inferences from his work without being steered by his own concepts in creating them.
Noguchi at Versailles in the 1950s.
We spent a long time wandering the galleries...
...then Kokyat fell asleep in the garden beneath a wall of bamboo. It is such a serene and restful place.
Isamu Noguchi's work with Martha Graham was recently celebrated in an evening of works on which they collaborated, performed at the Rose Theater. In another connection with dance, Noguchi designed ORPHEUS for George Balanchine and his stylized lyre from that production was for years the iconic logo of the New York City Ballet.
I've posted some of my photos from our day at the museum on Facebook.