Night Bird 1967

Isamu Noguchi made this sculpture, Night Bird, in a dance between lightness and weight. I imagine him in the studio, maybe late at night, wrestling with stone and space. He would’ve wanted it to stand. It’s perched high up there, a dark, almost ominous form floating on the slimmest of pillars. Maybe he was thinking of the bird of night as a messenger, or some kind of dark omen. The shiny vertical stand reminds me of Brancusi’s Endless Column and the way it disappears into the sky. Both artists wanted their sculptures to soar and occupy the world in fresh ways. But Noguchi keeps it grounded. The dark bird could almost topple off its perch, but for the solid base. The sculpture asks us to consider the relationship between stability and fragility, darkness and light. This is how artists speak to one another through time.