courtesy Isamu Noguchi Museum
Isamu Noguchi working at a band saw in his MacDougal Alley Studi…
An array of hand and power tools are interspersed with the sculptures they were used to create in this inventive exhibition called Hammer Chisel Drill: Noguchi’s Studio Practice. The show features the works and tools of Isamu Noguchi, a sculptor, crafter of artistic home furnishings, and designer of public spaces. Noguchi had studios around the globe, spending long periods of time in New York, Italy, and Japan. Various tableaus in the exhibit are arranged according to the studio where Noguchi created works with materials indigenous to the area using the tools best suited to manipulate those substances.
Interspersed throughout the exhibit are films, photos, and plaster models that show how Noguchi crafted his pieces, sometimes with careful planning and detailing using precision instruments, while at other times working large slabs of raw materials with old-fashioned hand tools to let forms emerge over time. One of the show’s displays re-creates the interior of Noguchi’s Long Island City, N.Y., studio, which still stands across the street from the museum and is the place where he created his architectural, landscape, and product design projects.
The exhibition continues through April 28.
