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Isamu Noguchi, “Paris Abstraction,” circa 1927–28, gouache on paper, courtesy of the Noguchi Museum, 25¾ by 19¾ inches. —Courtesy of the Noguchi Museum.

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SUMMER EXHIBITIONS, INSTALLATIONS ON VIEW AT NOGUCHI MUSEUM w/1 cut

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LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y. — This summer, The Noguchi Museum features an array of offerings, including the museum’s annual special installation of works from the permanent collection — including several new acquisitions — and the special exhibition “Survey of Paris Abstractions,” examining the work Noguchi made in the year following his apprenticeship with Constantin Brancusi.

The collection installation and special exhibition are on view through September 2.

This year’s collection installation includes some 250 works, including several new acquisitions. These include a handcrafted, limited edition folio dedicated to the work that Noguchi created while traveling the world on a Bollingen fellowship. The three-volume Isamu Noguchi, 18 Drawings and 18 Photographs was donated to the museum by Lady Elena Foster, founder and publisher of Ivory Press, which has created the folio.

Other new acquisitions on view include models for play equipment that Noguchi designed in 1940 for Ala Moana Park in Hawaii. The project was never realized and the models, which have not been seen since 1942, were presumed lost or destroyed until 2006, when they were donated to the museum.

Also on view in the installation are several dance sets designed by Noguchi for Martha Graham, including those for Herodiade and Judith, and elements from the set for Cave of the Heart. Two other dance sets, for Stephen Acrobat and John Brown, were donated the museum by the Erick Hawkins Dance Company more than 15 years ago, but have not been on pubic display since 1998.

A special exhibition “Survey of Paris Abstractions,” the first to be offered at the museum during the summer months, focuses on some 30 gouache drawings — ten of them on public view for the first time ever — and six surviving sculptures in metal and wood that Noguchi created in 1928 while in Paris. Together, these reveal the powerful effect of Noguchi’s apprenticeship with Constantine Brancusi during the prior year.

The works, drawn from the museum’s collection, show the younger artist turning away from the academic, figurative sculpture on which he had been working to create abstract drawings that he described as “studies in sculptural outline.”

The exhibition will include archival photographs of many important sculptures from this period that have been lost or destroyed. In addition, original works from the museum’s collection, including sculptures, architectural models, lighting designs and studies on paper, will highlight the ways in which, throughout his life, Noguchi drew on the formal vocabulary established in the gouache abstractions.

The museum is at 9-01 33rd Road at Vernon Boulevard.  For information, 718-204-7088 or www.noguchi.org.