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Arts Intel Report

Isamu Noguchi: I Am Not a Designer

Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Isamu Noguchi, 1955.

Sept 19, 2026 – Jan 3, 2027
161 Essex St, Salem, MA 01970, United States

“I am not a designer,” said Isamu Noguchi in 1949, even though he was in the middle of a career designing furniture, lamps, ashtrays, a cemetery, bridge railings, parks, public spaces for skyscrapers, and groundbreaking sets for the dances of Martha Graham. He explained that design tended to imply an accommodation to “quixotic fashion,” while he saw himself, a sculptor, as dealing with “fundamental problems of form.” Using his provocative declaration as its title, this exhibition is the first Noguchi design retrospective in nearly 25 years, and it features around 200 objects. —Peter Saenger

© Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents. © 2026 The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York