Tag: Noguchi

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Poor Man’s Noguchi

Stone bench on Log Cabin Road in Durand Eastman Park
Stone bench on Log Cabin Road in Durand Eastman Park

I wish I could walk around with my neighbor’s yellow, six foot level. We’ve borrowed it for a few long term projects and I really hated giving that thing up. Does this bench look level to you? The road here goes downhill and the trees aren’t exactly perpendicular to the world. Regardless, I like the look of it. It could almost be a Noguchi.

The park really empties out in September. You could grab any shelter you like on Log Cabin Road without reserving it. We used to do exactly that we had our company picnics in one of pavilions here. Puts me in the mood for something char-broiled. How about a Portobello mushroom?

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Not Much Of An Exaggeration

Noguchi sculpture in garden at Noguchi Museum in Long Island City
Noguchi sculpture in garden at Noguchi Museum in Long Island City

There was something strangely familiar about this particular sculpture in in the garden of the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until Peggi pointed out that it reminded her of “Subterranean Surrogates.” The museum here, on the site of Noguchi’s last NYC studio, was recently renovated but remains the first and only museum in the country to be founded by an artist during his lifetime and dedicated to his work. Noguchi worked in ceramics, drew, designed gardens, furniture, architecture, and sets but it is his stone sculptures that have always knocked me out and there is a large section of them here in a protected outdoor setting and garden. We started there and I didn’t want to leave to go inside.

This Week In New York called the Noguchi Museum “one of the most peaceful, beautiful, spiritual, and moving places in New York.” Not much of an exaggeration. Michael Black (one of the founding members of the Bang On A Can All Stars) and the Hartt Bass Band (eight double basses) performed pieces in the museum the day we were there. They sounded great but not great enough to keep us from going back out to the sculpture garden.

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