Text by María Cisitina García, Shaina D. Larrivee, et al.
In 1933, the visionary sculptor Isamu Noguchi (1904–88) began making design proposals for children’s playgrounds in New York. The first one, Play Mountain (1933), marked the beginning of the artist’s fascination with exploring points of intersection between sculpture, public spaces and, above all, play. Radically experimental in its approach to children’s recreation, the design asserted, with no apparent precedent, that children’s exercise and entertainment could be stimulated by simply providing earth modulations and steps for running, jumping and sliding. Noguchi’s playground was a spectacular innovation of design, and something never before seen in New York City’s brief 32-year history of building and operating playgrounds. But Play Mountain also initiated a lengthy period of frustrated endeavor, in which Noguchi only saw one of his park designs become a reality. This changed in the 1970s, when public space policies began to favor artists’ participation in project design. Since then, Noguchi’s pioneering playgrounds have become a touchstone for the revival of interest in the golden era of playground design. This is the first volume to bring together all of the artist’s investigations into playgrounds over a period of 50 years. It reproduces his beautiful scale models, sketches and photographs of iconic designs, highlighting a little-known facet of one of the most versatile sculptors of the 20th century.
Featured image is reproduced from Isamu Noguchi: Playscapes.
Best known as a visionary artist who redefined abstract sculpture in the 1930s, Isamu Noguchi also designed experimental gardens and furniture, lights, ceramics, architecture, and sets for theater and dance. He was also one of the twentieth century's most inventive designers of children's playspaces. All of Noguchi's playground designs—built and unbuilt—are gathered in a truly wonderful new book from RM/Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo. Reproduced here is Ruiko Yoshida's 1961 photograph of Noguchi and child looking at an early model for Riverside Park Playground—an unrealized masterpiece designed in collaboration with architect Louis I. Kahn and the object of five years of resistance from various factions involved in NYC park planning. continue to blog
Already established as one of the great artists and designers of the twentieth century during the years leading up to World War II, Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) aimed to build spaces that would "promote a sense of belonging and provide ways to be free and have undirected experiences," according to Isamu Noguchi: Playscapes essayist Manuela Moscoso. He "viewed creative play as a way of learning about and participating in the world, emphasizing imagination, especially that of children, given that they represented the future that would be rebuilt by the fractured postwar society." Featured photographs are of play equipment study models, 1966-76. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 8.25 x 11.25 in. / 224 pgs / 95 color / 5 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $60 ISBN: 9788416282616 PUBLISHER: RM/Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo AVAILABLE: 8/23/2016 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by RM/Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo. Text by María Cisitina García, Shaina D. Larrivee, et al.
In 1933, the visionary sculptor Isamu Noguchi (1904–88) began making design proposals for children’s playgrounds in New York. The first one, Play Mountain (1933), marked the beginning of the artist’s fascination with exploring points of intersection between sculpture, public spaces and, above all, play. Radically experimental in its approach to children’s recreation, the design asserted, with no apparent precedent, that children’s exercise and entertainment could be stimulated by simply providing earth modulations and steps for running, jumping and sliding.
Noguchi’s playground was a spectacular innovation of design, and something never before seen in New York City’s brief 32-year history of building and operating playgrounds. But Play Mountain also initiated a lengthy period of frustrated endeavor, in which Noguchi only saw one of his park designs become a reality. This changed in the 1970s, when public space policies began to favor artists’ participation in project design. Since then, Noguchi’s pioneering playgrounds have become a touchstone for the revival of interest in the golden era of playground design.
This is the first volume to bring together all of the artist’s investigations into playgrounds over a period of 50 years. It reproduces his beautiful scale models, sketches and photographs of iconic designs, highlighting a little-known facet of one of the most versatile sculptors of the 20th century.
