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context: sculpture > modern sculpture
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Grey Sun |
Isamu Noguchi 1904-1988
I don't know whether we should call Noguchi Japanese or not, but maybe the case of a half-Japanese half-American man who was born in the US, but lived from age two to fourteen in Japan, and shuttled around afterwards, is the right emblem for Twentieth Century Japanese sculpture, since this is where it largely becomes part of the world of international modern art. I think Noguchi is one of the great abstract sculptors, and you can see Japanese connections in a work like that on this page - if in doubt, see the page on Enso. There's also a playful side: the work on the Modern Sculpture page up from here really is a slide. You can climb up its middle, and this love of play appears in several places in his work.