Akari and Early Gardens

Akari and Early Gardens (1953-1959)

In early 1953 Isamu Noguchi began to spend less time in Japan, but he actively exported abroad what he had developed there since his 1950 return. During the remainder of the decade Noguchi expanded his line of Akari lamps and arranged for their distribution internationally, making Akari into a classic of post-war design. He also applied what he had learned of the traditional Japanese garden to a growing number of institutional and corporate landscape commissions. His first major commission was a garden at the new UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, for which he initially had been asked to design a Delegate's Patio. Returning to New York from Paris in 1958, after completing this three-year project, Noguchi began a series of bent metal sculptures made from sheets of aluminum, and continued his set design work with Martha Graham. When his dealer at the Stable Gallery refused to exhibit these works in his 1959 show, Noguchi completed a group of white marble sculptures that he had started in Greece, which he exhibited with cast iron works that he had created in Japan.