The Noguchi Museum in Long Island City

The Noguchi Museum in Long Island City is the first in America established by a living artist of his own work, containing the world’s richest holdings of Isamu Noguchi’s art. The Museum's goal is to honor and preserve the unique setting designed by Noguchi and to exhibit a core group of works for permanent viewing. The museum also features changing exhibitions and educational programs. It is located at 33rd Road, Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City.

Rock Paper Scissors

Encounter (1969, bronze, six parts) by Dorothy Dehner (American, 1901-1994)

Even  The Centipede (1952, unglazed kasama stoneware, wood pole and hemp cord) by Isamu Noguchi  (American, 1904-1988)

Imprisoned Figure (1948, wood and sheet lead) by Seymour Lipton (American, 1903-1986)

On view at the Paul J. Sachs Prints and Illustrated Books Galleries (second floor) of the Museum of Modern Art are these three sculptures by Isamu Noguchi, Seymour Lipton and Dorothy Dehner. These pieces are part of the "Abstract Expressionist New York: Rock Paper Scissors" exhibit that runs through February 28, 2011. The exhibit features sculptures and works on paper—realized in wood, stone, lead, etching, lithography, cut paper, watercolor, and crayon, among other materials and processes—by artists who moved in Abstract Expressionist circles.

RED CUBE by ISAMU NOGUCHI

This is ISAMU NOGUCHI's sculpture called "Red Cube" (1968, red painted steel) located in front of Brothers Harriman building (previously HSBC) at 140 Broadway, between Liberty and Cedar Streets in downtown Manhattan near Ground Zero.

From blueofthesky.com

The bright red painted steel of Isamu Noguchi's Red Cube stands out in strong contrast to the blacks, browns, and whites of the buildings and sidewalks around the sculpture. Located to one side of a small plaza in front of the BROTHERS HARRIMAN (previously HSBC) building on Broadway, Red Cube is surrounded on three sides by skyscrapers, the height of which draw a viewer's eye upwards. The sculpture itself adds to this upward pull, as it balances on one corner, the opposite corner reaching towards the sky. Despite its title, the sculpture is not actually a cube, but instead seems as though it has been stretched along its vertical axis.

Aside from it's striking color, Red Cube also stands out from the surrounding architecture in that all of its lines are diagonals, whereas the buildings are made up of horizontal and vertical lines. Additionally, the sculpture is balanced somewhat precariously on one corner, while the buildings, by contrast, and solidly placed.

Through the center of the cube there is a cylindrical hole, revealing an inner surface of gray with evenly-spaced lines moving from one opening of the hole to the other. Looking through this hole, the viewer's gaze is directed towards the building behind, tying the sculpture and the architecture together.

Los Angeles born Isamu Noguchi (野口 勇, 1904-1988) was a sculptor, theatrical and industrial designer best known for his abstract works and set designs for Martha Graham productions. News was one of his last figurative works, and the only time he employed stainless steel as an artistic medium. His work can be found throughout major metropolitan cities, in museums, and in the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum in Long Island City in New York. Noguchi's work around New York includes the Sunken Garden for Chase Manhattan Bank Plaza and News at the Associated Press Building His Thunder Rock was also temporarily on display in Rockefeller Plaza.