Isamu Noguchi’s Sculpture

in the White House Rose Garden

Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi’s piece, titled “Floor Frame,” is displayed in the White House Rose Garden on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020, in Washington. Noguchi is the first Asian American artist to be featured in the White House collection, according to the first lady and the White House Historical Association. He died in 1988. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

A historic moment occurred this past Friday 

when a bronze sculpture titled Floor Frame 

by renowned Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi 

was unveiled in the White House Rose Garden,

By our First Lady, Melania Trump.

It’s a worthy honor for an artist of profound influence, 

as well as a symbol of the enduring 

relationship between the United States and Japan. 

As the first work of art by an Asian American 

artist in the White House 

Collection, it is also a milestone for the 

Asian American community.

Noguchi’s sculpture represents the 

beautiful multiplicity of cultures 

that make up the United States of America 

and is an example of how the White House art collection 

has expanded over the years to ensure 

inclusion of pieces by diverse artists. 

It also signifies the ongoing efforts we must make to affirmatively 

lift up American artists of all backgrounds and experiences.

Born to Yone Noguchi, a Japanese poet, and Léonie Gilmour, 

an American writer, Isamu Noguchi spent his life straddling cultural 

divides, spending a portion of his childhood in Japan while later attending 

school in the United States. His story of dedication and self-sacrifice in the face of obstacles is one that is familiar 

to many children of immigrants. 

Though pressured to enroll as a premedical student by his mentors, 

he spent nights studying art and pursuing his dream.

Noguchi’s identity was constantly questioned—both as an American in Japan and as a person of Japanese 

heritage living in the United States—and became a brutal reality for the young artist 

as the two nations 

entered the second World War. 

In spite of coming of age in a country that doubted his loyalties, 

he was a staunch defender of the multitudes of cultures that come together in America.

As Japanese Americans were shamefully forced into internment camps by the American government, Noguchi voluntarily sacrificed his freedom and signed up to enter an encampment so that he could use his gifts as a landscape architect to improve the squalid and degrading conditions. Like many other artists before and since, he was compelled to use his platform and abilities to draw attention to injustices. When it became clear that he would not be permitted to leave the camps, he penned an essay defending the character and integrity of those confined, writing “tell us what jobs there are, give us the training, permit us your confidence as Americans, and you will find an eager army for democracy.”

His life’s work is a testament to how the immigrant experience is part and parcel of what it means to be an American, and his work’s selection is a fitting tribute to the Asian American community and those in the United States who have been marginalized.

Let Noguchi’s work and that of all the other artists featured in the White House Collection be a vote of confidence in the diverse cultures that make up the United States.

The minimalist 1962 bronze sculpture gives the illusion of a cube-like frame dipping just below the surface of whatever it rests on. According to the White House press release, Noguchi viewed “Floor Frame” as “the intersection of a tree and the ground, taking on the qualities of both an implied root system and the canopy of a tree.” He hoped that by placing the sculpture directly on the ground, viewers would be more connected to the planet they call home.

Read more about his work, click on link below:

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/noguchi-isamu/artworks/

By Barbara KisKis

November 28, 2020

Who was Marguerite Littman?

Some times, when I go to write a blog, I find a tidbit of someone

who intrigues me. I had planned on writing about Truman Capote

and then my research goes in a different direction…

Yesterday, I wrote about BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S, which is a favorite

of mine. Some of you wrote nice remarks about my blog, which I truly appreciate.

The character in the movie, Holly Golightly, was patterned after

this woman, Marguerite Littman. A little known fact that I didn’t know.

I hope you enjoy making the connection, too.

Marguerite Littman, a honey voiced Louisianian and literary muse 

who taught Hollywood to talk Southern, 

however who left her most enduring legacy as an early pressure within the struggle towards AIDS.

Marguerite Lamkin Brown Harrity Littman (May 4, 1930 – October 16, 2020) was an American-British socialite and AIDS activist. 

As a Southern American accent coach she is known 

to have coached many actors . 

She is also noted for her role in AIDS advocacy including fund raising 

for charities.

 She coached actors including Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman 

in southern-themed movies such as Baby Doll, 

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Long, Hot Summer, and Raintree County.

In the early 1960s, she had moved to New York City, 

where she worked with photographer Richard Avedon, 

supporting him while he was working on

 his book Nothing Personal (1964), a collection of portraits of 

civil rights workers. This was also the time that she was an 

advice columnist for 

Glamour magazine. She moved to London in 1965. 

Between 1976 and 1985, she modeled for Andy Warhol‘s 

minimalist polaroid portraits, 

depicting her progression over the nine year period.

Littman started the AIDS Crisis Trust in 1986, 

as a charity to collect funds 

for AIDS research and treatment. 

As a start, she had written to over 300 of her socialite friends asking 

for a contribution of £100 to be founding members. 

The trust organized gala events and auctions to raise funds for the cause. 

The trust went on to 

become one of Britain’s most prominent AIDS awareness charity groups. 

The trust’s auctions would have articles from her socialite friends 

including Elizabeth Taylor and David Hockney. 

During this period, Littman was introduced to Diana, Princess of Wales, 

who was already associated with AIDS-related charities across the world.

In 1997, Diana donated her entire wardrobe to Littman to be auctioned. 

The auction, facilitated by Christie’s, raised more than $3 million 

for the trust and other charities.

In 1999, the trust was merged with the Elton John AIDS Foundation, 

where Littman served as a director.

