About This Stamp
With the issuance of this 2004 stamp pane, the U.S. Postal Service honored sculptor Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) on the 100th anniversary of his birth. Noted for merging Western and Eastern influences, Noguchi expanded the definition of sculpture with creations that ranged from portraiture and abstract sculpture to graceful meditation gardens and sprawling landscapes. Drawing no distinction between art and design, Noguchi also created furniture, theater sets, and other functional objects that demonstrated his desire to make sculpture useful to society.
Five different works by Noguchi are featured on this pane of 20 stamps: Margaret La Farge Osborn, 1937; Black Sun, 1960-63; Mother and Child, 1944-47; Figure (detail), 1945; Akari 25N, circa 1968.
The selvage features a photograph of Noguchi taken by Eliot Elisofon for publication in 1952. Below the photograph is text reading "sculptor 1904–1988" and the following quotation by Noguchi: "Everything is sculpture. Any material, any idea without hindrance born into space, I consider sculpture."
Reproduced with permission of The Isamu Noguchi Foundation Inc., New York.
Art Director
Derry Noyes
For more than 40 years Derry Noyes has designed and provided art direction for close to 800 United States postage stamps and stamp products. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Hampshire College and a master of fine arts degree from Yale University.
Noyes worked as a graphics designer at Beveridge and Associates, a Washington, D.C., firm, until 1979 when she established her own design firm, Derry Noyes Graphics. Her clients have included museums, corporations, foundations, and architectural and educational institutions. Her work has been honored by American Illustration, the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, Communication Arts, Critique magazine, Graphis, Creativity International, and the Society of Illustrators.
Before becoming an art director for the U.S. Postal Service, she served as a member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 1981 to 1983.
Noyes is a resident of Washington, D.C.