The Story of the Noguchi Table That Almost Wasn’t
Before Isamu Noguchi created the classic 20th-century furniture item, the Japanese American sculptor was imprisoned at an internment camp. While there, his design was ripped off by a colleague.
The very table that cemented Isamu Noguchi’s status as a breakout 20th-century designer was almost lost to theft. The influential Japanese American artist himself nearly ended up a doctor, but in 1922, he dropped out of Columbia premed to pursue sculpture full time. The decision quickly paid off: Just a few years later, he received a coveted Guggenheim fellowship despite being three years below the minimum age requirement.
In the late ’20s through ’30s, Noguchi traveled extensively though Europe, Mexico, and Asia. He had a brief affair with Frida Kahlo, honed his craft as a landscape architect, and designed elaborate sets for famed dancer-choreographer Martha Graham (who went on to become a longtime collaborator). In 1942, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which forcibly relocated and incarcerated thousands of Japanese Americans on the West Coast at internment camps, Noguchi went to Washington, D.C. to lobby for civil rights for Japanese Americans. He met John Collier, the commissioner of Bureau of Indian Affairs appointed by Roosevelt, who invited Noguchi to come live in a new camp being built on an Arizona reservation and teach arts and crafts, and help improve infrastructure conditions. Once there, however, Noguchi’s art supplies never arrived, and his design suggestions were ignored.
An early photo of the Noguchi table taken by Martin J. Schmidt.
Courtesy of The Noguchi Museum, New York
For voluntarily interning himself, Noguchi received small privileges not given to other internment camp prisoners, among them, having outside magazines and newspapers delivered to him. Months after arriving at the camp, Noguchi was flipping through a contraband magazine when he came across a variation of one of his designs being advertised for sale by British furniture designer T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings. A few years prior, Robsjohn-Gibbings had asked Noguchi to submit mock-ups for a table, but Noguchi never heard back and figured his design had been rejected. Really, Robsjohn-Gibbings had stolen his idea and begun to mass-produce it.
Isamu Noguchi, pictured here in 1960 with his Akari floor lamps.
Courtesy of The Noguchi Museum, New York
Furious, Noguchi applied to be released from the camp, arguing that since he had voluntarily interned himself, he could leave at any time. At first, he was denied by camp officials, but after he wrote to Collier directly, he was granted a short-term furlough, and later a permanent leave.
Noguchi left the internment camp in November 1942 and got to work perfecting his design for the table that Robsjohn-Gibbings had ripped off. (The artist once said: "In revenge, I made my own variant of my own table.") In 1948, Herman Miller released the curved, wood-and-glass table. Noguchi named the now classic piece of furniture after himself, lest anyone forget who’d designed it.
Shop the Look
Herman Miller Noguchi Table
Following his apprenticeship with the legendary Constantin Brancusi, sculptor Isamu Noguchi began to experiment in environmental design, theatrical sets – he was the only designer that choreographer Martha Graham would work with – and, eventually, product design. He created his first furniture prototypes for Herman Miller in 1942 and went on to work with companies such as Steuben and Zenith. The Noguchi Table (1948) conceals nothing, revealing everything about the nature of simplicity. Two smoothly shaped pieces of solid wood interlock to form a tripod that supports a thick glass tabletop. The base is available in black, walnut, natural cherry and white ash, the latter of which is finished with a process that arrests the wood in its freshly cut state, resulting in a creamy white color that will not turn yellow over time. This is the authentic Noguchi Table by Herman Miller. Made in U.S.A.
ShopThe Noguchi Museum: A Portrait
The celebrated New York museum captured by two of today's most respected photographers, Tina Barney and Stephen Shore. The Noguchi Museum provides a unique perspective on the artwork of Isamu Noguchi and its setting in the Noguchi Museum through the eyes of renowned photographers Stephen Shore and Tina Barney. Noguchi, a modernist sculptor and designer, founded and designed the museum for the specific purpose of exhibiting his works. The 1920s-era industrial space in Long Island City, Queens, thus became the first and only museum in the US to be designed by a living artist for the artist's own work. Shore has photographed individual works on view at the museum, documenting them in new and surprising ways; and Barney has photographed visitors at the museum and its events, capturing something of the spatial experience of the museum. These new photographs comprise a beautiful object that pays tribute to the museum and artwork while highlighting the skill and eye of these two photographers. This is the only book that focuses on the unique dynamic between the museum's artworks, architecture, and visitors and the museum celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2015, coinciding with publication. The book includes a foreword by the museum director, Jenny Dixon, and a selection of archival images documenting the transformation of the museum-many published here for the first time.
ShopNoguchi Akari 30A Ceiling Lamp
Akari Light Sculptures by Isamu Noguchi are considered icons of 1950s modern design. Designed by Noguchi beginning in 1951 and handmade for a half century by the original manufacturer in Gifu, Japan, the paper lanterns are a harmonious blend of Japanese handcraft and modernist form. The lamps are created from handmade washi paper and bamboo ribbing, supported by a metal frame.
ShopTop photo courtesy of Herman Miller
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This article was originally published on January 14, 2015. It was updated on May 30, 2024, to include current information.
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