Noguchi, a formidable multi-disciplinary artist, designed the first in his extensive series of Akari Light Sculptures in 1951, before eventually going on to create around 200 different shapes and sizes. The Vitra Akari 75A is amongst the largest sized pendant-style lamps in the line, at 75cm in height and diameter, and is made to the exacting standards outlined by Noguchi almost seven decades ago. The lanterns are to this day produced in the Gifu province of Japan, the home of the paper lantern, with their enduring popularity ensuring that they will remain a popular piece of classic furniture for generations to come.
Isamu Noguchi was an American-Japanese designer who originally trained as a sculptor and brought a sculptural sensibility to everything he created: lighting, furniture, gardens and stage sets. He studied sculpture, after dropping out of medical school, in late 1920s New York and then in Paris as an assistant to Constantin Brancusi.
Noguchi designed a range of paper Akari lights throughout the 1950s and 1960s, alongside the popular organic furniture he made in curvy sculpted wood now part of the Vitra Collection, such as the Freeform Sofa and Coffee Table. He was equally prolific as a landscape architect; he recreated the ancient Buddhist stone gardens he had loved in Kyoto at Lever House in New York (1951), UNESCO in Paris (1951), the Yale campus (1960) and Jerusalem’s Israel Museum (1960).