Contoured Playground

This work appears as an abstract sculpture composed of softly contoured forms. Viewed from above, however, it reveals gentle hill-like rises, basin-shaped depressions reminiscent of man-made ponds, and bridge-like elements, evoking aspects of a Japanese garden. The piece is a model for an unrealized park that the artist conceived for Central Park in New York. Noguchi’s practice extended beyond sculpture to encompass the creation of landscapes that bridged art and society.
Isamu Noguchi, one of the foremost sculptors of the twentieth century, was born in the United States to Japanese poet Noguchi Yonejirō and American writer Léonie Gilmour. In his later years, he established a studio in Mure-chō, Kagawa Prefecture (present-day Takamatsu City).