Isamu Noguchi

Design:  Isamu Noguchi and Isamu Kenmochi, The Noguchi Museum, Long Island City, NY, September 20, 2007-May 25, 2008

US News & World Report, April 12, 1957, p. 95 (for the period advertisement)
Newsweek, April 22, 1957, p. 53
Time, April 29, 1957, p. 48
Saturday Evening Post, May 4, 1957, inside cover
The New Yorker, May 11, 1957, p. (for the period advertisement)
"Alcoa Ventures a Forecast," Industrial Design, July 1957, p. 76
"Little Gem for a Giant:  Noguchi's Prismatic Table for Alcoa," Interiors, November 1957, pp. 116-117
"Design In Aluminum:  Alcoa Forecast," Print Magazine, October 1958, p. 45
Sarah Nichols, Aluminum by Design, New York, 2000, pp. 248-249 (for the examples in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art)
Noguchi:  Sculptural Design, Weil am Rhein, 2001, p. 143
Douglas McCombs, "Aluminum of Tomorrow," Echoes, May 2001, p. 15
Beatriz Colomina, AnnMarie Brennan, and Jeannie Kim, eds., Cold War Hot Houses:  Inventing Postwar Culture, from Cockpit to Playboy, New York, 2004, p. 77 

Overall very good original condition. The table with scattered surface scratches, nicks, rubbing and minor losses to surface treatment and surface discolorations as expected with age and use. Surface dirt throughout. The corners with more concentrated scratches with rubbing and very minor losses to the anodized surfaces. Concentrated scratches and surface discoloration to the lower portion of the legs as expected. The darker gray portion of the table with two drip stains that extend vertically along the entire height of the table to one of the planes. The light gray with a splatter shaped discoloration to the central area of the leg. Also with a small brown discoloration and a small abraded area four inches from the bottom with a black scuff. The rose colored section with a small hairline crack along vertical portion of the edge seam extending approximately one inch. Minute white paint flecks to each of the three legs. There are two nicks to the dark gray and light gray edges along the facing legs. The two nicks are opposite each other and likely were caused at the same time. They are slightly rough to the touch. The top with minor scratches, wear to finish and one circular pattern discoloration to the top. Some additional minor areas of discoloration. The underside with inscribed numbers 7, 8, 9 which indicate the adjacent sides when the table was put together. Three holes lacking screws that appear not to have been utilized in the original design. All hardware appears original to the table.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In 1956, the Aluminum industry was forced by excess of material on the market to make changes to its traditional selling methods.  The Aluminum Corporation of America (Alcoa) responded with the Forecast program developed by the advertising cooperative of Ketchum, McLeod and Grove.  The program emphasized the artistic and functional possibilities of aluminum.   Select commissioned designs were featured in full-page advertisements shot by noted photographers in widely-read weekly magazines.  It is for this program that Isamu Noguchi developed the iconic design of the Prismatic table.

 

Over a five year period, the Forecast program introduced prototypical designs of 22 artists.  The program's foundation was based on the company's platform that "this obliging metal-alone or used in combination with other materials – can extend the horizons of your creative imagination" (Interiors, March 1957).  The designers were given the objective to create a new visually attractive design that maintained the inherent qualities of the metal, yet demonstrated an alternative potential.  The Forecast program sought to show that aluminum could have domestic purpose beyond its stereotypical industrial uses. 

 

With such an open premise, the resulting work was as diverse as the selected artists.  The inaugural product was a dress created from aluminum by French fashion designer Andre Desses and photographed in high style by Richard Avedon.  Other designers sought inspiration from the form of the Alcoa logo.  Ilonka Karasz developed a wall mosaic of foil wrappers based on the triangular forms of the insignia.

 

Isamu Noguchi, who was the third artist featured in the Forecast program in early 1957, developed an abstract three-dimensional form. Noguchi's Prismatic tables were conceived in multiple to form a "kaleidoscope" with variant colors with the intention of adaptability.  The versatility in the design was openly stated in the text that ran along the image, "Using sectional aluminum furniture of myriad textures, colors finishes and forms...in arrangements as endless as the patterns of a kaleidoscope."  The advertisement photographed by Irving Penn (shown on the previous page) used the table as a casual, yet romantic platform for dinner at home.  Alcoa marketing objectives muted the modernist tendencies of the abstracted sculptural form in favor of a more commercial image, which fit in the idyllic postwar atmosphere of optimism that the company was trying to project.

Introduced to Alcoa executives by his colleague and friend, the lighting designer Edison Price, Noguchi saw the flexibility and sculptural qualities inherent in the material.  In referring to a similar later bent metal furniture design, Noguchi stated "The folding creates structural strength.  It also introduces three-dimensionality to appear solid – or be so without looking so, as I often prefer.  A shadow."   This bold side table in 1957 was projected to cost $13 to produce.

The aim of the Alcoa Forecast program was to not produce designs, but to inspire those who saw them in print.  Today, only two pairs of the limited number of prototypes are known to exist of these innovative forms.  The first pair, in a red/white/blue scheme, formerly in the home of an Alcoa executive, are now in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh.  The companion table to the present lot was sold at Wright in Chicago in 2006.