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www.met.org Instagram.comIn the early 1950s, while working in the studio of Kaneshige Tōyō—the first Bizen potter to be designated a Living National Treasure in Japan—#IsamuNoguchi created a plaster mold of an abstract “mask.”
"Work (Mask)," the unglazed Bizen stoneware sculpture made from this mold, depicts a figure with a concentrated expression clenching a cigarette stub in its teeth—most likely a self-portrait of the Asian American artist.
Constantin #Brancusi’s sculptures provided Noguchi with a modernist context, but he found inspiration in Kofun-period Haniwa figures, ancient funerary objects that were hand-built and unglazed.
His 1952 solo exhibition in Kamakura of groundbreaking ceramic sculptures had a powerful impact on progressive younger potters, such as the Sōdeisha members.
See this new acquisition on view at The Met in Gallery 202 on the Great Hall Balcony.
🎨 Isamu Noguchi 野口勇 (American, 1904–1988). Work (Mask), 1952. Japan, Imbe, Shōwa period (1926–89). Unglazed Bizen stoneware. ©The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum / Artists Rights Society #AAPIHeritageMonth
