Solid Doubts:
Robert Stadler
at The Noguchi Museum

We bring the category-defying work of Isamu Noguchi and Robert Stadler together in the secluded precincts of The Noguchi Museum—where art and design frequently lose themselves in each other’s eyes—as co-conspirators in the resisting of labels and the confounding of definitions. Stadler’s works share with Noguchi’s a fundamental resistance to disambiguation—particularly those works made within the constraints of conventional functional categories (e.g., table, mirror, lamp, bench). Both artists design objects to remain steadfast in their categorical ambivalence, even when and as they toy with the specifics of usefulness. In neither of their universes does use disqualify an object from the responsibilities of self-doubt. These rendezvous between Stadler and Noguchi, which Stadler has likened to a blind date, are meant to destabilize both artists’ works, for their own benefit—in much the same way that Shakespeare’s lovers are put through their paces in an identity farce. If all goes to plan, every object will emerge with a more flexible, correspondingly stronger sense of self, as well as an enhanced capacity for salutary, open-ended fraternization. It is the Museum’s first exhibition to feature a contemporary designer’s work in dialogue with Noguchi’s sculptures and designs.
Dakin Hart, Senior Curator, The Noguchi Museum

Commissioned by:
The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum

Curator:
Dakin Hart

See also:
Waiting Room: Noguchi/Stadler

Photos:
Nicholas Knight