Japanese architect Tadao Ando has received the Isamu Noguchi Prize for 2016 concurrently with the sculptor Elyn Zimmerman. Awarded for the third consecutive year, this prize recognises the author of works reflecting the innovative spirit of its namesake, his global consciousness and his role as a catalyst in East-West exchange. Tadao Ando, UIA Gold Medal winner for 2002, is the second architect to be chosen for this prize, following Lord Norman Foster in 2014, the year the award was created. Honorary benefit chair was Ambassador Motohide Yoshikawa, benefit chair Karen McDonald, and benefit vice chairs were Noreen Buckfire, Miki Kashiwagi, Susan Kessler, Hiroko Murase.

Each May The Noguchi Museum hosts its annual benefit and Isamu Noguchi Award presentation. The evening begins with cocktails and the award ceremony in the Museum’s celebrated sculpture garden followed by a seated dinner and a silent auction in the galleries. Proceeds from the evening support the Museum, its collection, exhibitions, and programs. More than 350 guests, including artists, collectors, dignitaries, trustees, arts and cultural leaders, and friends of the Museum join us for this festive evening.

The museum evaluated Tadao Ando’s minimalist approach, sensitivity to light, and incorporation of natural elements into his projects, in addition to his fusion of Eastern and Western architecture, are all principles that Noguchi embraced throughout his career. Highly regarded for his unparalleled work with concrete and his creative use of natural light, Ando is known for structures that follow natural forms of the landscape. Like Noguchi’s sculpture, which gave equal importance to the object and the space it inhabited, Ando’s work harmoniously integrates edifice and environment, while interior and exterior are intimately connected through his incorporation of water, light, wind, sky, and landscape into his building designs. Ando learned his first lessons by studying traditional Japanese architecture before learning about modern Western architecture, including the buildings of Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Louis Kahn. The inspiration he drew from these experiences is evident throughout his work which, much like the museum that Noguchi designed, often provide sanctuary from the clamor of daily life.

For this prestigious prize, it was stated that Elyn Zimmerman also shares with Noguchi a sensitivity to atmosphere and the incorporation of natural elements into the design of her projects—from public plazas to sculpture gardens on a grand scale. Zimmerman started her career as a painter and photographer, captivated by the ephemeral notion of light and space. A trip to India inspired her to create outdoor works, and her first significant public installation was for the National Geographic Society, in 1980. Like Noguchi, Zimmerman is best known for her use of stone, often in association with water and landscape elements. Her deep appreciation for the emotional resonance of stone and the ways it interacts with the environment has translated into her public and private commissions, which often feature monoliths or channels of rough and polished stone. Like Noguchi, she is a global citizen, and undertakes collaborations around the world.

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