Image: Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Isamu Noguchi, 1955, gelatin silver print. © 2025 Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. © 2025 The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, will present ‘Isamu Noguchi: “I am not a designer”’ from September 19, 2026, through January 3, 2027. The exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, which describes it as a major retrospective offering a new perspective on the design work of Noguchi (1904–1988).
According to the museum, the exhibition traces Noguchi’s design legacy across sculpture, lighting, furniture, ceramics and schemes for public spaces including gardens, playgrounds and plazas, presented through immersive installations, archival materials and what PEM calls iconic works. It gives particular attention to the way he created environments through theatrical set design, furniture and inclusive public spaces, and to designs that remain widely recognised today, among them his coffee table and the Akari light sculptures. The museum quotes Noguchi: “Everything is sculpture. Any material, any idea without hindrance born into space, I consider sculpture.”
The presentation also examines Noguchi’s collaborative working relationships, in particular with the dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, the architect R. Buckminster Fuller and the sculptor Constantin Brâncuși.
A curator conversation marking the opening is scheduled for Saturday, September 19, from 1 to 2 p.m. in PEM’s Morse Auditorium, free with preregistration. Ruthie Dibble, PEM’s Robert N. Shapiro Curator of American Decorative Art, will be joined by the exhibition’s curators: Monica Obniski, curator of decorative arts and design at the High Museum of Art, and Marin Sullivan, a Chicago-based art historian and independent curator.
PEM has also announced member programming ahead of the public opening. A members-only opening is set for Wednesday, September 16, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., with a cocktail reception, live music, light bites and a curator conversation, and a Member Morning follows on Friday, September 18, from 9 a.m. to noon, addressing the inspiration and creative decisions behind the exhibition. Both are described as limited in capacity.
Major funding for the exhibition is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art. The presentation at PEM is made possible by Carolyn and Peter S. Lynch and The Lynch Foundation, and Karla and Jeff Kaneb. The museum is located at 161 Essex Street in Salem and lists its regular hours as Thursday through Monday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
