Miss Expanding Universe

Miss Expanding Universe needs the awareness of a totality in which we exist and strongly requires an optimistic faith. Otherwise, it is a lonely object all by itself.
—Isamu Noguchi

One of the most influential American Modern sculptors, Isamu Noguchi spent his early years in Japan (though he was born in the U.S.). Throughout his career he sought to merge Asian traditions with Western Modernism, an aesthetic apparent in the spare simplicity of Miss Expanding Universe. The sculpture is based on modern dancer Ruth Page (1899–1991), who in turn was inspired to create the dance “Expanding Universe.” Clearly a female shape, it nevertheless is also evocative of a butterfly or bird silhouette.

Noguchi wrote about the creation of Miss Expanding Universe: “It was the first sculpture that I started to do upon returning from Japan in 1932…. I was confronted with New York, the new world, hopes of a young man; everything expanding in spite of the Depression.” The title was suggested by Noguchi’s good friend, the visionary designer, architect, and theorist Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983).