Now through October 2, 2011, Isamu Noguchi an internationally celebrated Japanese-American artist and designer is featured at the Laguna Beach Art Museum. Noguchi: California Legacy is comprised of three parts that examine the impact Noguchi had in California. California Scenario: The Courage of the Imagination based on Noguchi’s South Coast Plaza sculpture garden commissioned by Henry T. Segerstrom thirty years ago; 2) What is Sculpture? Akari from the Venice Biennale, from the 1986 Venice Biennale exhibit in which Noguchi, that year’s United States Representative, exhibited his Akari light sculptures; and 3) Noguchi at Gemini G.E.L., consisting of the sculpture multiples that Noguchi created in 1982 at atelier Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles.
According to the Laguan Beach Independent, the exhibition encompasses models and drawings pertaining to “California Scenario,” a popular sculpture garden in Costa Mesa and “Noguchi Plaza,” another plaza-like installation in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. Modeled on an Italian piazza, the latter surrounds a sculpture (“To the Issei”) dedicated to the first generation of Japanese immigrants who paved the way for following generations.
In the densely developed blocks around South Coast Plaza and the Segerstrom Performing Arts Center, “California Scenario” is a tranquil oasis and a powerful monument to the grandeur of California’s natural endowments that include redwood forests, mountains and deserts and a flow of water. The pyramid placed in a corner of the plaza alludes to the diverse cultures that have shaped every facet of California history.
“It took 30 years to realize Noguchi’s vision,” said Laguna curator Grace Kook Anderson. “The garden looks no longer barren. Today the rocks are weathered, vegetation is mature and it’s a popular visiting spot. It’s exactly as Noguchi had envisioned since he believed that people activate space,” she added.
