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September 14, 2005
True Role of the Sculptor
First off, I must say that I've enjoyed reading everyone's blogs on their Noguchi experience, but you all should really allow comments on your posts so that I, and your other fellow students, can talk back at you and tell you how brilliant you are. That being said...
I wasn't expecting to really appreciate the Noguchi museum experience before I went. I'm not sure why exactly. I think it was a combination of 1) telling myself that I'm usually more intrigued by more recent sculpture & 2) being too ADD to enjoy a whole museum of one artist's work. So, I had psyched myself up more about visiting the Socrates Scuplture Park than the Noguchi museum.
Much to my surprise, however, I was moved by the works in the Noguchi Museum much more than those at Socrates. A quote from Noguchi I read on one of the laminated floor plans in the museum was perhaps a major reason for my preference. It read, "the battle with stone, to make it do what it was not meant to do, might be the true role of the sculptor." Now that really grabbed me. Compare this attitude with a work I saw at Socrates by David Shapiro called "Transform Abandoned Bikes into Art." In "TABiA," Shapiro simply transplanted some of all those dismembered bikes that you see chained to signposts around Manhattan to this park in Queens and chained them to a cluster of posts that he stuck in the ground there. Did Shapiro "battle" with these bicycles to make them do anything that they weren't meant to do? My answer would be no. Does that deprive him of the label "Artist"? Probably not, (especially in this day and age!), but I, personally, plan on revoking his "Sculptor" card.
In contrast to many contemporary sculptors who find inspiration in material at HOME DEPOT (I include myself in this indictment, by the way), Noguchi's commitment to stone sculpture was incredible to follow throughout the museum. I appreciated the singular stone sculptures for their monumentality, multiple planes, crevices and textures, but I preferred the works that Noguchi made while in Italy in which he striates polished marble and holds them together with something called a "post-tension" system. (Does anyone know if Noguchi was the first to use this sculptural process?) When I saw these, they immediately reminded me of some churches I've seen in Tuscany, and I was entertained when I read on the museum's materials that these marble sculptures are similar to Tuscan church motifs that Noguchi had to be seeing a lot of while he was working there. Noguchi, however, it said, denies that his sculptures were influenced by those patterns. (I think he's either lying or in denial, but maybe I'm too cynical.)
Noguchi definitely covered a lot of territory in his career. Some of his works I adored, while others seemed like "public art" that belonged in the courtyard of a bank skyscraper. I think he was influenced greatly by Brancusi and Giacometti, but I liked it more when he veered more on the Giacometti side of the equation.
The most important tidbit of information I gleaned from the Noguchi experience came from the video they were showing about his life. Noguchi was talking about making models for his pieces, and he was explaining why he likes to keep the models loose because, he says, "anything precise restricts you." So, in his view, I guess, a well-crafted model prevents any new crucial elements from emerging in the final work. There you go, a solid explanation to any professor who criticizes your model for being too sloppy. "But, Jean-Marc, I have to keep my options open for the final work..." Oh wait, Jean-Marc, are you reading this??
Posted by Robert Croft at September 14, 2005 01:18 AM