Isamu Noguchi's Modernism: Negotiating Race, Labor, and Nation, 1930-1950 Stephanie Takaragawa Chapman University, Takaraga@Chapman.Edu

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2014 Isamu Noguchi's Modernism: Negotiating Race, Labor, and Nation, 1930-1950 Stephanie Takaragawa Chapman University, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Takaragawa, Stephanie. 2014"Isamu Noguchi's Modernism: Negotiating Race, Labor, and Nation, 1930–1950." Pacific Affairs 87(4): 858-860.

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Comments This article was originally published in Pacific Affairs, volume 87, issue 4, in 2014.

This article is available at Chapman University Digital Commons: http://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/sociology_articles/13 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Publishing Technology to: Chapman University IP: 206.211.139.123 on: Thu, 09 Apr 2015 19:02:58 artistic formandtheplaces throughwhichtheartistlaboured. identity politics.Thisapproach iscentralindecodingboththechoices within a compelling and nuanced interpretation foregrounding racial and recontextualizestheearlyas itsbackdrop,Lyford work ofIsamuNoguchi Noguchi’s work, obscuring larger issues of race and identity. With hindsight of identity that has manifested itself throughout discussions of the binary Two. brings fresh insight towards a much-needed corrective of Amy Lyford larger social,economicandpoliticalcontextsofpre- andpost-World War provides compellingevidencetoreconsiderthework oftheartistwithin Isamu Noguchi’s Modernism: Negotiating Race, Labor and Nation, 1930– German InstituteforJapaneseStudies,Tokyo, Japan concise manner. leadership againstthebackdropofinstitutionalchangeinanaccessibleand ofchangingpostwarpoliticsandprimeministerial overarching storyline authors indetailedstudies,Shinodahastobeapplaudedforpresentingthe reform andtheriseoftwo-partysystem,havebeenexploredbymany is aworthwhileread.Whilevariousaspects,suchastheeffectsofelectoral backdrop isquestionable. of theKanadministration’s ineptness,whichagainsttheaforementioned the message that slow post-disaster management was primarily the result Fukushima Dai-ichipowerplant.Withoutthisinformation,thebookconveys tougher securitymeasureswhichmayhavepreventedthemeltdownsin veto players like the utility companies with the means to avoid more costly, (METI),butalsoprovidedthe most stronglyinfavourofnuclearenergy body (NISA) under the umbrella of the ministry only placed the regulatory previous LDPadministrationswouldhavebeenhelpful.Thissystemhadnot on the inefficient nuclear oversight regime which the DPJ had inherited from a morebalancedassessment.Inthiscontext,backgroundinformation the needsofdamagedareasinTohoku” (220)couldhavebenefitedfrom Fukushima, whichiscontrastedto“eachtriedhardrespond ministry 3.11 disaster management “excessively” focusing on thenuclearincident in of considerabledomesticcriticism.Similarly, thecritiqueofDPJ’s post withneighbouringcountries,inspite of andreflectiononmodernhistory to attemptsettleJapan’s long-standingdisputesovertheinterpretation (successfully) showedconsiderableleadershipinpushingthegovernment 858 (Figures.) US$60.00,cloth.ISBN978-0-520-25314-8. with theassistance of the GettyFoundation, 2013. viii, 273pp.,[8] pp. ofplates Berkeley:UniversityofCaliforniaPressNation, 1930–1950.ByAmyLyford. ISAMU NOGUCHI’SMODERNISM:NegotiatingRace, Labor, and Contemporary JapanesePolitics Irrespective oftheaforementionedissues,Contemporary Pacific Affairs: Volume87,No.4–December2014 Chris Winkler 1950 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Publishing Technology to: Chapman University IP: 206.211.139.123 on: Thu, 09 Apr 2015 19:02:58 gendered andracializedways. more criticalanalysis of howthose reviews continuetomark theartistin While always present, as indicated through reviews of his work, offers Lyford foregrounding oftheJapanese partofhisidentityduringWorld War Two. draws outpotentialpsychologies ofNoguchiinhisresponsetothesudden two sections,internalizedand externalizedracialidentification.Section4 and letters.Whileraceistheoverarchingtheme,it subtlydividedinto Nisei (appendix2),aswellthroughrecentlyuncovered FBIdocuments nisei isexaminedthroughhiswork withtheNWAMD andhisessayIBecome Democracy (NWAMD). Noguchi’s ownambivalencetowardshisidentity as as ananalysisofhisgroup,theNiseiWriters andArtistsMobilizationfor on Noguchi’s internmentatPoston, niseiidentityandhisvoluntary aswell resituates thecomplexityofidentityandcommunity. Part 2, “Race,” focuses implicating