Looking Up: The Skyviewing Sculptures of Isamu Noguchi

A major new volume on Isamu Noguchi's skyviewing sculptures, which also addresses the theme of space, and our place in the universe. The Western Gallery is the site a major collection of outdoor sculpture, one of which – called Skyviewing Sculpture – by Noguchi forms the starting-off point of the exhibit, to be curated by Dakin Hart, Senior Curator of The Noguchi Museum, and the accompanying print publication loosely based on the exhibit, to be written by Dakin and Hafthor Yngvason. Director of the Western Gallery. Skyviewing is an important theme running through much of Noguchi's art, but thus far, it has never been explored in any depth. Noguchi made two major skyviewing sculptures, one at Western Gallery, and the other in Honolulu, but the theme of space and charting our place in the universe is also present in many of his other works. Whilst some of his sculptures act as observatories, encouraging viewers to enter and turn their gaze to the sky; others act as reflecting telescopes with polished stone or water that mirror the heavens; whilst others trace the path of the sun with cast shadows, or lead the eye upwards. The theme of charting the heavens is also relevant to a variety of other artworks by Noguchi, including his series of Jantar Mantar – Indian observatories – photographs taken during 1949 and 1960, which provide a background for Noguchi's interest, and the development of his Lunar and Akari light sculptures of the 1940s and '50s. The theme also provides an opportunity to place Noguchi in a new context of contemporary art; for example his shared interest with a younger generation of artists, such as Robert Smithson, Nancy Holt, James Turrell, and Charles Ross. AUTHOR: Hafthor Yngvason is the director, Western Gallery, Western Washington University. He curated several exhibitions and large-scale public projects at the Reykjavik Art Museum, where he was director for 10 years. 76 colour illustrations