With the cultural listings in New York’s outer boroughs on the steady rise, it seems only fitting that two of the organisations with longstanding legacies east of the East River – the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum – should collaborate on an exhibition. This fall they do, with the exhibition ‘Isamu Noguchi at Brooklyn Botanic Garden’, on view until 13 December.
Based in Queens, the Noguchi Museum has been undergoing renovations, which led to the closure of its outdoor exhibition spaces. The collaboration with Brooklyn Botanic Garden allows part of its collection to be seen en plein air, which, as any student of Noguchi’s work will insist, is the only way to experience it. Dakin Hart, the program’s curator, agrees, saying, 'If I had a choice of doing a full retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art or doing this, I would do this.'
Hart positioned the exhibition’s 15 sculptures at different points throughout the sprawling botanic gardens, including six in its Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden. There, Hart worked within the Japanese garden tradition, allowing the works to fade and reappear as visitors walk through the serpentine promenade. 'It’s the antithesis of plop art,' he remarks.
Noguchi designed many of the pieces to respond to environmental cues. With Sky Mirror, 1970, for example, the polished contour of the low-slung basalt sculpture does just what its title suggests it should – an effect lost in a white gallery. Positioned outdoors, as it is with this exhibition, it changes throughout the day. 'This gets to the full spirit of the work,' says Hart. 'It’s so important to look beyond the pedestal of the museum.'
Curated by Dakin Hart and taking place in the sprawling botanic gardens, the installation includes 15 of Noguchi’s sculptures. Pictured: Age, 1981
Noguchi designed many of the pieces to respond to environmental cues. Pictured: Magritte’s Stone, 1982–83
With Sky Mirror, 1970, the polished contour of the low-slung basalt sculpture does just what its title suggests it should – an effect lost in a white gallery
Hart worked within the Japanese garden tradition, allowing the works to fade and reappear as visitors walk through the serpentine promenade. ’It’s the antithesis of plop art,’ he remarks. Pictured: Strange Bird, 1945 (cast 1971)
Bird Song, 1952 (cast 1985)
Zazen, 1982–83
Positioned outdoors, as it is with this exhibition, the work changes throughout the day. ’This gets to the full spirit of the work,’ says Hart. Pictured left: Mountains Forming, 1982–83; right: The Whole, 1984
Dart says, ‘If I had a choice of doing a full retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art or doing this, I would do this.’ Pictured: Beginnings, 1985
INFORMATION
’Isamu Noguchi at Brooklyn Botanic Garden’, is on view until December 13 at Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Photography: Liz Ligon. Courtesy Brooklyn Botanic Garden
ADDRESS
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
990 Washington Ave
Brooklyn
NY 11225
-
The Hengqin Culture and Art Complex is China’s newest cultural megastructureAtelier Apeiron’s Hengqin Culture and Art Complex strides across its waterside site on vast arches, bringing a host of facilities and public spaces to one of China’s most rapidly urbanising areas
-
Inside Alessandro Michele’s showstopping debut haute couture show for ValentinoThis afternoon in Paris (29 Janaury 2025), the Italian designer hit new heights with an eclectic, era-traversing couture collection for Valentino
-
Inside Bell Labs, the modernist vision behind Severance's minimalist settingWe explore the history of Bell Labs - now known as Bell Works - the modernist Eero Saarinen-designed facility in New Jersey, which inspired the dystopian minimalist setting of 'Severance'
-
Sundance Film Festival 2025: The films we can't wait to watchSundance Film Festival, which runs 23 January - 2 February, has long been considered a hub of cinematic innovation. These are the ones to watch from this year’s premieres
-
What is RedNote? Inside the social media app drawing American users ahead of the US TikTok banDownloads of the Chinese-owned platform have spiked as US users look for an alternative to TikTok, which faces a ban on national security grounds. What is Rednote, and what are the implications of its ascent?
-
Architecture and the new world: The Brutalist reframes the American dreamBrady Corbet’s third feature film, The Brutalist, demonstrates how violence is a building block for ideology
-
‘Gas Tank City’, a new monograph by Andrew Holmes, is a photorealist eye on the American West‘Gas Tank City’ chronicles the artist’s journey across truck-stop America, creating meticulous drawings of fleeting moments
-
Intimacy, violence and the uncanny: Joanna Piotrowska in PhiladelphiaArtist and photographer Joanna Piotrowska stages surreal scenes at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania
-
First look: Sphere’s new exterior artwork draws on a need for human connectionWallpaper* talks to Tom Hingston about his latest large-scale project – designing for the Exosphere
-
Marc Hom reframes traditional portraiture in Cooperstown, NY‘Marc Hom: Re-Framed’ has taken over the grounds of the Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, planting Samuel L Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow and more ‘personalities of the world’ into the landscape
-
Alexander May, founder of LA studio Sized, on the joys of creative polymathyCreative director Alexander May tells us of the multidisciplinary approach that drives his LA studio Sized and its offspring, a 5,000 sq ft event space and an exhibition series
