Isamu Noguchi: “I am not a designer”

In a 1949 interview, sculptor Isamu Noguchi declared “I am not a designer.” Yet, in the forty years following this denial, he went on to realize some of the most innovative designs of the twentieth century, including architecture, furniture, lighting, stage sets, gardens, playgrounds, and plazas. Even when Noguchi or critics acknowledged these design projects, it was as separate from his celebrated sculptures.

This exhibition explores Noguchi’s expansive and career-spanning engagement with the space-shaping possibilities of design. Approaching his practice through a design framework offers an opportunity to consider the significance of collaboration and thinking across disciplines. A host of architects, clients, corporations, fabricators, and other creative practitioners contributed to almost all the projects featured here. The exhibition celebrates these individuals’ impact on Noguchi’s exploration of design as a means of shaping generous, inclusive space—a commitment that remains radical and relevant today.

The exhibition unfolds thematically across three sections that connect concepts, disciplines, scale, and materials. Each section includes models, prototypes, and plans that reveal process. Not all these projects were fully realized, but all were critical to Noguchi’s artistic evolution. Making Multiples explores Noguchi’s forays into industrial manufacturing and experiments with the possibilities of reproducibility. Elements of Architecture follows the expansion of Noguchi’s design thinking and his reimagination of architecture’s elemental principles. Shaping Spaces celebrates his commitment to utopian world-building and civic function in large-scale, outdoor projects.