Isamu Noguchi

Gimpel Fils Gallery, London
Security Pacific National Bank, Los Angeles
Acquired by the present owner from the above

New York, Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, Noguchi, November 1970
London, Gimpel Fils Gallery, Isamu Noguchi, September - October 1972

Sam Hunter, Isamu Noguchi, New York, 1978, p. 275, illustrated
Nancy Grove and Diane Botnick, The Sculpture of Isamu Noguchi 1924-1979: A Catalogue, New York, 1980, cat. no. 684, p. 125, illustrated
Nancy Grove, Isamu Noguchi: A Study of the Sculpture, New York, 1985, fig. 71, illustrated

This sculpture is in very good condition overall. There is evidence of light wear and handling throughout. There are two small nicks, each approximately 5/8 inch, to the lower side edge and another small nick to the upper side edge. Please note that the base pictured in the catalogue illustration is not part of the original work.
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.

Isamu Noguchi's life and art present a discussion of what one can achieve through the formal investigation of sculpture, and in the artist's mind, the creation of social space through sculpture.  Always in motion, Noguchi was constantly reconciling the various dichotomies which would permeate his oeuvre. From East to West, outsider to insider, ancient to modern, Noguchi's ability to bridge such seemingly disparate intellectual principles makes it a truly original art informed by his very particular circumstances and education.

Born to an American mother in Los Angeles, Noguchi and his mother rejoined his father in Tokyo shortly thereafter though the family would soon dissolve, leaving the young boy to absorb the culture of his adopted homeland as an outsider.  Eventually returning to New York, Noguchi was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship and travelled to France to study with Constantin Brancusi before eventually continuing eastward to truly begin his own investigation of visual art, sculpture, and design.  His aesthetic blends a particularly Zen embrace of the minimal with Brancusi's sense of modern Western abstraction and simplification.

In Stillness Moving draws upon nearly each of Noguchi's influences.  The pale white stone hollowed in the middle and torqued around its vertical axis is a sublime evocation of movement. The material not only seems to move within itself in its unending loop but also out into the physical space in which it resides.  Understood in this way, the stone reflects the artist's conception of sculpture as a creator of social space.  Reflecting a sort of personal isolation, the work is thus also able to function as a dynamic entity engaging with its setting and the viewer therein. 

Noguchi was constantly aware of the manner in which his sculpture would be received and how it would function when left to its own devices.  This sculpture seamlessly refers back to his training in the study of the figure, but does so in a radically different way from his early mentor Brancusi. The work approaches the ultimate abstractions perfected in the Void series, which would follow shortly thereafter.  Noguchi deftly blends the figurative with the abstract, the social engager with the brooding isolationist, the Eastern and the Western all in a manner which seemingly pre-ordains many of the developments of post-modern sculpture and which would forever alter the trajectory of three dimensional art through the 20^th and well into the 21^st century.