You Can Buy These Rare Noguchi Lamps for the First Time
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In 1986, artist Isamu Noguchi represented the United States at the Venice Biennale. Outside the U.S. pavilion, he installed a massive marble slide, a design originally conceived for playgrounds, which traveled by barge in pieces to arrive at the site. Inside the pavilion were stone sculptures, a twisting helix, and artworks Noguchi had been advised not to feature so prominently: Akari “light sculptures” — lights made of mulberry-bark paper and bamboo. The lamps held the aura of commercial products rather than of fine art (similar ones were available for purchase at a museum gift shop elsewhere in Venice), and the pavilion’s curator feared including them would incite a negative critical response. The lamps stayed.
For the Akari lamp’s 75th anniversary, two of the models that were shown in Venice are being produced for the first time since: the VB1 and VB3. Both are pyramids, a shape that Noguchi wrote “seems to be nature’s way.” They can be displayed two ways: anchored to the ground with stones tied to the base, or floating free. The stones are also covered in washi paper, a detail Noguchi credited to the manufacturer — “And, oh, what a beautiful thing!”
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New! You can now save this product for later.
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