Noguchi comes home

Famed international modernist enjoys first California retrospective of his work at Laguna Art Museum.

June 10, 2011|By Cindy Frazier, cindy.frazier@latimes.com

(Don Leach, Daily…)

Artist and designer Isamu Noguchi was a busy man in the early 1980s.

Born in Los Angeles in 1904, he had won a Guggenheim award as a young man, catapulting him into the arts stratosphere. He spent many years working in Japan and Europe, ascending to the rank of an international artist.

Noguchi was part of the early modernist and environmental movements, having worked as an assistant to famed modernist Constantin Brancusi in Paris, and was also a close friend of American visionary Buckminster Fuller, who created the geodesic dome. By the 1960s, Noguchi had designed numerous indoor, outdoor and landscape works all over the world, according to the website, designboom.

Laguna Art Museum is bringing Noguchi home for the first-ever retrospective of his work in California, said Museum Curator of Exhibitions Grace Kook-Anderson.

The show, "Noguchi: California Legacy," opens Sunday and continues until Oct. 2.

"In his work, Noguchi was trying to diminish the boundaries of art and function," said Kook-Anderson.

The show will be guest-curated by Bonnie Rychlak, curator of the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, N.Y. A tribute to Noguchi will also be part of a Carnegie Hall festival on Japanese culture, according to the museum.

Today, Noguchi is probably best known for his modernistic furnishings, including akari lamps — Japanese-style lanterns in varied shapes and sizes, Kook-Anderson said. His tables and other furnishings are hot items on eBay.

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Segerstrom connection

In 1979, the international artist was hired by Henry Segerstrom to create a welcoming public area outside of South Coast Plaza.

Between 1980 and 1982, the two men hammered out a project that ballooned into an ambitious homage to the state of California, with depictions of desert landscapes, rivers, grasslands and mountains. During this time, Noguchi also created a now-famous plaza in Little Tokyo as well as other installations and artworks. Noguchi died in 1988.

"California Scenario" marks its 30th anniversary this year, and Segerstrom is helping to make the show possible, with many of Noguchi's multi-faceted body of work, including akari, steel sculptures, and an extensive exhibition of "California Scenario." Two films will also be part of the show; one depicting the two men's collaboration on "California Scenario," and one focused on the plaza itself.

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