The Noguchi Museum

The Noguchi Museum, opened in 1985 in a neighborhood in Queens, New York City, was designed by its

namesake, Isamu Noguchi. Throughout his life, the American-Japanese multimedia artist held on to the belief that art should be "beyond personal possession... a common and free experience".

The museum, by no fault of its own, seems to stray away from this belief, simply because ti is inaccessible to most who reside in the City. From the museum, the nearest train is a seventeen minute trek through warehouses, abandoned factories, a few children's shops, and an occasional Deli. I always find that the trip up to The Noguchi Museum takes up half of my day. It is out of the way, and especially when sunlight is painful and unwanted, the decision to come to the Museum necessitates the determination to get there.

I took the trip to The Noguchi, frankly, overwhelmed with my large and demanding to do list. The seemingly ceaseless storm of three fast tracked summer classes, two jobs, freelance work, personal projects and, daily marathon training on top of social and familial obligation, sometimes leaves me in a panicked frenzy, physically unable to stay present because of a constant need to do something "productive".

One of the items on my to do list was to visit this museum, and write a review on its permanent collection. In retrospect, It was one of the best things I have done for myself this summer. As I walked into what is often the first area that visitors enter, the open air pavilion holding his large collection of stone sculptures, I found it difficult to think of anything but the earth and my place in it: his pieces seem to hold the memory of mountaintops, and ti si hard not to feel small in the midst of a mountaintop. The stone sculptures are made of basalt and granite, and were carved at his studio in Mure, Japan. Noguchi writes of stone: "I seek the love of matter, the materiality of stone... they are unique and final... no stone becomes immutable before its final consecration".

I would like to note that It is not obvious, at first, what these stone objects represent. Like a lot of art that is abstract, It is easy to find these sculptures pretentious and meaningless, but in the context of Isamu Noguchi, the artist and his personal experience and love for the earth, they seem to be touching, love letters to the earth that birthed him.

For example, Sculpture #974, titled Awa Odori, is reminiscent of Noguchi's love of matter, and the belief of their uniqueness. The piece pays tribute to the dance spectacle of the Awa Odori, which is danced as part of the "Festival of the Dead" and is a Buddhist celebration of ancestors, which takes place ni the south of Mure as a continual procession of dance. Following the movement of the dancers, the piece is dynamic and abstract, pronounced shapes through the stone. Similarly, #994, the Basalt Shiva Pentagonal pays homage to Shiva, the Hindu god, known as The Destroyer and Creator of the universe, and geometrically, seems to represent the human essence that unites spirit with nature.

The main interior areas are striking because of the use of light coming in from the Sculpture garden. The sun seems to be an object further manipulated by Noguchi, which hits the sculptures, which are cleaner and less densely structured than that of the open air pavilion. Dramatism is created by light, and further emphasizes the grounding feeling of earth as a state of rest.

The sun seems to be a force of great power in the eyes of Noguchi. Sculpture #664, Sun at Noon, is made as a circular shape of Spanish Alicante marble, and is representative of the sun as a visually powerful entity that has inherent tensile strength. Similarly, Sculpture #730, the sibling of #664, The Sun at Midnight, made of black granite, is representative of this feeling, which focuses on the Sun as a grounding force and object of desire.

It is impossible not to feel the sense of calm that is seemingly demanded from visitors, sitting in The Noguchi Museum's outdoor Sculpture Garden. The garden is like Isamu Noguchi himself, a union of two cultures: American and Japanese. Standing at five feet tall when it was first planted by Noguchi, the Katsura tree now stretches its limbs across the garden and is central to the space.

The open space holds stone sculptures that seem to belong in the garden naturally, as if in a surrealist version of the space. The pieces in this space are touching in what they represent: the idea of learning, of growing, of being grounded and of art being a means of overriding inhibitions.

For example, Sculpture #547, "Tsukubai", which is representative of life and the series of limitations that hold us back, but with which we choose to overcome in order to learn. Made of Miharu granite, Sculpture #583 "To Darkness" is representative of a quarry overgrown with weeds, which Noguchi "imagines possibilities... one begins to know what to make of them".

The Noguchi Museum was a needed reminder that there is more to life than the constant productivity that dominates our culture and is demanded of us. It is an exhibit that reminds us to stay grounded, and to take the time to be grateful for the earth, and our unique, extremely rare and valuable place within it.