 The tryptich is a composite I made from Noguchi's "Undine" (Nadja) that he did in 1925 when he was still at Onorio Ruotolo's art school in New York. He'd mastered the figurative and the classical form with amazing speed while he was there, and just as quickly left them behind. The training, of course, would last him a lifetime. about 'Three Graces', ...yes, we would normally call it "Lynching" or "lynched figure". But, that also fixes and imprisons it forever in a space sculpted by history, racism, social protest and statement. Well within the sphere of human measure and representation. Not that those aren't important subsets of concern. Even Noguchi parenthetically called it '(lynched figure)' in the catalog in his autobiograpy. Still, parenthesis are marks of hesitancy, aside. He had already changed direction, even if the direction was still in the fluid maps of his unconscious. By 1925, Noguchi began to leave 'the measure of man' behind as the yardstick for a future sculptural platform. In 1926, he writes in his successful bid for a Guggenheim grant It is my desire to view nature through nature's eyes, and to ignore man as an object for special veneration. So, if in 1934 we are confronted with a work such as "Death", well rooted in the human form, something equally unique has happened that takes us well beyond the confines of human veneration of the human form. Noguchi's "Death" looks beyond its narrow origins both by title and execution. It is 'Death', not simply 'lynching' that elevates the matter and takes it out of the hands of the mobs. A new yardstick of evaluation is in place. One which permits the figure to have its own authenticity, even nobility, to grapple with a subject over which none have dominion. Noguchi has found a relm where the human measure is unable to either authenticate or falsify. Eventually, for the viewer, the rope, and all that comes with it, do come into play. But, for a brief moment, only the strange beauty and incredible energy that animates the figure is of interest. Promethean and tragic, it no longer is bound to its identity as a victim nor merely as a symbol of protest to racist violence, despite the fact that Noguchi, himself, later describes it as a 'protest work' and, as others have pointed out, one of obvious shock value, Since we're on the subject, let's go take a look at this remarkable work. We can return later to the other works in 'The Faces of Mu' group. |
