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"Akari E"

Designer Isamu Noguchi American
Manufacturer Ozeki & Co., Ltd.
designed ca. 1951
Not on view
The interlocking geometric shapes of this hanging lamp evoke traditional Japanese lanterns. In the early 1950s Noguchi traveled to the Japanese town of Gifu, whose mayor requested the widely respected American sculptor to help revive the dying lamp-making industry for which the town traditionally was known; its craftsmen had been reduced to providing cheap, painted-silk party decorations. The name Akari, which is Japanese for "light," suggests Noguchi's intention to create luminous sculptures that were also practical sources of illumination, underlining the close relationship between art and design.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: "Akari E"
  • Designer: Isamu Noguchi (American, Los Angeles, California 1904–1988 New York)
  • Manufacturer: Ozeki & Co., Ltd.
  • Date: designed ca. 1951
  • Medium: Mulberry bark paper, bamboo, wire
  • Dimensions: 9 ft. 2 1/4 in. × 18 11/16 in., 0.7 lb. (280 × 47.5 cm, 0.3 kg)
  • Classification: Lighting
  • Credit Line: Gift of Daniel Wolf, in memory of Diane R. Wolf, 1990
  • Object Number: 1990.74
  • Rights and Reproduction: © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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