Isamu NoguchiIsamu Noguchi at Lever House
Sep 14, 2026 – Aug 31, 2027 Long Island City
Models, drawings and sculptures tied to Noguchi’s unrealized 1952 courtyard and lobby scheme for Lever House, shown at the building itself.
Noguchi worked with architect Gordon Bunshaft on two proposals for the Lever House courtyard, inspired by Kyoto sand gardens: a marble plane with a reflecting pool and three granite forms, then a richer landscape of water, planting and voids. Neither was built. His model sits in one of the lobby’s original vitrines, with related architectural drawings.
Realized works show how the ideas carried on, including Bird B, Noh Musicians, Mountains Forming, Octetra and Play Sculpture. Akari light sculptures light the Park Avenue corner of the lobby for the lamp’s 75th anniversary. The show is at Lever House, not the museum.
Museum Long Island City
The Noguchi Museum
Also at The Noguchi Museum5
The Noguchi Museum · Long Island CityIsamu NoguchiLight and Stone: Revisiting Noguchi’s 1986 Venice Biennale
The Noguchi Museum · Long Island CityGroup exhibitionNoguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America- The Noguchi Museum · Long Island CityIsamu Noguchi“I am not a designer”
The Noguchi Museum · Long Island CityIsamu NoguchiNo Ordinary Light: Akari at 75- The Noguchi Museum · Long Island CityGroup exhibitionNoguchi Museum × Ikenobo: 40 Years in New York — A Living Tradition of Flowers and Space