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Isamu Noguchi, 1904-1988
Born Los Angeles, California
Born to an Irish American mother and a Japanese father, Isamu Noguchi became interested in sculpture while studying medicine at Columbia University in the 1920s. He worked at Constantin Brancusi's studio in Paris and began sculpting portraits when he returned to New York City in 1929.
George Gershwin was an early patron, but Noguchi didn't win widespread recognition until 1938, when he completed a large-scale sculptural entrance to the Associated Press building in Rockefeller Center.
Outraged over the treatment of Japanese Americans in World War II, Noguchi volunteered to be placed in an Arizona internment camp for seven months in 1942. While there, he sculpted a marble bust of Ginger Rogers, writing her that he wished "for one last sitting. . . . I hope you will like the way it has turned out."
She did. Rogers showcased the sculpture at her home until her death, when it was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery.
George Platt Lunes, c 1935 |