Isamu Noguchi, born in Los Angeles as the illegitimate son of an
American mother and a Japanese poet father, was one of the most prolific
yet enigmatic figures in the history of twentieth-century American art.
Throughout his life, Noguchi (1904-1988) grappled with the ambiguity of
his identity as an artist caught up in two cultures.
His personal struggles--as well as his many personal triumphs--are
vividly chronicled in The Life of Isamu Noguchi, the first full-length
biography of this remarkable artist. Published in connection with the
centennial of the artist's birth, the book draws on Noguchi's letters,
his reminiscences, and interviews with his friends and colleagues to
cast new light on his youth, his creativity, and his relationships.
During his sixty-year career, there was hardly a genre that Noguchi
failed to explore. He produced more than 2,500 works of sculpture,
designed furniture, lamps, and stage sets, created dramatic public
gardens all over the world, and pioneered the development of
environmental art. After studying in Paris, where he befriended
Alexander Calder and worked as an assistant to Constantin Brancusi, he
became an ardent advocate for abstract sculpture.
Noguchi's private life was no less passionate than his artistic career.
The book describes his romances with many women, among them the dancer
Ruth Page, the painter Frida Kahlo, and the writer Anaïs Nin.
Despite his fame, Noguchi always felt himself an outsider. "With my
double nationality and my double upbringing, where was my home?" he once
wrote. "Where were my affections? Where my identity?" Never entirely
comfortable in the New York art world, he inevitably returned to his
father's homeland, where he had spent a troubled childhood. This
prize-winning biography, first published in Japanese, traces Isamu
Noguchi's lifelong journey across these artistic and cultural borders in
search of his personal identity.
