This year has turned out to be a prolific one for Isamu Noguchi, the American sculptor and designer who died nearly 30 years ago. A long-awaited collaboration with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden sets 15 of his sculptures around the garden’s landscape, and a recent biography, Listening to Stone, by Hayden Herrera, documents his life and work in a gripping narrative.
But, as it was during his life, the real pièce de résistance comes at his studio in Queens, now known as the Noguchi Museum. Following an extensive renovation project and on the occasion of its 30th anniversary, the museum recently opened ‘Museum of Stones,’ an exhibition that explores the cultural implications of stone, the medium with which Noguchi is so closely associated.
For the first time in its history, the museum took the exhibition as an opportunity to integrate work from a roster of contemporary artists, including Scott Burton, Gabriel Orozco, Janine Antoni, Lawrence Weiner, Yoko Ono, and Tom Sachs. Curated in this way, the exhibition contextualizes Noguchi’s work among other projects that work through the same material - even as it underscores the singularity of his work. By incorporating projects from the more recent past, curator Dakin Hart demonstrates the enduring questions about one of art’s most fundamental media.
The show also reaches back in time - far back. Hart places a foundation stone from Jerusalem’s fortification wall that dates from 41-70 C.E., for example, among works by Joseph Kosuth and Mariana Cook. Objects from the Qing dynasty, many on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, get interspersed throughout the exhibition, adding yet another dimension to the reception of Noguchi’s work.
On view through January 10, 2016, the exhibition is something to be seen multiple times, letting the work to be experienced in different qualities of light and weather.
Presented throughout its iconic Queens space, the show includes stone works from artists such as Scott Burton, Gabriel Orozco, Janine Antoni, Lawrence Weiner, Yoko Ono, and Tom Sachs
The exhibition refreshingly showcases Noguchi’s work alongside contemporary projects that focus on the same material, such as Toshiko Takaezu's Dry Riverbed, from 1980
Some of the works reach far back in time. One particuarly historical piece, a foundation stone from Jerusalem’s fortification wall, dates from 41-70 C.E.
Pictured: Rupert Norfolk's Wall no. 2, 2006, made from limestone rocks
A private collection of postcards showing stone sculptures and formations from around the world
Objects from the Qing dynasty, many on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, are also interspersed throughout the exhibition
INFORMATION
’Museum of Stones’ will run until 10 January 2016
ADDRESS
Noguchi Museum
9-01 33rd Road
Queens, New York
-
Yuko Mohri’s living installations play on Marcel Duchamp’s surrealismThe artist’s seven new works on show at Milan’s Pirelli HangarBicocca explore the real and imaginary connections that run through society
-
An Arizona home allows multigenerational living with this unexpected materialIn a new Arizona home, architect Benjamin Hall exposes the inner beauty of the humble concrete block while taking advantage of changed zoning regulations to create a fit-for-purpose family dwelling
-
The Gee’s Bend quilters want you to visit themFor generations, the women of Gee's Bend, Alabama have created intricate quilts. Can tourism help preserve their traditions?
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekFrom sumo wrestling to Singaporean fare, medieval manuscripts to magnetic exhibitions, the Wallpaper* team have traversed the length and breadth of culture in the British capital this week
-
María Berrío creates fantastical worlds from Japanese-paper collages in New YorkNew York-based Colombian artist María Berrío explores a love of folklore and myth in delicate and colourful works on paper
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekAs we approach Frieze, our editors have been trawling the capital's galleries. Elsewhere: a 'Wineglass' marathon, a must-see film, and a visit to a science museum
-
June Leaf’s New York survey captures a life in motionJune Leaf made art in many forms for over seven decades, with an unstoppable energy and fierce appetite leading her to rationalise life in her own terms.
-
Jamel Shabazz’s photographs are a love letter to Prospect ParkIn a new book, ‘Prospect Park: Photographs of a Brooklyn Oasis, 1980 to 2025’, Jamel Shabazz discovers a warmer side of human nature
-
The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles launches the seventh iteration of its highly anticipated artist biennialOne of the gallery's flagship exhibitions, Made in LA showcases the breadth and depth of the city's contemporary art scene
-
Inside a Courtney Love-inspired art exhibition in New YorkLiza Jo Eilers looks to the glory days of Hole at an exhibition at Grimm New York
-
Thomas Prior’s photography captures the uncanny fragility of American lifeA new book unites two decades of the photographer’s piercing, uneasy work
