CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/9/2015

Isamu Noguchi: A Sculptor's World

"We breathe in, we breathe out, inward turning, alone, or outgoing, working with others, for an experience that is cumulative through collaboration," Isamu Noguchi writes in his autobiography, A Sculptor's World, originally published in 1968 and now available in an exquisite new edition from Steidl. "Theater is the latter kind. My interest is the stage where it is possible to realize in a hypothetical way those projections of the imagination into environmental space which are denied us in actuality. The theater of the dance in particular adds the movement of bodies, in relation to form and space, together with music. There is joy in seeing sculpture come to life on the stage in its own world of timeless time. Then the very air becomes charged with meaning and emotion, and form plays its integral part in the re-enactment of a ritual. Theater is a ceremonial; the performance is a rite. Sculpture in daily life should or could be like this. In the meantime, the theater gives me its poetic exalted equivalent." Featured images are from George Balanchine's 1948 production of Orpheus,, for which Noguchi designed both sets and costumes. "Never was I more personally involved in creation than with this piece," he writes, "which is the story of the artist."