U.S. #3859
2004 37¢ Black Sun
Isamu Noguchi
Issue Date: May 18, 2004
City: Long Island City, NY
Quantity: 57,000,000
Printed By: Ashton-Potter (USA) Ltd
Printing Method: Lithographed
Perforations: Serpentine die cut 10 ½ x 10 ¾
Color: Black

“Everything is sculpture,” stated Isamu Noguchi (1904-88). He believed that sculpture gave shape, order, and meaning to space.

This stamp was one of five issued to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of sculptor Isamu Noguchi, born in Los Angeles in 1904 to an American writer and a Japanese poet. Noguchi split much of his childhood between Japan and the United States, eventually studying briefly at Columbia University before an evening sculpture class redirected his path entirely. He went on to work in Paris under sculptor Constantin Brancusi, and his career came to encompass an unusually wide range of forms, including portrait busts, public plazas, playgrounds, furniture, and stage sets for choreographer Martha Graham.

This particular stamp features Black Sun, a massive ring shaped sculpture Noguchi carved from a single thirty ton block of Brazilian black granite, finished down to twelve tons and installed in Seattle's Volunteer Park in 1969. The Seattle Art Museum and the city's Municipal Art Commission had commissioned the piece two years earlier, giving Noguchi the challenge of working at a monumental scale in hard stone for the first time, a project that led him to establish a long running studio and working relationship in Mure, Japan. Positioned so viewers can look directly through its circular opening toward downtown Seattle and the Olympic Mountains beyond, the sculpture reflects Noguchi's enduring interest in circular forms and outdoor settings drawn in part from traditional Japanese garden design.

Designer Derry Noyes brought together five representative works for this stamp pane, pairing Black Sun with Noguchi's Akari 25N, Margaret La Farge Osborn, Mother and Child, and Figure. The selvage featured a 1952 photograph of Noguchi alongside his own words, "Everything is sculpture." Together, the set offered a survey of an artist whose career ranged from small handcrafted objects to monumental public works, with Black Sun standing as one of the most ambitious pieces in that remarkably varied body of work.

U.S. #3859
2004 37¢ Black Sun
Isamu Noguchi
Issue Date: May 18, 2004
City: Long Island City, NY
Quantity: 57,000,000
Printed By: Ashton-Potter (USA) Ltd
Printing Method: Lithographed
Perforations: Serpentine die cut 10 ½ x 10 ¾
Color: Black

“Everything is sculpture,” stated Isamu Noguchi (1904-88). He believed that sculpture gave shape, order, and meaning to space.

This stamp was one of five issued to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of sculptor Isamu Noguchi, born in Los Angeles in 1904 to an American writer and a Japanese poet. Noguchi split much of his childhood between Japan and the United States, eventually studying briefly at Columbia University before an evening sculpture class redirected his path entirely. He went on to work in Paris under sculptor Constantin Brancusi, and his career came to encompass an unusually wide range of forms, including portrait busts, public plazas, playgrounds, furniture, and stage sets for choreographer Martha Graham.

This particular stamp features Black Sun, a massive ring shaped sculpture Noguchi carved from a single thirty ton block of Brazilian black granite, finished down to twelve tons and installed in Seattle's Volunteer Park in 1969. The Seattle Art Museum and the city's Municipal Art Commission had commissioned the piece two years earlier, giving Noguchi the challenge of working at a monumental scale in hard stone for the first time, a project that led him to establish a long running studio and working relationship in Mure, Japan. Positioned so viewers can look directly through its circular opening toward downtown Seattle and the Olympic Mountains beyond, the sculpture reflects Noguchi's enduring interest in circular forms and outdoor settings drawn in part from traditional Japanese garden design.

Designer Derry Noyes brought together five representative works for this stamp pane, pairing Black Sun with Noguchi's Akari 25N, Margaret La Farge Osborn, Mother and Child, and Figure. The selvage featured a 1952 photograph of Noguchi alongside his own words, "Everything is sculpture." Together, the set offered a survey of an artist whose career ranged from small handcrafted objects to monumental public works, with Black Sun standing as one of the most ambitious pieces in that remarkably varied body of work.