Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) has got to be the most versatile sculptor who ever put hand to stone. His work is in museums, parks, department stores, boutiques, theaters, and on a boat. He's also worked in landscape, made lamps, designed stage sets and costumes, created a ship stairwell, and drawn up proposals for playground equipment. It makes sense that Noguchi has his own (recently renovated) museum—in Long Island City, N.Y.—because only a museum could contain his diversity.

Born to an American mother and a Japanese father, Noguchi was brought up in the United States and Japan. He followed the usual path for an ambitious artist in the late '20s, making his way to Paris, the modernist crossroads where artistic trends from Europe converged: Cubism, Surrealism, Russian Constructivism. Noguchi worked in Paris as Brancusi's assistant, becoming greatly influenced by Brancusi's belief that a sculptor must be true to the intrinsic qualities of his materials. To Brancusi, this meant polishing brass creations to a brilliant luster. Noguchi, however, would bring this "truth to materials" to an even higher level of commitment.