Isamu Noguchi sought to make sculpture useful in everyday life, and his furniture and interior designs are an important part of this project. Noguchi most actively worked in this field during the 1940s, creating furniture and interiors that displayed the biomorphic imagery of his contemporary sculpture. After the Second World War Noguchi traveled to Japan, where in 1951 he created the first paper and bamboo Akari lamps. Noguchi continued to design new Akari models for the rest of his career.
