|
Isamu Noguchi confidently assumed the dual cultural identity that defined his position as an "exotic" participant in American modernism. Physically exotic as well, he comfortably straddled both Western and Eastern cultures. The development of a dual cultural self underwent many twists and turns during Noguchi's long career as an artist. At times his self-imposed exoticism was an alienating and isolating stigma. At other times it was a deliberate stance that informed his artistic bearings. In either case Noguchi was always conscious of his Japanese-American background and how his artistic approach was contextualized by it.
This exhibition ZEN NO Zen: Aspects of Noguchi's Sculptural Vision attempts to find a pathway into Noguchi's uses, consciously and inventively, of the Zen aesthetic. It also attempts to define his lack of commitment to any one alliance or category, taking what he needed to develop his own vocabulary from this aesthetic. Most of the sculptures exhibited here were made during the last twenty years of his life, in Japan where he worked with Zen-sensitive artisans and craftsmen. But even though they were made by traditional methods by Japanese workers, Noguchi always intended them to be viewed in and their meanings controlled by a Western context.
Each sculpture in this exhibition illustrates something from Noguchi's interpretation of Zen as he manifested it for his own devices. Zen or no Zen, Noguchi worked to articulate a vision for his art that aspired to something beyond the concrete.
Illustrated catalogue is available for $15
|
