{"id":216341,"date":"2023-09-25T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/?post_type=id_news&p=216341"},"modified":"2023-09-27T11:06:42","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T15:06:42","slug":"noguchi-museum-filmmaker-marie-menken-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"id_news","link":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/designwire\/noguchi-museum-filmmaker-marie-menken-exhibit\/","title":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s Noguchi Museum Spotlights Filmmaker Marie Menken"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Sculptures
Sculptures in Isamu Noguchi\u2019s MacDougal Alley studio, Greenwich Village, New\nYork City, c. 1944. Photography by Rudolph Burckhardt. The Noguchi Museum Archives,\n03198. \u00a9 The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum \/ \u00a9 Estate of Rudy\nBurckhardt \/ Artists Rights Society.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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September 25, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n

Words: <\/span>Adrian Madlener<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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New York\u2019s Noguchi Museum Spotlights Filmmaker Marie Menken<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Despite the commonly-held belief that influential creatives achieve genius through isolated practice, the reality is that most do so through collaboration and mutual critique. No artist is an island. This is especially true for interdisciplinarians like Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988). Foraying into almost every available medium, the era-defying polymath often worked with or alongside like-minded talents, pushing the boundaries of material and practice in equal measure. The groundbreaking concepts he put forward in terms of form, composition, and loosely defined function would have been nothing without the feedback or interpretation of his contemporaries. Leading experimental filmmaker Marie Menken was one such force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new showcase at The Noguchi Museum<\/a> in Queens, New York looks to highlight Menken\u2019s filmic translation of the sculptor\u2019s explorations but also, her ultimate contribution to his ever-evolving practice. On view from September 27 to February 4, 2024, “A Glorious Bewilderment: Marie Menken\u2019s \u2018Visual Variations on Noguchi” will center on the continuous screening of Visual Variations on Noguchi<\/em> (1945\u201346\/1953), her inaugural film. The showcase also marks the 100th anniversary of the invention of the 16mm format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examining Marie Menken’s Impact in the Art World<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Going on to greatly influence the likes of Andy Warhol<\/a> and Kenneth Anger, the filmmaker’s quintessential handheld and ambulatory approach was first articulated in this historically-significant project. In the impactful\u2014albeit short\u2014film, she sought to capture the mobility, shape, and viscerality of Noguchi<\/a>\u2019s seminal artworks, some of which will be on view as accompanying material within the exhibit, presented on the museum\u2019s second floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using a hand-cranked Bolex camera, Menken moved rapidly in and around these format-defying pieces\u2014Remembrance (1943), E=MC2 (1945)<\/em>, among others\u2014emulating Noguchi\u2019s own belief that \u201csculptures move because we move.\u201d The film is an emphatically personal yet honest portrait of these works and perhaps even an intimate look inside his venerated practice. This depiction would expose Noguchi to aspects of his output he might not have been aware of without the critical distance afforded by this lens. Noted composer Lucia Dlugoszewski created a score that was added to the film in 1953, which mirrors the captivating messiness, sporadic motion, and rhapsodic expression communicated in this unique portrayal. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Filmmaker
Filmmaker Marie Menken (1909\u20131970). Photography by William Wood.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is our pleasure to screen Menken’s film at [our institution] for the very first time and to illuminate the unexplored cross-connections between Menken, Noguchi, and Dlugoszewski,\u201d says Kate Wiener, Noguchi Museum curator. It\u2019s almost as if the film is making a long overdue homecoming. \u201cWhile working in different mediums, all three artists sought poetry and revelation in fracture\u2013and inspired us to salvage meaning from disorder. Menken’s daring 4-minute film is a document of this shared ambition, and an extraordinary cinematic experience in its own right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Glimpse at The Noguchi Museum Showcase Ongoing Through February, 2024<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Isamu
Isamu Noguchi, Red Lunar Fist, 1944. Magnesite, plastic, resin, electric components.\nPhotography by Kevin Noble. \u00a9 The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum \/\nArtists Rights Society.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"Isamu
Isamu Noguchi, Untitled, 1943. Wood. Photography by Kevin Noble. \u00a9 The Isamu Noguchi\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Isamu
Isamu Noguchi, Gregory (Effigy), 1945. Slate. Photography by Kevin Noble. \u00a9 The Isamu\nNoguchi Foundation and Garden Museum \/ Artists Rights Society.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Sculptures
Sculptures in Isamu Noguchi\u2019s MacDougal Alley studio, Greenwich Village, New\nYork City, c. 1944. Photography by Rudolph Burckhardt. The Noguchi Museum Archives,\n03198. \u00a9 The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum \/ \u00a9 Estate of Rudy\nBurckhardt \/ Artists Rights Society.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Marie
Marie Menken, Still from Lights (1965\u201366). Image courtesy of Anthology Film Archives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n