LONDON (Kyodo) The first major European exhibition of Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi's work is now being held at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in northern England.
Encompassing more than 150 sculptures dating from 1928 to 1987 and spanning his extraordinary career, the exhibition was organized in close collaboration with the Noguchi Museum in New York, which lent many of the pieces on display.
Select items are on loan from the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, for the duration of the exhibition and have never been shown outside Japan.
The exhibition was made possible by support from Anglo-Japanese cultural groups, including the Daiwa Foundation, the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and the Japan Foundation, as well as the U.S. Embassy in London.
"Noguchi created an articulate and intelligent legacy in almost every media, including powerful sculptures of enduring elegance, and we are proud to present the first major European exhibition of his work," Yorkshire Sculpture Park Executive Director Peter Murray said.
Widely considered by critics to be one of the great artists of the 20th century, Noguchi created a significant and influential body of work ranging from small interior stone carvings to large outdoor pieces, furniture, models, designs, drawings and works on paper.
Priding itself as "one of the few places in the world able to provide the gallery and landscape context to fully appreciate the breadth and diversity of Noguchi's work," the Yorkshire Sculpture Park's cleverly designed galleries and sprawling green countryside provide a fitting setting.
The large, multipart sculpture "To Darkness," "Sun at Midnight" and "Age," a textural work in basalt almost 2 meters tall, have helped transform the park's elegantly landscaped gardens and terraces into a space of "calm and contemplation."
The exhibition runs until the end of February.
