The Cat

Object NamePlate

Series

Twenty-Seven Artists in Crystal

Designer Isamu Noguchi (American, 1904-1988)

Maker Steuben Glass, Inc. (1903-)

Made FromLead glass, metal mount

Date1939

Place MadeUnited States, NY, Corning

Techniqueblown, engraved

SizeOverall H: 29.6 cm: Plate Diam: 25.3 cm

Accession Number89.4.31

Credit LineGift of Harry W. and Mary M. Anderson in memory of Carl G. and Borghild M. Anderson and Paul E. and Louise Wheeler

Curatorial Area(s)

Modern

Exhibitions

Corning Glass Center 2000/Steuben Exhibition

Isamu Noguchi

On ViewModern Gallery

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

The celebrated sculptor and designer Isamu Noguchi was born in the United States, but he spent his early years in Japan. After studying art in New York City, he moved in 1923 to Paris, where he was an assistant to the well-known Romanian abstract sculptor Constantin Brancusi. In Paris, Noguchi met other influential sculptors interested in abstract art, such as Alberto Giacometti and Alexander Calder. In his art, Noguchi combined Western and Eastern approaches to abstraction. The design of this plate was inspired by Japanese painting.

Physical DescriptionPlate with Sleeping Cat. From the Steuben series "Twenty-Seven Artists in Crystal." Colorless lead glass, metal mount; blown, engraved. Shallow circular dish with lipless, fire-polished rim in metal mount; back side engraved with stylized linear depiction of curled cat; no pontil; dish sits vertically in silver-colored metal channel rim that surrounds three-fourths of dish, ends of mount curve out at lower one-quarter of dish, split and turn out at 90° degrees to form two pairs of base supports; inscribed in script near rim of glass at lowest point: "Steuben 1939".
Provenance

Source Mary M. Anderson

Source Harry W. Anderson