Miss Expanding Universe

Artist Isamu Noguchi (American, 1904-1988)

Date1932

Dimensions40 7/8 x 34 7/8 in. (103.8 x 88.6 cm)

Mediumaluminum

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number

1948.12

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 07

Label TextMiss Expanding Universe needs the awareness of a totality in which we exist and strongly requires an optimistic faith. Otherwise, it is a lonely object all by itself. —Isamu Noguchi One of the most influential American Modern sculptors, Isamu Noguchi spent his early years in Japan (though he was born in the U.S.). Throughout his career he sought to merge Asian traditions with Western Modernism, an aesthetic apparent in the spare simplicity of Miss Expanding Universe. The sculpture is based on modern dancer Ruth Page (1899–1991), who in turn was inspired to create the dance “Expanding Universe.” Clearly a female shape, it nevertheless is also evocative of a butterfly or bird silhouette. Noguchi wrote about the creation of Miss Expanding Universe: “It was the first sculpture that I started to do upon returning from Japan in 1932…. I was confronted with New York, the new world, hopes of a young man; everything expanding in spite of the Depression.” The title was suggested by Noguchi’s good friend, the visionary designer, architect, and theorist Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983).Published References

Larkin, Oliver W., Art and Life in America, New York, 1949.

Noguchi, Isamu, A Sculptor's World, New York, 1968, p. 21, repr. no. 24.

Hunter, Sam, Isamu Noguchi, New York, 1979, repr. p. 46.

Wilson, Richard Guy, The Machine Age in America, 1918-1941, Brooklyn Museum, pp. 264-265, repr. fig. 7.71. (not in exhibition)

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 322, repr. (col.).

Dini, Jane ed., et al., Dance: American Art, 1830-1960, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2016, repr. (col). cat. 89, p. 280.

Hart, Dakin, Isamu Noguchi: Archaic/Modern, Washington D.C., Smithsonian American Art Museum in association with D. Giles Limited, London, 2016, pp. 28-29, repr. (col.) p. 28.

Exhibition History

New York, Museum of Modern Art, Art in Our Time, 1939, no. 323, repr. (lent by the artist, dated 1931).

Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art, Sculpture Today, Nov.-Dec. 1947, no. 41

Toronto, Art Gallery of Toronto, Sculpture Today, Jan. 9-Feb. 9, 1948.

Flint, Flint Institute of Arts, American Sculpture 1900-1965, 1965, no. 51, p. 17.

New Brunswick, Rutgers University Art Gallery; Chapel Hill, Auckland Art Center; Omaha, Joslyn Art Museum; Oakland, Oakland Art Museum, Vanguard American Sculpture 1913-1939, 1979-1980, no. 90, p. 115, repr. fig.183.

Boston, Boston Institute of Contemporary Art; Toeldo, The Toledo Museum of Art, Art and Dance, 1983, pp. 78-79, repr.

New York, Pace Wildenstein, Earthly Forms: The Biomorphic Sculptures of Art, Noguchi, and Calder, 2000, no. 16, p. 13, 15, repr. p. 16.

Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art, Aluminum by Design: Jewelry to Jets, 2000-2003, no. 3.35, p. 248, repr.

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art; Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Isamu Noguchi: Master Sculptor, October 28, 2004 - May 8, 2005, p. 47, 52, 56, 230, repr. (col.), p. 48, repr. p. 96.

New York, The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, On Becoming an Artist: Noguchi and His Contemporaries: 1923-1960, November 17, 2010-May 6, 2011.

Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts; Denver, Denver Art Museum; Bentonville, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; The Art of American Dance, November 5, 2016-January 30, 2017.