In September of 1952, The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura hosted a major exhibition of Isamu Noguchi’s ceramic sculptures and lighting. Earlier in the year, Noguchi and his new bride, actress Yoshiko Yamaguchi, had taken up residence in Kita Kamakura in a farmhouse owned by the noted ceramicist Kitaoji Rosanjin. Noguchi established a studio and had access to Rosanjin’s kilns; the exhibition at the museum was the result of the year’s production and illustrated the multitude of influences that Noguchi was able to so gracefully unite in his exquisite forms.

The present lot, Little Walking Box (Arukidaso kobako) was among the works on display in this important show. Hand-crafted in Shigaraki stoneware, a clay found in the Kamakura region and dating as far back as 1192-1333, the expressive form is reminiscent of Japanese stone lamps called Ishidoro found initially in temples and shrines, but later in gardens, along pathways and near home entrances. Taking cues from traditional stone lantern designs, Noguchi’s Little Walking Box has windows on all four sides representing the sun, moon and stars.

Noguchi’s exploration of traditional lighting forms may be further explained by his collaboration with Ozeki Jishichi Shoten (later Ozeki and Co. Ltd.). The year prior, Noguchi had traveled to Gifu to visit the firm’s factory and had begun designing his Akari light sculptures, the first of which were produced and made available in Japan in 1952. The logo that Noguchi devised for the Akari was a stylized sun and crescent moon, like the one found on the side of this sculpture.

However, unlike the Akari, the Little Walking Box is not a functional object. While drawing inspiration from the land and its traditions, it is completely modern and abstract in execution. The form has been simplified through the exclusion of a roof-like element and sits playfully on wooden legs, which are acknowledged in the work’s title, as we imagine the box to literally walk on its stick legs.

This spirit of personification and play similarly appear in other stoneware works made by Noguchi during this period of his career, and indeed recur throughout his entire oeuvre. Shown alongside Little Walking Box at The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura in Isamu Noguchi (September 23,1952 – October 19,1952), Big Boy and Even the Centipede both exhibit distinct and lively personalities rendered with an economy of materials and shapes. Both works today reside in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 

After the exhibition in Kamakura, Eleanor Ward, the proprietor of Stable Gallery, showed Noguchi’s ceramic works in New York City in Isamu Noguchi: Terracottas (November 23, 1954 – January 8, 1955).  It is through Ward that the present lot came to The Arts Club of Chicago the following year, where it was included in Noguchi: Sculpture and Scroll Drawings (November 11, 1955 – December 7, 1955). It is believed that it was through this exhibition that the work came into the possession of Arts Club member and patron Leonore Grace Smith Jerrems Molloy.  

The present lot comes from the collection of the artist and art patron, Leonore Grace Smith Jerrems Molloy. Leonore was born in 1904 in Highland Park, Illinois to Leonore Annette Law and Robert Edward Smith, head of the J.P. Smith Shoe Company. From 1920-1923, Leonore attended the Mary C. Wheeler School in Providence, Rhode Island where she was encouraged to create art. She returned to Chicago upon graduation and continued her studies at the Art Institute of Chicago.

In 1927, Leonore married Arthur Jerrems. The couple bought property and built a home outside of Chicago in Barrington, Illinois where she would frequently entertain other artists and friends from the city. Leonore won the Chicago Woman’s Aid Society prize for painting in 1928 and was connected with the National Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago. 

Over the following decade artworks by Leonore were included in the annual Exhibitions of Artists of Chicago and Vicinity held at the Art Institute of Chicago. Here her work was shown alongside Ivan Le Lorraine Albright, Frances Badger, George Buehr, Julio De Diego, Rowena Fry, Norman Macleish, and Rifka Angel to name a few. Leonore maintained active in the local artistic community and was a member of the Arts Club of Chicago. Through these organizations she became friendly with many artists and acquired works by her contemporaries for her own collection.   

By 1951, Leonore had married a second time. She and her husband Edward Molloy purchased an apartment in Chicago in 880 Lake Shore Drive, the new high rise recently completed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Leonore would outfit their home with an eclectic mix of mid-century and antique furnishings complemented by the artworks she collected. Her family remembers her Noguchi sculpture displayed on a table before windows overlooking the lake while the painting, Lobster Salad, by Ivan Albright was prominently hung on the opposite wall.

Leonore would continue to take classes in painting and woodblock printing, and exhibit on occasion. In 1960, her work was included in the Artist Members Exhibition at The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago and her block prints were regularly included in the Block Print Calendar from the Chicago Society of Artists, landing on the cover in 1966, and then again in 1978. 

Leonore Grace Smith Jerrems Molloy died in 1976. The works offered here have remained in the family until now.