Conceived in 1953 as a rocking stool made of metal wire and wood, Noguchi’s playful object was manufactured the following year in varying sizes, and later evolved into a table that became a companion piece to the Bertoia wire children’s chair.
At the suggestion of Hans Knoll, Noguchi’s small table was enlarged to full size in 1957. Reintroduced by Knoll in collaboration with the Noguchi Foundation, the design is now meticulously produced from Noguchi’s original drawings. The sculptural base consists of a column of chrome-plated steel wires set into a cast-iron black porcelain-finished foot.
The top is available in white or black laminate. Dining and side table heights are offered.
The son of an American writer and a Japanese poet, Isamu Noguchi was born in Los Angeles in 1904. He spent his childhood in Japan and his adolescence in America. Noguchi’s fascination with art began while he was a pre-med student at Columbia University. A Guggenheim Fellowship in 1927 took him to Paris, where he worked in Brancusi’s atelier.
Noguchi’s interests were as wide ranging as his travels: He designed visionary sets and costumes for the Martha Graham Dance Company and New York City Ballet, furniture and objects for a variety of manufacturers, the Akari lamps and myriad environments, site installations and large-scale public sculptures of great note. The Noguchi Garden Museum in Long Island City, New York, is a repository of his work.