Listening to Stone: The Art and Life of Isamu Noguchi
A biography of Isamu Noguchi that traces his life and work and places him within twentieth-century art.
Work Information
It digs into Noguchi’s path across sculpture, gardens, and design through letters, interviews, and archival material.
Hayden Herrera’s substantial biography follows Noguchi’s cross-border life and the idea of sculpting space to explain the shape of his art.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Thames & Hudson Ltd
- Published
- 2015-09-21
- Pages
- 448 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 17.3 x 24.5 x 8.1 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780500093986
- ISBN-10
- 0500093989
- Category
- 洋書/Arts & Photography/History & Criticism/History
Throughout the 20th century, Isamu Noguchi was a vital figure in modern art. From interlocking wooden sculptures to massive steel monuments to the elegant Akari lamps, Noguchi became a master of what he called the ‘sculpturing of space’. Combining the personal correspondence of and interviews with Noguchi and those closest to him – from artists, patrons, assistants and lovers – Herrera has created an authoritative biography of one of the twentieth century’s most important sculptors. She locates Noguchi in his friendships with such artists as Buckminster Fuller and Arshile Gorky, and in his affairs with women including Frida Kahlo and Anna Matta Clark. With the attention to detail and scholarship that made her biography of Gorky a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Herrera has written a rich meditation on art in a globalized milieu. Listening to Stone is a moving portrait of an artist compulsively driven to reinvent himself as he searched for his own ‘essence of sculpture’.
Hayden Herrera is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work , Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo and Matisse: A Portrait .
Reviews
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Finally, learning more about Isamu Noguchi!
This extraordinary biography about an enigmatic and extraordinary artist is so clear, but not plain. The prose is transparent to the subject. The author is invisible. And it's factual but not dry.
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Great book, fast shipping.
I love this book, it arrived earlier.
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LOVE IT
I bought it few years ago. its a beautiful biography
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Bin begeistert....
Sehr guter Zustand, traumhaftes Werk, dessen Lektüre ich nur sehr empfehlen kann, Isamu Noguchi zählt zu den ganz großes seiner Profession. Eine Bereicherung sich über Leben und Werk zu informieren....
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"I Am Always Nowhere"
I’ve seen some of Noguchi’s work, and Hayden Herrera’s discussions of it are enlightening. Still, my fascination is with Noguchi the man. He was clearly not the easiest person to get along with, but his tremendous drive, his insecurities, his amorous quests and intense focus all make for a great story. Imagine a boy of mixed parentage, born in the U.S., raised partly in Japan, who sets off alone at the age of thirteen on a ship bound from Yokohama to Seattle. From there, still alone, he makes his way across the U.S. by train to a boarding school in Indiana. Early on, from a story like this, we see much of Noguchi’s character: he was a traveler, he was unafraid, and he was forever torn between two cultures. Because of his mixed blood, he said, “I am always nowhere.” “When I’m in Japan, I think I should be I the United States, and when I’m there I want to be back in Japan.” This same geographic impulse—“I simply can not stay in one place for a long time”—also seems to have played out with his romantic liaisons. Reading about his long list of lovers, I thought of the old line, “She who flies from me, I follow, and she who follows me, I fly from.” Or, as Noguchi himself put it: “I’m nice to women who are bad for me and bad to women who are good for me.” He could be cantankerous, ungrateful and self-centered—as well as wonderfully buoyant and supportive. It all makes for a great read, in this biography of one of our country’s most notable sculptors.