Isamu Noguchi / Qi Baishi / Beijing 1930

May 18 - September 15, 2013

Organized by UMMA in partnership with the Noguchi Museum in New York, this nationally touring exhibition project will feature approximately sixty drawings, including ink paintings, calligraphic works, and sculptures and interpretive materials from UMMA, the Noguchi Museum, and other public and private collections that will shed new light on the transformative relationship between American sculptor Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) and Chinese ink painter Qi Baishi (1864-1957). In 1930 at the age of twenty-six, Isamu Noguchi traveled eastward on the Trans-Siberian Railroad towards Japan, where he hoped for reconciliation with his father and a reconnection with the childhood sources of his artistic inspiration. Noguchi stopped en route for six months in Beijing, where he met and studied with the renowned Chinese brush-and-ink painter Qi Baishi, an experience that greatly affected his creative vision. This exhibition will showcase the artists' cross-cultural creative impulses and underscore their respective and lasting influences on contemporary practice. The exhibition will be accompanied by a scholarly publication and will be on view in Long Island City and Seattle following its debut in Ann Arbor.

Isamu Noguchi and Qi Baishi: Beijing 1930 is organized by the University of Michigan Museum of Art in collaboration with The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York.

Lead support for this exhibition is provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional generous support is provided by the University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies and Confucius Institute and the Blakemore Foundation.

Images

Isamu Noguchi, Peking Drawing (man reclining), 1930, Ink on paper, The Noguchi Museum

Qi Baishi, Crabs, circa 1930, Album leaf, ink on paper, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Gift of Sotokichi Katsuizumi, 1949/1.199

Isamu Noguchi, Peking Drawing (two nude wrestlers), 1930, Hanging scroll, ink on paper, The Noguchi Museum

Isamu Noguchi, Seated Female Nude: Scroll (Kakemono), 1930, Hanging scroll, ink on paper, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Museum purchase, 1948/1.331

Qi Baishi, Plum Blossoms and Bird, c. 1930, Hanging scroll, ink on paper, Gift of Katsuizumi Sotokichi, 1949/1.192, University of Michigan Museum of Art

Timeline

Exhibition Timeline

SatMay 18
Exhibition Opens
SunSep 15
Exhibition Closes
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