Isamu Noguchi

1904 Born November 17 in Los Angeles. 1906 Family moves to Japan. 1918-22 Returns alone to the United States to attend school in Rolling Prairie, Illinois. After graduation apprentices in sculpture studio of Gutzon Borglum. 1923 Moves to New York. Enrolls in Columbia University’s premedical program. 1924 Studies sculpture at Leonardo da Vinci Art School in New York. 1927-28 Receives John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. Travels to Paris where he works as an assistant to Brancusi and studies drawing at Academy Grande Chaumičre and Academy Collarosi. 1929 First solo exhibition at the Eugene Schoen Gallery, New York. 1930-31 Studies brush drawing with Chi Pai-shih in Beijing and clay sculpting with Jinmatsu Uno in Kyoto. 1935 Creates first of many stage sets for Martha Graham. 1938 Wins competition and creates relief sculpture for entrance of Associated Press building at Rockefeller Center, New York. 1951 Begins to design akari lamps. 1956 Designs gardens at UNESCO in Paris. 1968 Retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. 1974 Participates in Masters of Modern Sculpture show at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. 1985 Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum opens to the public in Long Island City, New York. 1986 Represents the United States at the Venice Biennale. 1987 Receives the National Medal of Arts. 1988 Dies December 30 in New York.