Against Time: Isamu Noguchi's Museum Experiment

In 1985, American-born artist Isamu Noguchi opened his namesake museum in a renovated photoengraving factory across the street from his longtime studio in Long Island City. The experimental move was Noguchi’s rebuttal to the art museum environment he had grown critical of during his career, and a counter to the numerous museums that had asked him to consider making gifts. The museum’s origins will be discussed in the context of Against Time: The Noguchi Museum 40th Anniversary Reinstallation, an adapted reinstallation of the second floor galleries, which opens on September 10, 2024. Within these galleries, Noguchi paired a selection of sculptures from the 1920s through the early 1970s with project models related to his various completed and unrealized public commissions for gardens, plazas, playgrounds, fountains and monuments, an area of his practice that was relatively unsung in 1985. Through the lens of the reinstallation, we can explore Noguchi’s art, the choices he made about its display and the museum’s ongoing work in ensuring his legacy.



Matthew Kirsch is Curator and Director of Research at The Noguchi Museum, where he is involved with exhibitions, public programs, publications, and editorial projects. He has been a major contributor to internationally renowned exhibitions and monographs. In addition, he has written, edited, and overseen articles exploring various facets of Noguchi's work and life for the Digital Features online journal on The Noguchi Museum's webstie, noguchi.org.