Cronos

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Cronos

United States, 1947, cast 1986
Sculpture
Bronze
85 1/2 × 23 × 36 in. (217.17 × 58.42 × 91.44 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by James and Ilene Nathan and Nathan and Sandra Seltzer (M.86.146a-f)
Currently on public view:
Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

Since gallery displays may change often, please contact us before you visit to make certain this item is on view.

Label

Born in Los Angeles to a Japanese father and an American mother, Isamu Noguchi embraced aspects of Asian, European, and American culture throughout his career....
Born in Los Angeles to a Japanese father and an American mother, Isamu Noguchi embraced aspects of Asian, European, and American culture throughout his career. In 1942, Executive Order 9066 was issued, authorizing the internment of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast during World War II. Noguchi— by then living in New York—voluntarily entered a relocation camp in Arizona with the aim of improving the environment for the internees; he was forced to remain in the camp for six months.

Cronos, made initially in balsa wood, derives its name from the mythological son of Heaven and Earth. With its bone-like shapes, the suspended interlocking curves and pendular oval can turn slowly within the outer arch. Cronos was singled out in 1949 by art critic Clement Greenberg, a champion of American Abstract Expressionism, for its rough, hand-worked surfaces and powerful contours.

Wall label, 2021.
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Bibliography

  • Powell III, Earl A., Robert Winter, and Stephanie Barron. The Robert O. Anderson Building. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1986.