Chinese Sleeves #2

"To me the complete artist is one who is devoted to seeking the furthest implication of his art. To this end there are essentially no hard boundaries of categories in the arts—the only limitations are in the artist himself with the strength, inspiration, and ability of the moment. The moment of confrontation with the problem at hand. At this moment he may momentarily be said to be artist, a complete artist, otherwise he is nothing. He may of course, be a specialist such as I have described, he may even be able to frame every reply in terms of his specialized craft, but this seems hardly likely. Rather in maintaining an open view of the world, with its multiplicity, and the variety of its situations, I believe he will want to break all limits. I believe the time will soon come when the complete artist like the complete scientist must transcend his own specialty. The limits of orthodoxy are always crumbling and those who now venture into the arts must swim for it upon a fluid tide.”
-Isamu Noguchi (quoted in Stones and Water, exh. cat., Minneapolis, 1998, u.p.).