Isamu Noguchi (1904 – 1988) was an artist, furniture designer, ceramicist, theatre designer and landscape architect. In 1951, he began designing Akari Light Sculptures – 100 of them – to reinvigorate the flailing craft of lantern making in Ozeki. Akari means ‘light’ in Japanese, suggesting luminous and weightless. Noguchi said of the series: “The harshness of electricity is… transformed through the magic of paper back to the light of our origin – the sun – so that its warmth may continue to fill our rooms at night.”
Akari lampshades were made by highly skilled craftspeople in the traditional way. A coiled wire frame is wrapped with hand cut paper glued to the frame. Each piece takes a considerable time to make.
Both lanterns have some age to them and they are marked with the artist’s logo, the sun and moon symbol, which identifies it as an early edition.
H40 W40 D40cm
H211E