Noguchi

Exhibition at LaM, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, 15 March - 2 July 2023

Both a sculptor and a designer, attached to the most traditional craftsmanship as well as to the most avant-garde discoveries, lsamu Noguchi (1904-1988) moved between East and West throughout his career. Trained in the United States after a childhood spent in Japan, Noguchi moved to Paris in 1927, where he became Constantin Brancusi's assistant; he rubbed shoulders with the great names of modern art such as Alberto Giacometti, Juan Miró and Alexander Calder, who forged his conception of the materiality of sculpture, and he was also passionate about the relationship between sculpture, space and the body, wishing to "go beyond the art of objects.

Through more than 250 works (sculptures, drawings, design objects, scenography objects, photographs), this catalogue of the first Noguchi retrospective in France invites us to discover the kaleidoscopic work of an artist who is little known in Europe, but who embodies an open and decompartmentalized vision of art that still influences contemporary creation today. Numerous photographic archives show Noguchi's regular collaborations with the world of theatre and dance.