November 17, 1904 - Isamu Noguchi was born in Los Angeles. He was a prominent Japanese -American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known widely for his sculpture and public works, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and several mass-produced lamps and furniture pieces, some of which are still manufactured and sold. Among his furniture work was his collaboration with the Herman Miller company in 1948 when he joined with George Nelson, Paul László and Charles Eames to produce a catalog containing what is often considered to be the most influential body of modern furniture. His work lives on around the world and at the The Noguchi Museum in New York City. Following the suicide of his friend Arshile Gorky and a failed romantic relationship with Nayantara Pandit, the niece of Indian nationalist Jawaharlal Nehru, Noguchi applied for a Bollingen Fellowship to travel the world, proposing to study public space as research for a book about the "environment of leisure." In the ensuing years he gained in prominence and acclaim, leaving his large-scale works in many of the world's major cities. (www.wikipedia.org)

Né en 1904 d’une mère écrivaine américaine et d’un père poète japonais, Isamu Noguchi passe son enfance au Japon. Déjà très jeune, il s'intéresse à la sculpture. En 1927, il devient à Paris l’assistant du sculpteur Constantin Brancusi. Dès son retour à New York en 1929, il se consacre à la sculpture. Sa conception de l’art l’amène à introduire sa vision artistique dans la vie quotidienne comme dans la création d’objets et de meubles. Sa collection de lampes Akari associe la technique traditionnelle japonaise de la fabrication du papier de mûrier aux formes organiques de ses sculptures. (www.sentou.fr)