AV_CTE_007A_1991_02

47m 22.0s

Martin Friedman and Jeremy Strick explaining their roles in curating and planning past and future Isamu Noguchi exhibitions. Then they interview Yoshio Taniguchi about working with Noguchi. Walker Art Center - Friedman’s involvement with the sculpture park in Washington DC - proposing exhibition about Noguchi in Takematsu - Masatoshi Izumi. Trend of interviews with people who knew Noguchi - Dore Ashton - increased interest in Noguchi’s life in Japan. Support of Noguchi by Genichiro Inokuma. Yoshio Taniguchi working on a museum for Genichiro Inokuma. Reflection on the conflict between Noguchi’s Japanese and American identities - whether Japanese people saw Noguchi as a Japanese artist. Taniguchi recounts an experience working with Noguchi on a garden. Noguchi’s view of tradition from a distinctly modern sensibility. Importance of location and space - Noguchi’s insistence on visiting the site before beginning a project - Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Museum. Noguchi’s concept of space wasn’t deeply rooted in traditional Japanese design - intuitive understanding of space and materials. Noguchi’s reluctance to create individual objects separate from the context of the environment. Taniguchi’s early acquaintance with Noguchi - Mu (304) - importance of relative scale. Poetic/symbolic/mystical side of Noguchi’s work balanced with the practical, pragmatic aspect - “listening to stone”. Speculation by Friedman that Noguchi’s inspiration came from everyday objects and the landscape - interest in Jomon period and Haniwa ceramics - prehistory. Friedman attempts to draw Noguchi’s work into a conversation with Japanese sculpture and art making, but Taniguchi insists that Noguchi had his own conceptions that kept him apart from those lineages. Taniguchi emphasizes Noguchi’s need to abstract - not interested in elaborate crafts - preference for the simplified. Relative strengths and weaknesses of Noguchi’s sculpture - the multitude of meanings that can be assigned to Noguchi’s work means that the context and environment it is placed in is very important - contrasting example of Henry Moore. Noguchi’s acquaintance with Masayuki Nagare - Noguchi’s distinctiveness.

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