Review of Looking Up: The Skyviewing Sculptures of Isamu Noguchi edited by Hafthor Yngvason. Giles, July 2022. 132 p. ill. ISBN 978-1-911282-61-7 (h/c), $44.95. https://gilesltd.com/product/looking-up. Reviewed March 2023 Cory Budden, Reference & Instruction Librarian, University of Maine at Augusta, cory.budden@maine.edu

Cory Budden

Megan Macken

Terrie Wilson

Humanities Commons

ARLIS/NA Reviews ISSN 2374-4723 | arlisna.org/arlisna-reviews The latest in art publishing, reviewed by art information professionals and published on a bimonthly basis. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. Review: Looking Up: The Skyviewing Sculptures of Isamu Noguchi edited by Hafthor Yngvason. Giles, July 2022. 132 p. ill. ISBN 978-1-911282-61-7 (h/c), $44.95. https://gilesltd.com/product/looking-up. Reviewed March 2023 Cory Budden, Reference & Instruction Librarian, University of Maine at Augusta, cory.budden@maine.edu https://doi.org/10.17613/3zr3-5z86 Looking Up: The Skyviewing Sculptures of Isamu Noguchi is published in connection with an exhibition curated by the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum and exhibited at Western Washington University's Western Gallery. The book focuses on the theme of skyviewing, which can be found throughout the many and varied works Noguchi created during his lifetime. The book’s introductory essay by Hafthor Ynagvason, Director of the Western Gallery, places Noguchi’s Skyviewing Sculpture in context with the rest of Western’s collection. Noguchi was the first artist to contribute to what would become Western’s exceptional collection of site-specific public works made by several significant twentieth-century artists. While Noguchi’s Skyviewing Sculpture is the artist’s most straightforward example of directing viewers to look up, the rest of the book explores the notion of skyviewing within Noguchi’s entire oeuvre.  Matthew Kirsch examines the significant influence Northern India’s Jantar Mantars held on Noguchi after he visited these sites while traveling the world to investigate public spaces. Built in Delhi and Jaipur in the 1700s, the Jantar Mantars are archeological observatories composed of individual interactive elements that together create a full experience for visitors. Kirsch utilizes Noguchi’s own writings as well as scholarship on the Jantar Mantars to effectively connect their influence with many of Noguchi’s public works.  ARLIS/NA Reviews ISSN 2374-4723 | arlisna.org/arlisna-reviews The latest in art publishing, reviewed by art information professionals and published on a bimonthly basis. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. In the book’s third essay, Matthew Kirsch and Kate Weiner investigate Noguchi’s career-long “...interest in abstracted movement and implied weightlessness.” Work by work, the authors analyze Noguchi’s output from 1928 to 1988. In addition to highlighting Noguchi’s realized public installations, Kirsch and Weiner include drawings and models of works that sadly never came to be, providing a more in-depth understanding of Noguchi’s commitment to both the utilitarian and the whimsical. Though not entirely without it, Looking Up focuses less on biographical information and more on Noguchi’s influences and the analysis of individual works. Through the specific lens of skyviewing, the book provides a new perspective on Noguchi’s output. High-quality photographs on glossy paper fill many of the pages. The book concludes with a series of photographs by Mary Randlett, which document the fabrication and installation of Noguchi’s Skyviewing Sculpture at Western—a lovely bookend to this exploration of Noguchi’s long artistic career.  All three essays are well researched with footnotes and a bibliography, yet they each maintain a level of accessibility for most readers. This book would benefit any art or art history collection and contributes a new perspective on an important and influential twentieth century artist. 

Review: Looking Up: The Skyviewing Sculptures of Isamu Noguchi

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Review: Looking Up: The Skyviewing Sculptures of Isamu Noguchi

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