Isamu Noguchi 1904–1988
Isamu Noguchi was the son of Yone Noguchi, a Japanese poet, and Léonie Gilmour, an American writer. He was born in Los Angeles in 1904 but lived in Japan from the age of two until 1918 when he returned to the United States to attend school in Indiana. In 1922 Noguchi moved to New York to study pre-medicine at Columbia University. He also took night courses in sculpture with Onorio Ruotolo and soon after, he left Columbia in pursuit of a career in the arts.
In 1927 Noguchi received a Guggenheim Fellowship for a trip to Paris and the Far East. For six months in Paris, he worked in the studio of Constantin Brancusi and his own work became more abstract as Noguchi explored working with stone, wood and sheet metal. Noguchi returned to New York and in 1929 he met R. Buckminster Fuller and Martha Graham, colleagues and friends with whom he would later collaborate. In 1938 Noguchi was commissioned to complete a work for the Associated Press building in the Rockefeller Center in New York. Marking his first public sculpture, this work garnered attention and recognition for the artist in the United States.
Auction Results Isamu Noguchi
Isamu Noguchi
Important and Unique Dining Table for Mr. & Mrs. Milton Greene
estimate: $1,000,000–1,500,000
result: $1,653,000
Isamu Noguchi
table, model #IN-62
estimate: $70,000–90,000
result: $630,000
Isamu Noguchi
pedestal
estimate: $3,000–5,000
result: $320,500
Isamu Noguchi
Rare and Important Chess table, model IN-61
estimate: $150,000–200,000
result: $233,000
Isamu Noguchi
rare and important Rudder dining suite from the Hasting Estate
estimate: $150,000–200,000
result: $182,500
Isamu Noguchi
Rare cloud ottoman, model IN-71
estimate: $150,000–200,000
result: $170,500
Isamu Noguchi
Rare Rudder dining suite
estimate: $150,000–200,000
result: $161,000
Isamu Noguchi
Prismatic table
estimate: $70,000–90,000
result: $132,000
Isamu Noguchi
Chess table, model IN-61
estimate: $50,000–70,000
result: $97,750
Isamu Noguchi
Shaft & Root (IN82-2101)
estimate: $70,000–90,000
result: $84,000
Isamu Noguchi
Wind Catcher (IN82-2088)
estimate: $50,000–70,000
result: $72,000
Isamu Noguchi
Rudder coffee table, model IN-52
estimate: $30,000–40,000
result: $66,000