Towards Life, Towards Art: New VB Akari

The Akari VB1 and VB3, two pyramidal Akari light sculptures designed by Isamu Noguchi for the 1986 Venice Biennale, are now available to purchase for the first time through The Noguchi Museum Shop. Newly produced by Ozeki & Co in Japan (Akari’s manufacturer since 1951), these models first appeared in Noguchi’s exhibition for the American Pavilion at the 1986 Venice Biennale, and have not been in production since. 

This reintroduction coincides with the 75th anniversary of Akari light sculptures and the opening of No Ordinary Light at The Noguchi Museum (November 4, 2026–September 5, 2027), an exhibition exploring Akari’s enduring significance.

The 1986 exhibition in which the VB1 and VB3 first appeared, titled What is Sculpture?, was a fitting space for Noguchi to introduce some of his most radically genre-defying Akari—neither floor nor hanging lamps, but spatial installations in and of themselves. He wrote of the exhibition: “I decided to take the opportunity to present my point of view: sculpture is more than the creation of objects of art. Sculpture is an experience that is wide and involves the total environment.”¹ Positioning Akari alongside his monumental stone sculptures and a working marble slide, Noguchi conceived an environment of interplaying dualities—man and nature, ends and beginnings—“to show how, in my case, art proliferates outwards (towards life) as well as inwards towards art.”²

The Akari VB1 and VB3 are both based on the triangle, a shape that Noguchi wrote, in preparation for the exhibition, “seems to be nature’s way,” adding that, “nature is never limited, but continuously reproducing itself, changing and changing through the devices of tetrahedral structuring.”³ The VB1 is a hanging three-sided pyramid, or tetrahedron, and the VB3 is a hanging four-sided pyramid, and both Akari include an entirely unique trait among Noguchi’s series: stones. 

The stones, which can optionally be tied to the shade, tether the washi paper and bamboo works, literally and figuratively, to earth. In the Venice presentation, the VB3 was installed with stones, and the VB1 was installed without them, hovering just above the floor.

Though the VB models represented new ideas to the Akari series, Noguchi’s related interests can be seen within the trove of travel photography taken by the artist in the decades prior. Black and white photographs show very different types of Japanese lantern-making that caught his eye. He appears to have been captivated by a line of hanging lanterns (tsuridōrō) at the Kyoto Imperial Palace, whose forms are essentially suspended truncated pyramids.

Elsewhere in Kyoto, at an ayu sweetfish restaurant, he photographed a handmade chōchin hovering above pebbled dirt, with criss-crossing bamboo ribbing (higo), handwritten characters, and a rope tied to a large stone, anchoring the lantern to the ground. The restaurant featured a platform on which meals could be served, overlooking the narrow Serikawa (now Setogawa) River, a branch of the Katsura River.

The VB1 and VB3  also highlight Noguchi’s collaborative spirit and his deep relationship with Ozeki & Co., Ltd., the family-run business in Gifu, Japan, with whom he created Akari beginning in 1951, and who still produce them today. Between the days Noguchi spent in Gifu with Ozeki’s craftspeople and countless letters between Noguchi and Hidetaro Ozeki, the continuously evolving project yielded inspired results. “It wasn’t I who thought of covering the rock with paper; it was the manufacturer, Mr. Ozeki, who thought it up. And, oh, what a beautiful thing!”⁴

The new Akari VB1 and VB3 models were previewed at OGATA Paris in Nature’s Way (September 10–26, 2026). The two models, produced by Ozeki & Co., Ltd, in Gifu, Japan, are exclusively available in North America through The Noguchi Museum. For more information about these works, contact akari@noguchi.org.

Text by Evan Scott, Director of Retail and Merchandising at The Noguchi Museum.

Above: Isamu Noguchi in Venice, 1986. Photo: Shigeo Anzaï. The Noguchi Museum Archives, PH_ANZAI_001_001. ©INFGM / ARS / Estate of Shigeo Anzaï, Courtesy of Zeit-Foto

¹ Isamu Noguchi, “What is Sculpture?” statement, c. 1986. The Noguchi Museum Archives, MS_WRI_065_001.

² Isamu Noguchi, “Akari in Venice,” c. 1986. The Noguchi Museum Archives, MS_EXH_255_010.

³ Ibid.

⁴ Isamu Noguchi, statement for What Is Sculpture?, c. 1986. The Noguchi Museum Archives, MS_EXH_252_001.