Wed, Sep 23
|Detroit Institute of Arts
Isamu Noguchi: "I am not a designer"
Join Dr. Monica Obniski for a Discussion of Noguchi's Expansive Engagement with the Possibilities of Design
Time & Location
Sep 23, 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Detroit Institute of Arts, Marvin and Betty Danto Lecture Hall, 5200 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI 48202, USA
About the event
Talk held at the DIA's Marvin and Betty Danto Lecture Hall - free with registration on the DIA website American sculptor and designer Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) worked across varied scales, materials, and disciplines throughout his sixty-year-long career. In this lecture sponsored by the DIA’s Friends of Modern & Contemporary Art, curator Monica Obniski discusses Noguchi's expansive engagement with the space-shaping possibilities of design, exploring his work in architecture, industrial design, furniture, lighting, stage sets, playgrounds, gardens, and public artworks, including Detroit's own Hart Plaza.
Dr. Monica Obniski is the Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA. Obniski recently curated the exhibition Isamu Noguchi: I am not a designer, which will travel to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA, in September 2026, and the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY, in 2027.
Image Credit: Isamu Noguchi, 1955. Gelatin silver print.
Photo: Louise Dahl-Wolfe. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 03705. INFGM / ARS