While sculpture remained central to his artistic practice, Isamu Noguchi’s interests and production spanned an exceptionally broad terrain. Noguchi made no distinction between design, craft, and the so-called fine arts: in his view they could all be considered art should their aesthetic qualities sufficiently transcend those generated by the simple address of need.
This is the first comprehensive study of the landscapes designed by this celebrated artist.Although his gardens include several of the twentieth century’s most iconic landscape designs and have received almost universal praise, Noguchi nonetheless occupies a place removed from the normal practice of landscape architecture. As an artist he relied more on intuition—bolstered by focused study where required—than on objective analysis, and he shaped his landscapes as sculpture, with space as their primary vehicle.
To Noguchi landscape design was a spatial and formal art, and from his earliest environmental projects to the works of his later maturity, he succeeded in conceiving and constructing a series of remarkable places.