The Noguchi Museum, A Hidden Gem of NYC

In the early days of spring, visitors to Astoria’s Noguchi Museum can be seen reposing under the shade of the garden’s towering Katsura tree, sometimes sketching or simply taking a moment to escape the busy undertakings of city life beyond the garden walls. Since 1985, the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum has been a haven for quiet contemplation and home to the world’s largest and most extensive collection of Isamu Noguchi’s work. The museum is the first of its kind—the first museum in the U.S. to be founded by a living artist for the presentation of his own work. 

Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) was an influential force in the world of modern art from the 1920s until his death in 1988. Walking through his galleries, viewers are struck by the material quality of his work: at times, his sculptures juxtapose careful craftsmanship with raw, unaltered material, shaped only by the forces of nature. In several pieces, Noguchi aimed to highlight the natural qualities of basalt—a medium frequently used for his larger sculptures. To this effect, he left large sections of the oxidized, reddish-brown surface untouched to contrast with the darker, carefully polished interior of the stone. In Noguchi’s other works, he binds different varieties of stone: Italian black marble with Red Alicante marble, Black Petit granite with Yellow Sienna marble, and Pink Portuguese marble with limestone. 

In addition to merging textures and mediums, Noguchi also intermixes cultural influences. Noguchi was biracial: his mother, Léonie Gilmour, was an American of Irish descent, while his father, Yonejiro Noguchi, was a Japanese immigrant. In many of his sculptures, Noguchi was simultaneously influenced by Japanese artistic traditions—including Zen gardens and Japanese minimalism—and Western aesthetics, from surrealism and the works of Constantin Brancusi to modernism. In his 1968 autobiography, A Sculptor’s World, Noguchi asks, “With my double nationality and double upbringing, where was my home? Where my affections? Where my identity? Japan or America, either, both—or the world?” In an introductory tour of the exhibition Noguchi Subscapes in 2023, former curator Dakin Hart explains that Noguchi subverted this perspective, using his cultural duality to make himself feel at home everywhere.

Noguchi reinforced his practice of amalgamation by fusing traditional styles with modernism, creating temporal contrast in his work. In 1951, to create his famous Akari paper lamps, Noguchi completed extensive studies on traditional Japanese methods when he visited the Ozeki workshop in Gifu, Japan. Then, as per the request of the mayor of Gifu at the time, Noguchi modernized the Akari lamp by integrating traditional techniques with modern shapes and colors that captured his own artistic vision. This reinvigorated public interest in the traditional Japanese lantern industry, bringing seemingly outdated aesthetics back into the public eye. 

As with all eminent artists, the legacy of Isamu Noguchi’s vision and creativity lives on through his artwork, most of which is stored within the Noguchi Museum’s walls. The building itself was originally an industrial building, found vacant by Noguchi in 1974. Noticing its hidden potential (the scrap yard that would later become his picturesque sculpture garden, for example), Noguchi bought the property and began transferring his work from his studio across the street. 

In travel brochures for tourists, the Isamu Noguchi Museum is often listed as one of New York’s lesser-known museums—a so-called “hidden gem” of the city—partly due to its somewhat secluded location in Long Island City. To the Noguchi Museum’s management, the museum’s location has its advantages and disadvantages. Although the space, as observed by Noguchi in the ‘70s, perfectly complements his sculptures, its location also makes it less accessible to those coming from Manhattan and other boroughs—even by train, it requires a bit of a walk. Its relatively peaceful industrial area offers a contemplative atmosphere largely without the distractions of nearby traffic, but that also means the museum gets fewer spontaneous visits from passersby compared to more centrally located museums like the Guggenheim, the Met, and the MoMA. Since the museum is focused on a single artist and is a bit out of the way for most, it often attracts niche audiences rather than the general public. Yet, though the Noguchi Museum may be a little out of the way, it’s worth the trip.