identityasabiologicalconstantarbitrating hiswork, thisanalysis much oftheanalysishiswork inhisJapaneseandEuropeanancestry, reinterpretation ofwell-knownones. to lesser-known andunrealizedNoguchiworks andplans,aswellthe among artistandworker. Thisbeautifullycraftedargumentdrawsattention where theproductionofwork itself providedlabourandcollaboration and thelabourthroughphysicalrepresentationofsculpture, the productionofhiswork, thesubject ofwhichconflatedtheindividual these plansandsculpturestoillustratehowNoguchiinvestedhimselfin uses leanings wouldhavetomanifestthemselvesinotherways.Lyford Rivera’s iconicManattheCrossroads muralwascensored,Noguchi’s left- for theAssociatedPressmural,locatedatRockefellerCenterwhereDiego Noguchi canexpressthecollusionofidentityartistaslabourer. Particularly for theAssociatedPressmural,aredevelopedasformsthroughwhich including MonumenttothePlow, theCarl MackleyMemorial,andthedesign plans thatallforeground the notionofartist as socialagent.Theseworks, detailed discussions anddocumentations ofNoguchi’s works andunrealized Japanese-American duringWorld War Two. Part1,titled“Labor,” provides of labour, work and the artistand second focusing on hisidentity as areas, thefirsthalfofbookisdedicatedtowardshisintegrationnotions to the1950s,whichNoguchi’s work isresponding.Dividedintotwomain of sophisticationnow. of race,identityandcommunity, whichmayaccountforitsapparentlack differentideologicalunderstanding waspartofavery the twentiethcentury for analysis.Noidentityissingular, andyettheracialdiscourseoffirsthalf center during the Japanese-American internment, has provided rich fodder Paris withBrancusiandvoluntarilyinternedhimselfatPoston Relocation American, artist,furnituremakerandlandscapedesigner, whoworked in While previousliteraturebothbyandabouttheartist hasrooted The bookisdrivenbythesocialandpoliticaldiscoursesof1930s Noguchi wasanomalousinmanyways.HisidentityasaJapanese- Book Reviews 859 Copyright (c) Pacific Affairs. All rights reserved. Delivered by Publishing Technology to: Chapman University IP: 206.211.139.123 on: Thu, 09 Apr 2015 19:02:58 compromise withascendant authoritarianideologiesandbehaviours.The expansionism ofImperial Japan. Thisisusuallyportrayedasareluctant a longtimethatliberalsfound waystoaccommodatethecolonialismand Japanhaveunderstoodfor International historiansof twentieth-century Chapman University, Orange, USA political alliances,hiswork itselfandoverarchingsocialagendasofthetime. well-known today. ItprovidesnewopportunitiesforexaminingNoguchi’s bridge manyofhisearlier unresolvedactsthatculminatedinthe artistso his critics.Lyford’s researchhasprovidedamorecultivatedanalysisthatmay unknowingly concealedbytheartist,ormisunderstood,willfullynot, makes itnosurprisethatcertainaspectsofwereeitherknowinglyor race, ethnicityandidentity. Histimeprovidedlittleofthatability, which through moresophisticatedandnuancedunderstandingsofcommunity, an analysis today that has articulated hyphenated and hybrid identities, of itstimeandplace.Noguchi’s work caneasilybereconsideredthrough interpretations. and politicalinfluencesthatbothcompelrestrictactions but cancontinuallybeminedtogarneradeeperunderstandingofsocial distinctions aboutbothhiswork andidentity willneverbefullyanswered, the cultural environment to portend precisely why such difficulties and ways thathehas,butalso,whymaynotbesufficient.Thisbooksurveys often comesfromneglectedsources. community, raceandnationshiftovertimeimportantnewinformation race andnationalism.Lyford’s work isan importantreminderthatidentity, shifting relationshipbetweenJapanandtheUS,itsimpactonlabelsof end. Thisbookalsoilluminatesthesocialandpoliticalimportanceof that mayhaveimpactedNoguchi’s ownself-presentation,discussedatthe construction andconceptionofthemodernistartistaswhitemale,how to delicately, almostsurgically, dismantletheEurocentricandmisogynistic she utilizesthecontemporaneousreviewsofhissculptureandexhibitions Greenberg’s critiquesofNoguchi’s work inthelastsectionsofbook.Here 860 US$39.95, cloth.ISBN978-0-674-06571-0. University Press [distributor]2012. viii,231pp.(B&Willus.)Harvard UniversityAsiaCenter; 346. ByJung-SunN.Han.Cambridge, MA:Harvard Liberal Order inEast Asia, 1905–1937. PATHAN IMPERIAL TO Yoshino MODERNITY: SakuzōandaNew All writingisculture-bound.Itreflectsthesensibilitiesandideologies makesiteasytoseewhyNoguchihasbeeninterpretedinthe Lyford Particularly aptisherownanalysisofbothThomasHess’andClement Pacific Affairs: Volume87,No.4–December2014 Harvard EastAsianMonographs, Harvard Stephanie Takaragawa