"When I face natural stones, they start talking to me. Once I hear their voices, I give them just a bit of a hand. Recently, I don't have to carve or polish that much."

– Isamu Noguchi

Isamu Noguchi (1904 - 1988) has been seen by some as the greatest sculptor of the twentieth century. One thing is clear: he was a very prolific and busy artist who also worked as a designer, architect, and craftsman. He was born in Los Angeles; his father was an Irish-American teacher and editor, and his mother was a Japanese poet. Two years after his birth, he was taken to Japan by his mother where he attended Japanese and Jesuit schools. In these early years, Noguchi gained deep respect for the country's landscape, architecture and craftsmanship.

"For one with a background like myself the question of identity is very uncertain. And I think it's only in art that it was ever possible for me to find any identity at all."

– Isamu Noguchi

Seeking out mentors and role models, Noguchi as a young man served an apprenticeship in New York to sculptor Gutzon Borglum (future carver of Mount Rushmore) and then travelled to Paris where he worked as the assistant to Constantin Brancusi. Back in New York, he felt fulfilled as a portraitist in stone and as a set designer for his friend, choreographer Martha Graham. Then in the 1930s, Noguchi moved to New Mexico where he labored on large mural with Diego Rivera. During his time there, he had an affair with Frida Kahlo. Because of all these quests, Noguchi once called himself "a displaced person" living in a twilight zone between East and West.

"The essence of sculpture is for me the perception of space, the continuum of our existence. … growth can only be new, for awareness is the ever-changing adjustment of the human psyche to chaos. … I say it is the sculptor who orders and animates space, gives it meaning."

– Isamu Noguchi

After World War II, the sculptor returned to Japan creating gardens and fountains. Keeping in sync with his global life there are outdoor sculptures and environments in 17 American cities. After reading this very appealing biography, we appreciated its title. Noguchi not only listened to stone; he practiced reverence for everything around him.

" The whole world is art. … If one is really awake, he will see that the whole world is a symphony."

– Isamu Noguchi

Read an excerpt on Meaning