Listening to Stone: The Art and Life of Isamu Noguchi

I’ve seen some of Noguchi’s work, and Hayden Herrera’s discussions of it are enlightening. Still, my fascination is with Noguchi the man. He was clearly not the easiest person to get along with, but his tremendous drive, his insecurities, his amorous quests and intense focus all make for a great story. Imagine a boy of mixed parentage, born in the U.S., raised partly in Japan, who sets off alone at the age of thirteen on a ship bound from Yokohama to Seattle. From there, still alone, he makes his way across the U.S. by train to a boarding school in Indiana. Early on, from a story like this, we see much of Noguchi’s character: he was a traveler, he was unafraid, and he was forever torn between two cultures. Because of his mixed blood, he said, “I am always nowhere.” “When I’m in Japan, I think I should be I the United States, and when I’m there I want to be back in Japan.” This same geographic impulse—“I simply can not stay in one place for a long time”—also seems to have played out with his romantic liaisons. Reading about his long list of lovers, I thought of the old line, “She who flies from me, I follow, and she who follows me, I fly from.” Or, as Noguchi himself put it: “I’m nice to women who are bad for me and bad to women who are good for me.” He could be cantankerous, ungrateful and self-centered—as well as wonderfully buoyant and supportive. It all makes for a great read, in this biography of one of our country’s most notable sculptors.

This extraordinary biography about an enigmatic and extraordinary artist is so clear, but not plain. The prose is transparent to the subject. The author is invisible. And it's factual but not dry.

Preparing to lead tours of Noguchi's works at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden this fall, I found this biography an extremely helpful resource. It is clean and clear, if a bit prosaic. Herrera leans heavily on Noguchi's own autobiography and seems to draw little from other sources, save a few still living individuals close to the artist, including Noguchi's last lover. The book is best when it maps narrative to image, and the inclusion of some wonderful hard-to-find photos is one of the book's strongest attributes. The book also is especially adept at detailing virtually every lover of import the artist had, including Frida Kahlo (about whom Herrera has also authored a biography), which makes for some saucy reading. The major struggle I faced was the implication that there was a seemingly precise turning point when Noguchi turned from starving and struggling artist to overnight success. This is not, in fact, an accurate portrayal of Noguchi's arc. I don't fault Herrera for failing to capture the trajectory or finding the inflection point, for, in fact, I don't believe there was one. But I'm not sure why she seems to have decided she needed this in the telling of the tale. Another peculiar aspect to the story, related to my primary misgiving, is that Herrera seems to paint Noguchi as a critical failure, even into the 1960s, when he was anything but. On the one hand, he was receiving, she points out, retrospectives and major commissions around the globe. Yet, she routinely depicts reviews of the artist's work that carried harsh judgments or worse. I suspect Herrera selects this approach to continually cast her subject as an underdog, but it creates the peculiar impression that Noguchi was not an accepted artist when he clearly was. These are, in the end, relatively small problems in a well-constructed, competently researched narrative. But they leave the reader wondering why Herrera didn't thread the needle just a tad more carefully -- in the service of what would have made this important book even more believable.

Very well written. Herrera very wisely frequently uses Noguchi's own words. He is one of my favorite sculptors so I found it fascinating to read about his development as a man and an artist. It was immensely interesting to learn about what influenced him, the trajectory of his career and the development of and living with his Eastern/Western conflict. I highly recommend this book.

Beautiful book; well researched; beautifully written. Thank you!

You may not end up loving the man, or every moment in his ever-changing approach, but when he's on, he's on.

Sometimes a little too much detail. Enjoyed reading about such an interesting person and how he evolved to such an amazing artist / furniture designer. Interesting to read about the time he lived.

Great read for an art lover. The author uses a sparse and smooth writing style. The rare subjective commentary was thoughtful.

I love this book, it arrived earlier.

I bought it few years ago. its a beautiful biography

Sehr guter Zustand, traumhaftes Werk, dessen Lektüre ich nur sehr empfehlen kann, Isamu Noguchi zählt zu den ganz großes seiner Profession. Eine Bereicherung sich über Leben und Werk zu informieren....