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Akari 30P
Akari 30P
Akari 30P
Akari 30P
Akari 30P
Akari 30P
Akari 30P
Akari 30P
Akari 30P
Akari 30P

Akari 30P

Designed c. 1968
The Akari 30P is among the wave of new Akari light sculptures that Isamu Noguchi designed in the 1960s. It features mulberry bark washi paper, and is constructed using minimal bamboo ribbing (higo), with a form resembling a column of stacked and rotated rectangular prisms. The lack of ribbing and collapsible construction creates complex textures on the surface of the form.
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30P
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36N
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Design by Dumais Interiors. Photo: Joshua McHugh
Akari 30P History
The Akari 30P is based on the shape of a shade designed by Noguchi years prior. The 36N, then known as the I (c. 1961), had a similar form but with the tight, evenly-spaced bamboo ribbing more indicative of traditional Gifu chochin. It appears in a trio on a postcard for a 1962 exhibition of Akari New York, at then retailer Bonniers, and hangs in triplicate at the French retailer Steph Simon, c. 1969.

The form then sheds the majority of its bamboo ribbing (higo), as Noguchi ventured into new directions of construction for Akari. The resulting 30P placed greater emphasis on the essential geometric forms and washi paper. It was shown in the exhibition Shapes of Light at Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, 1968–69, and, once again, at Steph Simon. This time, in 1969, it offers potential obscuration for (or from) a running nude performer during a Strip Tease Happening. At a presumably more tame opening at Bloomingdale’s in 1970, a 30P is also seen hovering nearby as Noguchi is interviewed on a furry-cushioned sofa.

About twenty five years into designing Akari light sculptures, Noguchi had developed a number of new long, columnal models, like the 30P, and, as he favored interchangeability, he attempted to find a standing solution for these shapes. One of his short-lived concepts was with a US distributor and manufacturer named Lauffer, c. 1974. He created a pyramidal base with three heights and multiple configurations for light sockets, able to accommodate many different sizes of Akari.

Though the working relationship with Lauffer dissolved shortly thereafter, and further stand development went through starts and stops for the next decade until Noguchi finally created the UF (unit/frame) stands in 1984, he would return to the pyramidal base later in the 1980s, reintroducing the stand in Japan through Ozeki with a standard of two sockets and adjustable height.
Installation view, “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, September 23 – October 19, 1952. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 09227.1. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Akari pictured in the exhibition catalogue “Noguchi: 1931/50/51/52/Japan” (Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppan-Sha, 1953).
Fig. 3
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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