Oral history interview with Isamu Noguchi
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 4 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 7 digital wav files. Duration is 6 hrs., 25 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Noguchi, Isamu, 1904-1988
label: Interviewer
content: Cummings, Paul
label: Names
content: Artists' Union (New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Bollingen Foundation
label: Names
content: Brummer Gallery (New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Japanese American Citizens' League
label: Names
content: Japanese American Citizens' League
label: Names
content: Leonardo da Vinci Art School
label: Names
content: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
label: Names
content: UNESCO
label: Names
content: Barnard, George Grey, 1863-1938
label: Names
content: Becker, John Bruere, 1915-
label: Names
content: Borglum, Gutzon, 1867-1941
label: Names
content: Brancusi, Constantin, 1876-1957
label: Names
content: Breton, André, 1896-1966
label: Names
content: Brummer, Joseph
label: Names
content: Cahill, Holger, 1887-1960
label: Names
content: Calder, Alexander Stirling, 1870-1945
label: Names
content: Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976
label: Names
content: Collier, John, Jr., 1913-1992
label: Names
content: Covarrubias, Miguel, 1904-1957
label: Names
content: Davis, Stuart, 1892-1964
label: Names
content: De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997
label: Names
content: Duchamp, Marcel, 1887-1968
label: Names
content: Egan, Charles, 1911-
label: Names
content: Fraser, James Earle, 1876-1953
label: Names
content: Fuller, R. Buckminster (Richard Buckminster), 1895-1983
label: Names
content: Gorky, Arshile, 1904-1948
label: Names
content: Graham, John, 1887-1961
label: Names
content: Graham, Martha
label: Names
content: Gregory, Peter Ronald, 1947-
label: Names
content: Guston, Philip, 1913-1980
label: Names
content: Hare, David, 1917-1992
label: Names
content: Hasegawa, Saburō, 1906-1957
label: Names
content: Hopkins, Harry Lloyd, 1890-1946
label: Names
content: Itō, Michio, 1893-1961
label: Names
content: Kahn, Louis I., 1901-1974
label: Names
content: Kantor, Morris, 1896-1974
label: Names
content: Kline, Franz, 1910-1962
label: Names
content: Knoll, Hans
label: Names
content: Levy, Julien
label: Names
content: Léger, Fernand, 1881-1955
label: Names
content: McMahon, Audrey, 1900?-1981
label: Names
content: Moore, Henry, 1898-1986
label: Names
content: Neumann, J. B. (Jsrael Ber)
label: Names
content: Price, Edison A., d. 1997
label: Names
content: Raymond, Antonin, 1888-
label: Names
content: Reynal, Jeanne, 1903-
label: Names
content: Rivera, Diego, 1886-1957
label: Names
content: Ruellan, Andrée, 1905-2006
label: Names
content: Ruotolo, Onorio, 1888-1966
label: Names
content: Schoen, Eugene, 1880-1957
label: Names
content: Shoji, Sadao, 1937-
label: Names
content: Stieglitz, Alfred, 1864-1946
label: Names
content: Taniguchi, Yoshirō, 1904-
label: Names
content: Ward, Eleanor, 1912-1984
label: Names
content: Zorach, William, 1887-1966
place: label: Place
content: Japan -- Description and Travel
label: Place
content: Italy -- description and travel
label: Place
content: Egypt -- description and travel
label: Place
content: India -- description and travel
topic: label: Topic
content: Asian American art
label: Topic
content: Asian American artists
label: Topic
content: Sculpture, Modern -- 20th century
label: Topic
content: Sculpture, American
label: Topic
content: Gardens, Japanese
label: Topic
content: Japanese American art
label: Topic
content: Japanese American artists
label: Topic
content: Asian American sculptors
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: These interviews are part of the Archives' Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Noguchi, Isamu, 1904-1988
label: Interviewer
content: Cummings, Paul
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) was a Japanese American sculptor based in Long Island City, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 148 Pages (Transcript)
