A Never-Built World's Fair Sculpture by Noguchi

"Sketches, models, and blueprints for more than a dozen unrealized works are currently on display in Noguchi's New York, a new exhibit that explores the city as it was, as it is, and as Noguchi dreamed it could be. Alongside these unrealized projects, the exhibit celebrates works that did come to life and others that have since been lost."

"The large sculpture was one of several proposals Noguchi made for the fair. It would have been an integral part of architect Percival Goodman's unrealized Labor Pavilion. Representing the strength of union labor, the piece took the form of a massive, muscled worker appearing to hold up the building on his shoulders."

"Artist Isamu Noguchi once stated, 'My best things have never been built.' At the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, you can decide if he was right."

The Noguchi Museum in Long Island City presents a comprehensive exhibition titled Noguchi's New York, showcasing sketches, models, and blueprints of more than a dozen unrealized works alongside completed and lost projects. The exhibit explores the city as it existed, exists today, and as Noguchi envisioned it could become. A notable unrealized project featured is Noguchi's never-built sculpture for the 1939 World's Fair, designed for architect Percival Goodman's Labor Pavilion. The sculpture depicted a muscled worker appearing to support the building, symbolizing union labor's strength. Noguchi collaborated with artists Philip Guston and Harold Lehman on murals for the pavilion's 300-foot fin, though documentation of these murals no longer exists. The exhibition demonstrates Noguchi's idealistic approach to reshaping New York's urban landscape.

Read at Untapped New York