China

In 1930 Isamu Noguchi spent seven months in Beijing, an extension of the program of study that he had proposed to the Guggenheim Foundation in 1927.  In Beijing Noguchi drew local models and studied ink brush painting with the master Ch'i Pai-shih, creating ambitious figure drawings on large rice paper scrolls.  It was in Beijing that Noguchi saw the palaces and gardens that first prompted his interest in public spaces as sculptural forms, ideas that he would develop further in Japan in 1931.

Essay on Noguchi's early drawings