Isamu Noguchi: “I am not a designer”

Contributions by Monica Obniski and Marin R. Sullivan and Alexandra Lange and Marci Kwon and Ken Tadashi Oshima and Amy Lyford and Christina Hiromi Hobbs and Holly Gore and Glenn Adamson and Marc Treib and Naoaki Nakamura and Sanae Nakatani and Matt Kirsch and Deborah A. Goldberg and Amy Auscherman

A major retrospective offers a new perspective on the work of Noguchi, whose remarkable design and artistic legacy encompasses sculpture, lighting, furniture, ceramics, public plazas, and garden design.

As part of its 100th anniversary celebrations in 2026, the High Museum of Art is launching an exhibition and accompanying catalogue, which together explore the extraordinary sixty-year career of influential artist and designer Isamu Noguchi. Next year is also the fiftieth anniversary of Playscapes, a Noguchi-designed playground located just a few blocks from the museum. Though Noguchi claimed he was not a designer, the High Museum approaches his work through the design lens, bringing to light many potently prescient and under-explored aspects of his practice. Noguchi exemplified the interdisciplinary, social-minded approach to the role of artist-designer, and his never-ending search for modes of expression reflected an unusually expansive view that extended across everything from sculpture, furniture, and lighting to landscapes, stage sets, and kitchen timers.

This comprehensive volume features more than twenty in-depth essays and shorter vignettes by an impressive international roster of scholars and curators, addressing all aspects of Noguchi’s design practice. In addition, a rich and diverse selection of more than 250 archival and contemporary images depict the works in the exhibition as well as illuminate and expand on Noguchi’s exceptional career.

Essential reading for Noguchi fans, this book also appeals to lovers of modern art, mid-twentieth-century architecture and design, and the creative ethos that imbues everything Noguchi.

About The Author

Monica Obniski is curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the High Museum of Art. Marin R. Sullivan is an independent art historian and curator. Glenn Adamson is a curator, writer, and historian. Marci Kwon is an assistant professor of art and art history at Stanford University. Alexandra Lange is a Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic. Ken Tadashi Oshima is a professor in the department of architecture at the University of Washington.

Publish Date: April 28, 2026
Format: Hardcover
Category: Art - Individual Artists - Monographs
Publisher: Rizzoli Electa
Trim Size: 9-3/4 x 10-7/8
Pages: 368
US Price: $95.00
CDN Price: $130.00
ISBN: 978-0-8478-7619-8

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Reviews

“[Noguchi's] art’s vitality,” art critic Margaret Sheffield wrote, “not only in its exterior forms but the resonating forces within, marks even his most elegant works with a feeling of primordial energy. The quality of inner force, of incipient creation, demonstrates that to an astonishing degree, Noguchi achieved the goal he gave himself at the age of 21, ‘to view nature through nature’s eyes.’” — ANTIQUES & THE ARTS WEEKLY

"Isamu Noguchi saw artistic opportunity everywhere: in the studio, onstage, at a lantern shop, while walking a city street. Two spring shows highlight the range and impact of his long career, which flourished between 1922 and his death in 1988 and culminated in his founding of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, in Long Island City, Queens." — SOTHEBY'S MAGAZINE (NEW YORK CITY)

"'I think of playgrounds as a primer of shapes and functions; simple, mysterious and evocative; thus educational," Isamu Noguchi said in a pamphlet about his Playscapes. Perhaps best known for his stone sculptures and Akari lamps, the Japanese artist and designer always had an eye on the spaces that define childhood, particularly public playgrounds and their influence on the young mind." — COLOSSAL (CHICAGO)

Author Bookshelf: Holly Gore

Author Bookshelf: Glenn Adamson