Noguchi worked in a variety of media and Radio Nurse was his first major industrial commission. Together with a separate enameled metal receiver called the Guardian Ear, this piece functions as a baby monitor, transmitting sounds from the baby’s room to the receiver. The highly sculptural form evokes an abstracted human head: the eponymous surrogate nurse. Made of Bakelite, a plasticlike, malleable material that could be dyed almost any color, Radio Nurse is an excellent example of the new, industrial material’s sculptural qualities.
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Marking: Manufacturer's marks (on back, molded in high relief): ZENITH RADIO + SOS [logo] + NURSE/ DESIGNED BY NOGUCHI/ PATENT APPLIED FOR/ 117 VOLTS–50/60 CYCLE–25 WATTS/ ZENITH RADIO CORP., CHICAGO
John C. Waddell, New York (by 1999–2000; his gift to MMA)
New York. Modern Plastics. "Third Annual Modern Plastics Competition, Sponsored by Modern Plastics Magazine," November 1938, no catalogue (awarded first prize in the Household category) [possibly this edition].
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Drawings and Prints," January 24–February 17, 1939, no. 34 [possibly this edition].
Honolulu Academy of Arts. "Sculpture and Drawings by Isamu Noguchi," April 30–May 12, 1940, no catalogue (lent by the artist) [possibly this edition].
New York. First Half. "Pat Pending," November 19–December 2, 1987, no catalogue [possibly this edition].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," May 16, 2000–January 7, extended to February 4, 2001, unnumbered cat. (p. 164; as "'Radio Nurse' Radio Transmitter," lent by the John C. Waddell Collection, Promised Gift of John C. Waddell).
Newport Beach, Calif. Orange County Museum of Art. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," May 25–August 19, 2001, unnumbered cat.
Flint, Mich. Flint Institute of Arts. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," September 14–December 16, 2001, unnumbered cat.
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," January 11–April 7, 2002, unnumbered cat.
Charlotte. Mint Museum of Craft and Design. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," May 3–July 28, 2002, unnumbered cat.
Tulsa. Philbrook Museum of Art. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," August 23–November 17, 2002, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s," September 5–December 10, 2023, unnumbered cat. (pl. 84; as "'Radio Nurse' monitor").
Ruth Green Harris. "Art in Our Daily Lives: Esthetic Considerations That Reach Out Into Housing, Utilities and Other Fields." New York Times (May 1, 1938), p. 8X.
"A New 'Radio Nurse'." New York Times (March 13, 1938), p. 12X.
"Advertising News and Notes." New York Times (March 8, 1938), p. 32L.
"[Advertisement for Zenith Radio Nurse]." New York Times (March 20, 1938), p. 10N, ill.
"[Advertisement for Zenith Radio Nurse]." New York Times (March 14, 1938), p. L7.
Larry Wolters. "A 'Radio Nurse' is Newest Thing for the Home." Chicago Daily Tribune (March 3, 1938), p. 14.
"Radio Nurse." Modern Plastics 15 (June 1938), p. 24, ill.
"'Radio Nurse' Watches Child." Mechanix Illustrated 20 (July 1938), p. 73, ill.
"Winners in the Third Modern Plastics Competition." Modern Plastics 16 (November 1938), p. 40, ill., notes that this work was awarded first prize in the Household category [see Exh. New York 1938].
"Zenith's Radio Nurse." Radio News 20 (June 1938), p. 46, ill.
"A Wired-Radio 'Nursemaid'." Radio-Craft 10 (July 1938), pp. 31, 38, 53, ill.
"Inter-phones and Radio: A Team for Spring Merchandising." Radio Today 4 (March 1938), p. 32.
"More New Things." Radio Today 4 (March 1938), p. 28, ill.
"Zenith's Guardian Ear." Radio Daily (March 8, 1938), p. 2.
"Inter-Home Radio Device is New Zenith Product." Radio Daily (March 2, 1938), pp. 1–2.
Edward Alden Jewell. "Sculpture Show Today At Museum." New York Times (January 24, 1939), p. 16L.
Margaret Browne. "Art Speaks Own Language, Noguchi Says at Academy." Honolulu Star-Bulletin (May 13, 1940), p. 10.
Thomas B. Hess. "Isamu Noguchi '46: An Art News Contemporary Contour." Art News 45 (September 1946), p. 50.
Isamu Noguchi. A Sculptor's World. New York and Evanston, Ill., 1968, pp. 24, 26, 249, pl. 185, calls it "The Radio Nurse".
Sam Hunter. Isamu Noguchi. New York, 1978, p. 77, ill.
Nancy Grove and Diane Botnick. The Sculpture of Isamu Noguchi, 1924–1979: A Catalogue. New York, 1980, p. 146, no. 802.
Cherie Fehrman and Kenneth Fehrman. Postwar Interior Design: 1945–1960. New York, 1987, pp. 49–50.
Isamu Noguchi. The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum. New York, 1987, p. 231.
"Gallery Shows Industrial Designs of the 30s and 40s." Antiques and the Arts Weekly (November 20, 1987), n.p., ill.
Nancy Grove. Isamu Noguchi: Portrait Sculpture. Exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery. Washington, D. C., 1989, pp. 19–20, fig. 24.
Laurel Graeber. "Collecting the 20th Century." New York Times (April 9, 1989), p. SMA50.
