Costume design by Isamu Noguchi for John Gielgud as Lear in Shakespeare's play, King Lear, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company, Palace Theatre, London, and European tour, 1955.

Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) was primarily a sculptor, although he was also known for designing the settings for the dance works of American modern-dance pioneer, Martha Graham. When he was commissioned to design King Lear for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company in 1955, he had little experience of costume. However director George Devine and his leading actor, John Gielgud, had been impressed by Noguchi’s work for Graham. They believed that he could create appropriate designs for a stylised staging of Shakespeare's play, which, according to the programme note, ‘would be free of historical or decorative associations so that the timeless, universal and mythical quality of the story may be clear.’

Instead of painting or sketching his costume designs, Noguchi produced little paper figures. Though subsequently mounted on paper with the makers’ notes and instructions added, the figures were designed to stand upright, and the wire strut that supported each one is still attached. This design, for Lear in the later scenes, has the typewritten wardrobe reference: 'Lear. flesh basic & white cloak. flower headdress" and is annotated by Gielgud with comments and reservations about the costume - a rare case where an actor's reactions to a design are recorded. Obviously, Gielgud did not relish playing Lear's last scenes in flesh-coloured body tights and body bands, and has requested a more dignified kimono dressing gown.