An oft-told story 

about Ms. Littman goes like this: Mr. Capote and Ms. Littman 

have been sitting on the pool at Cipriani’s in Venice within the late 1970s 

when Ms. Littman identified an especially skinny girl. 

“That’s anorexia nervosa,” she declared. And Mr. Capote replied, 

“Oh Marguerite, you already know all people.”

“I might say Marguerite had many abilities and did many issues, 

however her biggest achievement was her AIDS advocacy,” 

mentioned Ms. Blair, whose decades-long friendship with Ms. Littman deepened by way 

of their AIDS work. 

“I might additionally say she was somebody — how shall I put it? — 

who lingered in folks’s minds.” ( maybe, like Holly Golightly?, I added)

Littman died on October 16, 2020, at her home in London.

BARBARA KISKIS

November 22,2020

Grace & Hitchcock & Cartier

With a combination of those three…what could go wrong?

Nothing, Nothing at all, except, meeting a Prince.

The story goes like this…

The great director Alfred Hitchcock was a huge fan of jewelry. He used it in so many of his films to turn the plot, they devoted an entire chapter to his work in the book Hollywood Jewels. When the master of suspense wasn’t working he enjoyed looking at jewelry. In fact, he was the man responsible for introducing Grace Kelly to Cartier. The twosome were spotted by the young Cartier designer Alfred Durante at the Fifth Avenue Mansion in New York enjoying the jewelry on display years before the actress became royalty.

Hitchcock also inadvertently played matchmaker for Kelly when he cast her in the role of Frances Stevens in his 1955 production To Catch A Thief. 

During the filming, the actress was introduced to the ruler of the tiny principality of Monaco, Prince Rainer III. The monarch was enchanted by the refined 28-year old Hollywood star who was the daughter of a model and a famous American athlete, rowing champion Jack Kelly of Philadelphia. Not only was Kelly exquisite, she was also an accomplished actress. She had been nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Mogambo (1953) and won the Best Actress Award for her role in The Country Girl (1954).

scene from TO CATCH A THIEF

Soon after Grace met Prince Rainier, he proposed with a jewel from Cartier. It was a delicate eternity band set with rubies and diamonds for the colors of Monaco. On January 5, 1956, at a press conference at her parents’ home in Philadelphia, the happy couple announced their engagement for newspapers, magazines, radio and newsreel cameras and let photographers take close-up pictures of the ring.

Don’t you LOVE a true fairy tale ending….I do !!!

BARBARA KISKIS

November 21, 2020

Jewelry & Audrey

Many of you will recognize this iconic scene from

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S.

It’s my favorite scene, too.

I’m a lover of jewelry; vintage, old and new.

My collection of jewelry is large enough to fit into a jewelry armoire.

How did it get to the point where I needed an armoire?

I worked with jewelry companies, in outside sales, for more then 10 years.

In fact, I paid for my son’s 5 years of college by selling jewelry. (no student loans for us.)

On gloomy days, I like to watch TCM channel and view the stars wearing fabulous gems. That is what caught my eye when I was was reviewing articles for this blog.

Jewelry picture perfect, Tiffany sparkles like a diamond from the first scene of Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). Audrey Hepburn steps out of a taxi as the sun is rising on an empty Fifth Avenue in front of the jewelry store wearing the iconic Hubert de Givenchy, otherwise known as the most amazing black dress in the history of black dresses. It’s accessorized with gargantuan costume pearls, big earrings and a mini-tiara in her immaculate blonde streaked brunette up-do.  For dramatic effect she pauses on the sidewalk and takes a long look at her favorite place in the city before approaching the jewel filled window displays. As she lingers over the splendor Hepburn, rather pricelessly, pulls a cup of coffee and a pastry out of the paper bag she is holding and enjoys, well, you know, breakfast at Tiffany’s.

At other moments in the movie Hepburn’s character Holly Golightly, in her idiosyncratic way, tries to explain her passion, “I’m just crazy about Tiffany’s.” She waxes on about how Tiffany lifts her spirits when she has the “mean reds,” a case of depression worse than the blues. “Nothing bad could ever happen to you at Tiffany’s,” she says. It’s her refuge where there are big diamonds to dream about and a few things to buy for less than $10 such as a sterling silver telephone dialer or the price of a custom engraving on a ring from a Cracker Jack box.

While Hepburn’s love for Tiffany was clear, she even slept in a Tiffany Blue colored satin eye-mask, she did not appear in one piece of the jeweler’s creations in the film. The closest she came to wearing one was when she posed for publicity photographs shortly after filming the opening sequence. It was a doozy, the 128.54-carat canary Tiffany Diamond set in a ribbon necklace by the firm’s French designer Jean Schlumberger. A glimpse of the jewel can be seen in one of the jewelry cases when Hepburn makes an excursion during business hours to Tiffany with her neighbor played by George Peppard.

In the end, the fact that Hepburn didn’t wear any Tiffany jewelry in the film didn’t matter. She infused Tiffany with all the charm and glamour she delivered in her performance. Her portrayal of Holly Golightly transformed the landmark store into a tourist Mecca for visitors to New York City. To this day it is a destination where young women with big dreams want to be photographed if not shop and capture a bit of the magic.

BARBARA KISKIS

November 21, 2020

My notes: “YES”, I was one of those women who just had to visit

Tiffany’s on my business trips to New York. And, why not, it doesn’t

a dime to walk the aisles and floors of this unique store. Ocassionaly,

I even bought myself a little trinket. I couldn’t resist, sorry.

Like, Holly Golightly, Tiffany’s makes me smile and washes away

a bad business day.