label: Extent
content: 1 Item (Audio excerpt: 1 sound file (5 min. 29 sec.), digital)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1973 Nov. 7-Dec. 26
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.noguch73
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Isamu Noguchi conducted 1973 Nov. 7-Dec. 26, by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: NOVEMBER 7, 1973 session: Noguchi discusses his family background; growing up in Japan; returning to the United States in 1917; his identity as an artist; Gutzon Borglum; Columbia University and studying pre-med; attending Leonardo da Vinci Art School; apprenticing to Onorio Ruotolo; quitting Columbia to become a sculptor; Guggenheim Fellowship in 1927; J.B. Neumann; Alfred Stieglitz; George Grey Barnard; James Earle Fraser; Brummer and the Brummer Gallery; studying at Chaumiere and Collarosi; working with Brancusi; meeting Sandy Calder in Paris; Stuart Davis; Morris Kantor; Andrée Ruellan; his work, "Sphere"; reacting against Brancusi; Eugene Schoen's; his Carnegie Hall studio; Michio Ito; Martha Graham; Buckminster Fuller; traveling in China and Japan; meeting Chi Pai Shi; John Becker; his works, "Play Mountain," "Monument to the Plow," "Monument to Ben Franklin," and "Orpheus" for Balanchine; designing for the stage; Audrey McMahon; Harry Hopkins; Holger Cahill; Mexico; Diego Rivera; Miguel Covarrubias; and the Artists Union.
label: Scope and Contents
content: DECEMBER 10, 1973 Session: His reaction to the Spanish Civil War- avoided direct involvement; Stuart Davis; Gorky; Andre Breton; David Hare; Marcel Duchamp; John Graham; Julien Levy; his artist friends dying at the peak of their success; Leger; Stirling Calder; associating himself with the laboring class; Buckminster Fuller; being American; expanding the possibilities of sculpture; his Associated Press Building project in Rockefeller Center, it being done in stainless steel instead of bronze; John Collier; Japanese-American Citizens League; organizing Nisei Artists and Writers Mobilization for Democracy; Jeanne Reynal; going to Poston, Ariz. to assist with American Indian Service camp under John Collier and becoming an internee there; returning to New York in 1942; Bollingen Foundation; trip around the world in 1949; and Philip Guston.
label: Scope and Contents
content: DECEMBER 18, 1973 session: Best work in studio; reaction against expressionism; artists protesting against the Establishment; his objection to the WPA, influenced by William Zorach; exhibiting in group show called, "Fourteen Americans at the Museum of Modern Art"; show at Egan Gallery in 1949; accepting art in its most aesthetically pure form without reference to social issues; movement in Japan since war to get away from refinement of Japan; Yoshiro Hiro responsible for Gutai and the happenings; his work, "Monument to Heroes," using bones; his work takes years to do; materials used in his work; his work, "Cronos"; doing theater stage sets for the Library of Congress including, "Appalachian Spring" and "Herodiade"; wants a given space which he can call his own and do something with it, has to be a work of art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: DECEMBER 26, 1973 Session: Show with Charles Egan in 1948 arranged by de Kooning; applying to the Bollingen Foundation to write a book on leisure, which was never written; traveling to Italy, Egypt, and India for two years; being removed from the New York scene with Franz Kline and de Kooning; his light objects; sculpture as environment; respect for material; Mondrian and his art deriving from nature; his time in Japan in 1931; visiting Japan in 1951; working in stone; projects in Japan; Taniguchi; Antonin Raymond; designing Japanese gardens; discovery of Zen; Hasegawa Saburo; Skidmore; Hans Knoll; Edison Price; Italy in the 1960s; Peter Gregory; Henry Moore; Louis Kahn; UNESCO; Noguchi Foundation and Plaza Company; Shoji; Eleanor Ward; and his autobiography, "A Sculptor's World."