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Akari 3AD
Akari 3AD
Akari 3AD
Akari 3AD
Akari 3AD
Akari 3AD
Akari 3AD
Akari 3AD

Akari 3AD

Designed c. 1954
The Akari 3AD is among the first Akari light sculptures designed by Isamu Noguchi. A variation of the 3A, it features a black and red screenprinted teardrop design over mulberry bark washi paper, with evenly-spaced bamboo ribbing and wooden collars (wa) on each side of its rounded form. The top of its three-legged metal frame is accented with wrapped bamboo.
$450
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3A
23
12
3AD
23
12
3A-UKAI
23
12
3AB
23
12
3AR
23
12
3AV
23
12
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Design by Michele Lorenz, Ashby Collective. Photo: Clay Grier
From the Archives
In 1952, 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 3—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.”

The 3 prototype, with its paneled blue paper, appears again at the Chuo Koron Gallery exhibition of 1954,3–8 as does a plain 3A, a black and red teardrop designed 3A (later called the 3AD), and the 3AB, which appeared in a concurrent brochure.9 Noguchi demonstrated the playful versatility of Akari at this early show, which he also photographed, placing the 3A and 3AD shades on the top of an early version of the cast-iron and bamboo BB base.

An undated photograph of the 3AD arranges it as it was at Chuo Koron, perched atop an extra-tall BB base, like a drifting balloon.10
Installation view, “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, September 23–October 19, 1952. Photo: Isamu Noguchi. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 09229.3. ©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
Installation view, “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Chuo Koron Gallery, Tokyo, August 2–7, 1954. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 07129. ©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. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 07141. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 5
Installation view, “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Chuo Koron Gallery, Tokyo, August 2–7, 1954. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 09314.5. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 6
Isamu Noguchi photographing “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Chuo Koron Gallery, Tokyo, August 2–7, 1954. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 03607. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 7
Installation view, “Isamu Noguchi Exhibition,” Chuo Koron Gallery, Tokyo, August 2–7, 1954. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 09333.3. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 8
Akari Lamps by Isamu Noguchi promotional sheet, c. 1954. The Noguchi Museum Archives, AKA_PRI_001_003. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 9
Isamu Noguchi, Akari BB3-3AD. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 03424. ©INFGM / ARS
Fig. 10
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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