Avis Berman. Rebels on Eighth Street: Juliana Force and the Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1990, p. 410, quotes the artist's statement that this work "grew out of the Lindbergh kidnapping case. Zenith Radio, then a big, successful company, asked me to design an intercom system so that a parent or nurse could listen to a child's breathing anywhere in the house. They wanted it in the shape of a nurse's hat, but I designed it as I did. I told Mrs. Force about it, and she immediately agreed to show it [Exh. New York 1939]".
Andrew Olds. "Archives: Noguchi's Bakelite Nanny." I.D 38 (January–February 1992), p. 22, ill. (color).
Jeffrey L. Meikle. "Plastics in the American Machine Age 1920–1950." The Plastics Age: From Bakelite to Beanbags and Beyond. Ed. Penny Sparke. Woodstock, N.Y., 1993, ill. p. 54.
Bruce Altshuler. Isamu Noguchi. New York, 1994, pp. 32, 102 n. 21, p. 114, pl. 34.
Josef Strasser in "122 Selected Works from the New Acquisitions 1990 to 1995." A Century of Design. Insights: Outlook on a Museum of Tomorrow. Die Neue Sammlung, State Museum of Applied Arts, Munich. Ed. Florian Hufnagl. Stuttgart, 1996, pp. 112–13, ill. (color) (State Museum of Applied Arts, Munich collection), calls it "Shortwave Set 'Radio Nurse'".
Deborah A. Goldberg. "Isamu Noguchi: The Artist as Engineer and Visionary Designer, 1918–1939." PhD diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 2000, pp. viii, xix–xx, 74, 84, 220, 230, 247–48, 321–405, 409–10, pl. 1.
Julia Lewis. "American Beauty." Interior Design 71 (May 2000), ill. p. 91, calls it "'Radio Nurse' Radio Transmitter".
Grace Glueck. "Design Review: When Americans Awoke to Modern Styles." New York Times (May 19, 2000), p. E32.
Ana Maria Torres. Isamu Noguchi: A Study of Space. New York, 2000, p. 311.
Bruce Altshuler inIsamu Noguchi: Sculptural Design. Ed. Alexander von Vegesack, Katarina V. Posch, and Jochen Eisenbrand. Exh. cat., Design Museum, London. Weil am Rhein, 2001, pp. 109, 151 n. 3, p. 292, ill. p. 110.
Isamu Noguchi inIsamu Noguchi: Sculptural Design. Ed. Alexander von Vegesack, Katarina V. Posch, and Jochen Eisenbrand. Exh. cat., Design Museum, London. Weil am Rhein, 2001, p. 155.
Anna C. Chave inIsamu Noguchi: Sculptural Design. Ed. Alexander von Vegesack, Katarina V. Posch, and Jochen Eisenbrand. Exh. cat., Design Museum, London. Weil am Rhein, 2001, p. 65 n. 60.
Valerie J. Fletcher. Isamu Noguchi: Master Sculptor. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. London, 2004, p. 61.
David A. Hanks and Anne Hoy. American Streamlined Design: The World of Tomorrow. Paris, 2005, p. 173, no. 109, ill. (color; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts collection), call it "Shortwave Radio Transmitter: 'Radio Nurse'".
Doris Goldstein. "Art and Design | Crossing Cultures: Isamu Noguchi's Art Blends East and West." Art & Antiques 29 (February 2006), p. 44, ill. p. 42 (color), notes the resemblance between this object and a kendo suit mask Noguchi wore as a child.
Kim Carpenter. "Organic Utilitarianism: The Sculptures of Isamu Noguchi." Sculpture Review 57 (Spring 2008), p. 30, ill. p. 31.
Charlotte Fiell and Peter Fiell. Plastic Dreams: Synthetic Visions in Design. [London], 2009, pp. 7, 15, 47, ill. pp. 46 (color), 47 (color; Zenith Radio Corporation publicity photo, ca. 1938), and back cover (color).
Shaina Larrivee and Alex Ross, ed. Isamu Noguchi Catalogue Raisonné (dINCR). Online resource [https://archive.noguchi.org/CR/About], 2011 (ongoing), no. 802, ill. (color), published alongside "Guardian Ear" (1937).
Hayden Herrera. Listening to Stone: The Art and Life of Isamu Noguchi. New York, 2015, pp. 156–57, 166, 526 n. 4.
Michelle Millar Fisher and Amber Winick. Designing Motherhood: Things that Make and Break Our Births. Exh. cat., Mütter Museum, Philadelphia. Cambridge, Mass., 2021, pp. 287–88, ill. (color).
Marin R. Sullivan. Alloys: American Sculpture and Architecture at Midcentury. Princeton, 2022, p. 33, fig. I.16.
Allison Rudnick. Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2023, pp. 26, 198, colorpl. 84.
Rachel Mustalish in Allison Rudnick. Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2023, p. 52.
Sophie Hamacher. "Preface." Supervision: On Motherhood and Surveillance. Ed. Sophie Hamacher with Jessica Hankey. Cambridge, Mass., 2023, p. 7, ill. p. 8 (color).
Hannah Zeavin. "Family Scanning." Supervision: On Motherhood and Surveillance. Ed. Sophie Hamacher with Jessica Hankey. Cambridge, Mass., 2023, p. 36.
How did a decade of unprecedented financial strife, radical social upheaval, and technological innovation shape art and cultural identity in the United States?
Isamu Noguchi (American, Los Angeles, California 1904–1988 New York)
1962, cast 1963
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