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Akari 2A
Akari 2A
Akari 2A
Akari 2A
Akari 2A
Akari 2A
Akari 2A
Akari 2A

Akari 2A

Designed c. 1952
The Akari 2A is among the first Akari light sculptures designed by Isamu Noguchi. It features mulberry bark washi paper, tight, evenly-spaced bamboo ribbing, and wooden collars (wa) on each side of its cylindrical form. The top of its three-legged metal frame is accented with wrapped bamboo.
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From the Archives
In 1952, Isamu Noguchi continued working on the Akari light sculpture series he had begun a year earlier in Gifu. He created around eighteen models—some with screenprinted designs, like the 2—and exhibited them at the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura.1 A promotional sheet from the period shows most of the new Akari and, helpfully, assembly instructions.2

Summarizing reception to the show, Hugo Munsterberg wrote in 1953’s College Art Journal, “Critics differed widely as regards the success of these sculptures, but all of them were unanimous in hailing his lamps, which combine modern design with the traditional Japanese lanterns, as eminently successful.”

An early version of the 2A, seemingly with slightly different proportions to the current model, is seen in a hazy, undated photograph with the now-discontinued 11A.3

The 2 prototype, with its printed purple circle and orange diamond, appears again at the Chuo Koron Gallery exhibition of 1954,4,5 labeled as 2A in the show’s brochure, alongside a 2A printed with an abstraction of cormorant fishing (later called the 2A UKAI), and a now-discontinued design for the model, featuring a pattern of line drawings.
Installation view, “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, September 23 – October 19, 1952. Photo: Isamu Noguchi. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 09229.6. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 1
Akari Lamps by Isamu Noguchi promotional sheet, c. 1952. The Noguchi Museum Archives, LBD_50S_025_005. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 2
Akari 2A and 11A. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 03583. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 3
Installation view, “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Chuo Koron Gallery, Tokyo, August 2–7, 1954. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 07137. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 4
Installation view, “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Chuo Koron Gallery, Tokyo, August 2–7, 1954. Photo: Isamu Noguchi. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 09316.4. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 5
About Akari Light Sculptures

Learn more about the history of Akari, one of Isamu Noguchi’s most successful efforts “to bring sculpture into a more direct involvement with the common experience of living.”

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