Isamu Noguchi

Isamu Noguchi talks about his career in this documentary featuring Ezra Pound.

Overview of the life and art of sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Film of many of his sculptures, designs, stage sets, fountains, public spaces, drawings, etc. Filmed in his studio in Long Island City, NY. With scenes of the artist at work and reflecting on his aesthetics. Noguchi is interviewed by art writer Faubion Bowers.

The Masters of Modern Sculpture series concludes with a look at post- World War II America, where sculpture became a deeply innovative art form. Using the objects at their disposal and the inspiration surrounding them, artists such as George Rickey, Claes Oldenburg, and Louise Nevelson cast sculptor in a new light. The New World observes the sculptors creatively utilizing wood, metals, and junkyard finds, bringing forth lively and shocking work. America's remote spaces, discarded objects and abundant materials enabled them to add to the concepts of European modernism in daringly unique ways.

Isamu Noguchi was a sculptor, designer, architect, and craftsman. Throughout his life he struggled to see, alter, and recreate his natural surroundings. His gardens and fountains were transformations meant to bring out the beauty their locations had always possessed.

This short documentary follows the custom installation of Isamu Noguchi's beloved sculpture "Water Stone" (1986) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it still resides, and offers a special opportunity to witness a living artist interact with staff as their work is prepared for display.

A filmed version of Aaron Copland's most famous ballet, with its original star, who also choreographed.

A multi-character dance drama. A newlywed pioneer couple, guided by a reverent Revivalist and the wise Pioneer Woman, joyously celebrate their life on the American frontier - dancing, courting, and sharing “Simple Gifts” - only to be shaken by the threat of war before finding solace and communal hope in a final hymn-like gathering.

A voice occasionally says a word or two: "on the sidewalk" or "lithium" or a woman's name. A hand-held camera frames parts of sculptures, or moves across their surfaces, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, almost always in close-up. The soundtrack, in addition to the voice, is discordant music. Light and shadows are paramount. Sometimes the camera repeats up and down movements; once, a set of jump cuts brings an object closer. The music can be shrill in contrast to the sculptures. Almost entirely of wood, they are the work of Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988): Abstract, usually smooth and rounded (but not always).

Night Journey, the dance, had its premiere only two and a half years after Appalachian Spring, and it is a close cousin. It too has a stream-of-consciousness narration: Jocasta, as she is about to kill herself, remembering what has happened to her. It too contains soul-delving solos, broken up by ensemble dances. Here, however, the ensemble is a darker element. As the story was taken from Greek tragedy, so the corps is the equivalent of Greek tragedy’s chorus. They tell us how to feel: afraid mostly. In this piece Graham pushed her habitual economy to its limits.

A dance film of Martha Graham's Primitive Mysteries.