This video appeared in the Japanese American National Museum’s 2004 exhibition Isamu Noguchi and Modern Japanese Ceramics. It is a timeless retrospective on the life and career of Isamu Noguchi, whose hapa heritage sent him back and forth between Japan and America seeking a new artistic synthesis. He started his career in Paris as Constantin Brancusi’s apprentice. He made his name in New York. And, after World War II, he brought a fresh modernist wind to Japan, putting his mark on Japanese ceramics, gardens, and paper lanterns. His late masterworks — rough stone monoliths that echo both Brancusi and the Zen garden of Ryoanji — marry East and West in an absolutely original way.

Running time: 56 min.

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