Gopnik Doesn't Like Noguchi
Tomorrow's WaPo Sunday Arts has a review by Blake Gopnik of the new Isamu Noguchi exhibition at the Hirshhorn.
Gopnik makes some strong and perhaps valid points about Noguchi, but tips his card early when he writes:
Noguchi was not one of the great innovators of the 20th century. Most of his work built on ideas that others had before him. But he had a wonderful hand and eye. "Deft" is the word that springs to mind in looking at Noguchi's art, rather than "inspired."And this thread of Noguchi being a follower, rather than an innovator (if it's not new, then it can't be good), is the backbone of tomorrow's review.
I disagree. Gopnik's art history knowledge has been challenged in the past, and I respectfully submit a new challenge.
Before I submit my evidence, let me reaffirm that I completely disagree with the premise that art has to be new to be good. That is just silly and pompous, and even old fashioned. And Gopnik sort of punches a hole in his own argument when in discussing a series of illuminated works that Noguchi made between 1943 and 1944 (and for the first time since they were made brought together in one place in this exhibit) he admits that
The biomorphic shapes on view in "Lunar Fist" come out of earlier works by Jean Arp; the aggressive id the sculpture seems to flaunt had been a staple of surrealism for years already. But the simple gesture of making the whole work light up gives it an energy that wasn't in its static sources....But put a light bulb in a blob of cast cement and colored plastic hanging on the wall, as Noguchi did in "Lunar Fist," and you get somewhere distinctly new. Make a work of art recall the lamps that light the modern world, and it gets a novel kind of leverage.
But let's give more credit where credit is due, and if we are to judge Noguchi solely on "What did you do that's new Isamu?" - then I submit two facts as evidence that both a young Noguchi and an elder Noguchi accomplished this overrated achievement. 
Article comments
1 - Z.Z.Bachman
Here is some additional very good information on Noguchi.
Noguchi advocated carving in stone and wood, yet throughout his career he experimented endlessly with diverse and unusual materials, including plaster, wood, terracotta, paper, string, magnesite, steel, chrome, bronze, plastic, and electric lights. His sculptures hang on walls, suspend from armatures, repose on the floor, and stand like apparitional figures.
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ZZ Bachman / ZardozZ News & Satire Portal
2 - Remiss63
One note on Noguchi's early use of light as a sculptural "material" in the 1920s. There is a photograph of a work entitled "Zing (Power House)" of 1928. That's the only work of that sort of which I'm aware.
However, my understanding is Noguchi created a model for such a work, but it was never executed. To me, it appears that he's taken metal tubing and bent it to form the intended shape. He photographed the resulting form and then showed the image as a negative to suggest light emanating from neon tubing.
That he was fascinated by light as a medium of sculptural expression from a very early time is clear. However, it would seem that many years would pass before he would use electric light as an integral part of a work. Lunar Landscape of 1943-44 seems to be one of his early achievements using this medium.
Andrew Raimist