It was a friendship that changed the thinking and the art of Isamu Noguchi (1904--1988) an internationally famous sculptor and garden designer and Saburo Hasegawa (1906--1957) then celebrated but now a forgotten figure.
They met in Japan in 1950.
"Changing and Unchanging Things: Noguchi and Hasegawa in Postwar Japan," the exhibition that just opened at the noguchi museum in Long Island City tells the story of how their contact in few years that followed inspired and shaped their ideas and their work. The curators also seek to demonstrate that Hasegawa deserves an important place in the history of midtwentieth century art not only because of the influence he had on Noguchi but on Franz Kline and others including Jasper Johns. The sculpture, calligraphy, screens, paper lanterns, woodcuts and ceramics on view are often arresting, frequently beautiful and ultimately unnervingly moving. In spite of the curators' passionate appreciation of Hasegawa's work, they fail to convince us of his lasting importance. Yet his late, powerful works, one of which closes this show, more than hint of greatness. Perhaps an exhibition devoted to his work alone is be needed to do him justice. Happily, even if they have failed in one of their ambitions, they have succeeded brilliantly in showing us the impact of the friendship as they struggled with how in what ways East and West might be in conversation. It is an exciting, instructive exhibition.
Hasegawa led Noguchi on a trip across Japan to some of its most venerated gardens, shrines and temples, The influence on Noguchi's work is clear (see "Garden Elements, 1958),left. In their conversation and their work they attempted to explore ways to reinvigorate Japanese culture after the destruction and fragmentation of the Second World War as well as finding ways of bring their two cultures together (Noguchi spent most of his life in the United States although there were periods in his childhood when he lived in Japan). Perhaps perversely, it was Noguchi who believed that Japan must not dilute its traditions by incorporating too much from the West; a view Hasegawa did not share. Below is a Noguchi piece showing the influence of traditional museum.
Here Hasagawa takes traditional calligraphy and turns it into a work that allied him with the New York School abstract Expressionists.
Hasegawa moved with his family to San Francisco. A heavy smoker he was diagnosed with mouth cancer. Many of the mural scale works he created as his illness progressed were on wall board and have not survived. One has only as a photographic record. It is a folding on 10 foot tall wall boards; used a broom as his brush. It quotes Basho's Death Poem:
They met in Japan in 1950.
"Changing and Unchanging Things: Noguchi and Hasegawa in Postwar Japan," the exhibition that just opened at the noguchi museum in Long Island City tells the story of how their contact in few years that followed inspired and shaped their ideas and their work. The curators also seek to demonstrate that Hasegawa deserves an important place in the history of midtwentieth century art not only because of the influence he had on Noguchi but on Franz Kline and others including Jasper Johns. The sculpture, calligraphy, screens, paper lanterns, woodcuts and ceramics on view are often arresting, frequently beautiful and ultimately unnervingly moving. In spite of the curators' passionate appreciation of Hasegawa's work, they fail to convince us of his lasting importance. Yet his late, powerful works, one of which closes this show, more than hint of greatness. Perhaps an exhibition devoted to his work alone is be needed to do him justice. Happily, even if they have failed in one of their ambitions, they have succeeded brilliantly in showing us the impact of the friendship as they struggled with how in what ways East and West might be in conversation. It is an exciting, instructive exhibition.
Hasegawa led Noguchi on a trip across Japan to some of its most venerated gardens, shrines and temples, The influence on Noguchi's work is clear (see "Garden Elements, 1958),left. In their conversation and their work they attempted to explore ways to reinvigorate Japanese culture after the destruction and fragmentation of the Second World War as well as finding ways of bring their two cultures together (Noguchi spent most of his life in the United States although there were periods in his childhood when he lived in Japan). Perhaps perversely, it was Noguchi who believed that Japan must not dilute its traditions by incorporating too much from the West; a view Hasegawa did not share. Below is a Noguchi piece showing the influence of traditional museum.
Here Hasagawa takes traditional calligraphy and turns it into a work that allied him with the New York School abstract Expressionists.
Hasegawa moved with his family to San Francisco. A heavy smoker he was diagnosed with mouth cancer. Many of the mural scale works he created as his illness progressed were on wall board and have not survived. One has only as a photographic record. It is a folding on 10 foot tall wall boards; used a broom as his brush. It quotes Basho's Death Poem:
Sick on my journey,only my dreams will wanderthese desolate moors.
The calligraphy which gives the work its title of "Pure Suffering," using ink on burlap is the only surviving large, late work by Hasegawa, It closes the show. It is reason enough to cross the East River from Manhattan to visit this show.
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