Isamu Noguchi Akari Light Sculptures

A room of Isamu Noguchi's Akari light sculptures glowing at the Noguchi Museum in Queens, New York, from tall folded columns to squat lanterns on wire legs. Noguchi began the series after visiting Gifu in 1951. The Ozeki workshop has made Akari in Gifu since then. Each one is washi paper over bamboo ribs, and the name is a Japanese word for light in both senses, brightness and lightness. Noguchi called them light sculptures rather than lamps, and this crowd of shapes shows why: no two read the same.