Made of lightweight aluminum, Miss Expanding Universe resulted from the intellectual and romantic partnership between modernist sculptor Isamu Noguchi and Chicago dancer and choreographer Ruth Page. In 1932 Page per- formed an avant-garde dance, Expanding Universe, wearing a futuristic jersey sack designed by Noguchi; only her head and feet emerged from its stretchy, cocooning shape, a constraint evoked by the sculpture’s abstract form.
Noguchi here combined machine-age streamlining with the austere characteristics of ancient Japanese funerary objects (haniwa). Born in the United States, he lived in Japan until he was thirteen years old, and later extensively studied the country’s sculptural traditions and ceramics.
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
H. R. Luce, ed., “Speaking of Pictures: Japanese-American Sculptor Shows Off Weird New Works Noguchi has Odd Versatility” LIFE, 20, No. 21. (Nov. 11, 1946), 12-13, 15.
Oliver W. Larkin, Art and Life in America, (New York: Rinehart), 1949.
Henry A. La Farge, “Ruisdael to Pissarro to Noguchi.” ARTnews 49, no. 1 (March 1950): 32 (ill), 59.
Isamu Noguchi, Isamu Noguchi: A Sculptor’s World (New York and Evanston: Harper & Row, 1968), p. 21.
Martin Friedman, Noguchi’s Imaginary Landscapes: An Exhibition Organized by Walker Art Center, exh. cat. (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1978), pp. 48, 88.
Sam Hunter, Isamu Noguchi (New York: Abbeville Press, 1979), p. 46.
Nancy Grove and Diane Botnick, The Sculpture of Isamu Noguchi, 1924-1979: A Catalogue (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1980), cat. 95.
Richard Guy Wilson: The Machine Age in America: 1918-1941, exh. cat. (New York: Brooklyn Museum/Harry N. Abrams, 1986), pp. 264-265).
Bruce Altschuler, Isamu Noguchi (New York and London: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1994), p. 23.
John Martin, Ruth Page: An Intimate Biography (New York: Dekker, 1977), p. 81.
Jane Dini, ed., et al., Dance: American Art, 1830-1960 (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2016), p. 280.
Dakin Hart, Isamu Noguchi: Archaic/Modern, exh. cat. (Washington, DC, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2016), pp. 28–29.
Liesel Olson, with poems by Eve L. Ewing, Chicago Avant-Garde: Five Women Ahead of Their Time, exh. cat. (Chicago: Newberry Library, 2021), 50, 51, 53 (ill.).
Chicago Historical Society, Ruth Page: A Moment in Modernism, June 15, 1991– Jan. 6, 1992 no cat.
The artist; Ruth Page, Chicago, Illinois [Martin 1977]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1994.
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