Great Rock of Inner Seeking

1974

Isamu Noguchi

Artist, American, 1904 - 1988

A rough-hewn block of basalt sits upright on a rectangular stone base on a pale pink stone floor against a stone wall. In this photograph, we are off the front left corner of the free-standing sculpture in a space filled with natural light. The tongue-shaped basalt is narrower from front to back and wider from side to side. It is about three times taller than it is wide at its widest. Some of the dark brown basalt running up the center of the block is smooth but most is pitted. Strips up either side have been carved to expose rough, copper-colored stone, some of which has flaked away. The tan stone base is speckled densely with gray, and the leaves of an indoor but mature tree bow into the top left corner of the photograph.
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On View

NGA, East Building, EG-100, E


Artwork overview


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Arthur M. Sackler and Mortimer D. Sackler, Washington, D.C.; gift 1976 to NGA.

Associated Names

Bibliography

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 158, repro.

  • Altshuler, Bruce. Isamu Noguchi. New York, 1994: fig. 113.

Inscriptions

on back, bottom: IN / 74

Wikidata ID

Q63854663


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