Barnes Foundation Explores Japanese American Designers and Internment in 'Noguchi to Asawa'

Key facts

• 'Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America' is on view at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia through January 10, 2027.
• The exhibition features six Japanese American artists: Isamu Noguchi, Ruth Asawa, George Nakashima, Leo Amino, S. Neil Fujita, and Kay Sekimachi.
• Executive Order 9066, signed by President Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, forced Japanese American families into internment camps.
• Ruth Asawa and her family were held at the Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia, California, living in two horse stalls.
• Isamu Noguchi voluntarily entered the Poston War Relocation Center on the Colorado River Indian Reservation and returned to New York after six months.
• Kay Sekimachi was tutored by artist Chiura Obata while in camp.
• The exhibition includes sections titled 'Prelude/Incarceration,' 'Minor Arts,' 'Neither/Nor, or The Impossible Object,' 'Transparency, or The Invisibility Aesthetic,' and 'Labor and Industry.'
• Curator Cindy Kang stated at the press opening, 'You cannot disentangle them,' referring to the connection between grief, damage, and the works' beauty.