Metal

Although Isamu Noguchi is often identified with the carving of stone, he created many sculptures in metal. Much of this work was experimental in nature, an expression of Noguchi's continuing interest in science and technology, and of the influence of R. Buckminster Fuller. Noguchi began such experimentation in 1927-28 after working with Constantin Brancusi in Paris, when his first abstract sculptures included works made from bent sheets of polished brass. In the late Fifties Noguchi returned to sheet metal to create sculptures of bent and folded aluminum, and in the early 1980s he produced a body of work from sheets of galvanized steel. In addition to using traditional bronze to cast sculptures first realized in clay or wood, Noguchi experimented with casting works in aluminum, iron and stainless steel, including the production of the largest stainless steel casting to date at Rockefeller Center in 1938-40. For many of his large-scale public sculptures and fountains Noguchi turned to metal and industrial fabrication, which he associated with America and the future.

Noguchi on bent aluminum works  |  Essay on Noguchi's early abstraction