Isamu Noguchi: "I am not a designer"

Isamu Noguchi: "I am not a designer" is the first design retrospective of Isamu Noguchi's work in nearly twenty-five years. Organized by the High Museum of Art, the exhibition features nearly two hundred objects, many of which are on loan from The Noguchi Museum. Though Noguchi declared in 1949 "I am not a designer," he regularly engaged with the space-shaping possibilities of design, imagining and producing work in architecture, industrial design, ceramics, furniture, lighting, stage sets, and landscape design. Spanning all facets of the artist's creative output, the exhibition highlights Noguchi as a multinational, interdisciplinary artist and designer who shaped a more open and inclusive world. The exhibition coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of Playscapes , a bicentennial gift for the city of Atlanta commissioned by the High Museum of Art in collaboration with the City of Atlanta Parks Department. Playscapes is the only one of Noguchi's playgrounds built in the United States during his lifetime. Following its presentation in Atlanta, Isamu Noguchi: "I am not a designer" will travel to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts (September 19, 2026–January 3, 2027) and the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York (February 13–June 6, 2027).