Olmec and Muse (1985), basalt; by Isamu Noguchi, sold at auction in 2017 for $4.98 million. A title, a year, a material, an artist, the passage of time, a price. A legacy of cultures, a legacy of earth, a legacy of an artist, and “legacy” as a facetious pun—money or property left to the living by the dead.
What does it mean to continue a legacy?
Even a simple understanding of Isamu Noguchi’s work will illuminate some meaning from a piece like Olmec and Muse. It looks to ancient cultures and forms, it is crafted from the same material as the Mesoamerican Olmec heads, and it is codified by pointing back to the relationship humans have with the universe—the Muses. In 1985, the same year Olmec and Muse was mad