Did you know that the career of Isamu Noguchi, the master of modernist sculpture, was profoundly shaped by his encounters with India’s ancient stone art? His journey began in 1949 at Mahabalipuram, and over the years, the forms and textures of sites like Sanchi and the Elephanta Caves quietly reshaped his artistic philosophy.
In this talk, Dr. Kalyani Madhura Ramachandran traces Noguchi’s enduring connection with India. Drawing on archival research, she explores how ancient Indian stone sculpture influenced his understanding of material and form, and how these encounters became a timeless dialogue between cultures in his work.
Abstract:
The Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi—one of the preeminent artists of the twentieth-century—wrote in 1949 that the 7th century rock-cut ancient site of Mahabalipuram, located along the south-eastern coast of the Indian subcontinent, was his “first and most authentic lesson.” Between then and his death in 1988, Noguchi visited India at least eleven times. Yet there has been little investigation into the nature of this long connection and the deep impact it had on the sculptor’s artistic philosophy and practice. The few studies on the topic emphasize Noguchi’s interest in the architectural modernity of post-independence India. This talk explores instead the sculptor’s enduring attentiveness towards the stone sculpture of early India. Through extensive archival study, it highlights Noguchi’s engagement with ancient sites such as Sanchi, Elephanta, and Mahabalipuram, among numerous others, and traces the centrality of the “matter of sculpture” in his approach. In looking at and alongside Noguchi, we expand not only our current understanding of the sculptor’s oeuvre but also the study of early sculpture and stone itself.
