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Costume design
Noguchi, Isamu, born 1904 - died 1988 - Enlarge image
Costume design
- Date:
1955 (designed)
- Artist/Maker:
Noguchi, Isamu, born 1904 - died 1988 (designer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Collage with pencil, watercolour, metal strut
- Museum number:
Circ.68-1960
- Gallery location:
In Storage
Isamu Noguchi was primarily a sculptor, although he was also known for his collaborations with the American modern-dance pioneer Martha Graham, for whose dance works he created sets for. When he was commissioned to design King Lear for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1955, he had little experience of costume.
The style that Noguci chose to present his ideas is unusual. Instead of the usual 2-D figure on paper, he produced little paper dolls, with layers of costumes that could be removed; fixed to each figure was a wire strut so that it could stand upright.
This design is for the Duke of Cornwall, played by Anthony Ireland. The actual information conveyed by the designs is not easy for a costume-maker to interpret. The use of paper reduces everything to a flat plane, so there is no indication of weight or thickness of materials. Is the dagger intended to be stuck through the fabric of the body armour, or does it have a separate holder? How rigid can the body armour be and still allow for the actor some movement in the body? The costumiers had to warn director George Devine that the cotumes demanded stylized fight sequences, but it took a disastrous dress rehearsal to convince him.
