In 1940, Steuben organized an exhibition titled "Twenty-seven Artists in Crystal," the result of an encounter between Henri Matisse and Steuben's managing director. Of all the pieces in the exhibition, renowned sculptor and designer Isamu Noguchi's simple cat, rendered in a few fluid strokes on the convex surface of a wide plate, is the most enduring. At the time the piece was offered in an edition of five examples, all of which now reside in American museum collections. Based on Noguchi's original ink drawing--reminiscent of classic Japanese sumi scrolls--the plate is now reissued in a limited edition of 25. |
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