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Kouros

Isamu Noguchi American
1945
Not on view
A five-month apprenticeship in 1927 with the renowned Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi led Noguchi to his own abstract sculptural language. Kouros betrays Noguchi’s preoccupation in the mid-1940s with organic patterns and shapes rendered on a monumental scale. A great feat of imagination and engineering, it comprises eight interlocking pieces of pink Georgian marble, secured by a perfect balance in weight and two strategically placed pins. This precariousness evokes Noguchi’s uncertainty about the state of the world after World War II, which he characterized as "the encroaching void." The title refers to a type of ancient Greek sculpture showing lone standing male figures, often striding forward into space. His specific point of reference was a famed example in The Met collection (32.11.1).

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Kouros
  • Artist: Isamu Noguchi (American, Los Angeles, California 1904–1988 New York)
  • Date: 1945
  • Medium: Marble
  • Dimensions: 9 ft. 9 in. × 42 1/8 in. × 34 1/8 in. (297.2 × 107 × 86.7 cm)
  • Classification: Sculpture
  • Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1953
  • Object Number: 53.87a-i
  • Rights and Reproduction: © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum / Artists Rights Society
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

Audio

Cover Image for 1995. Kouros, Part 1

1995. Kouros, Part 1

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