Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) was a Japanese American artist, sculptor, landscape architect and industrial designer who also designed stage sets for works by the dancer Martha Graham.

Noguchi was born in Los Angeles and spent his early years in Japan. After studying in New York City with Onorio Ruotolo in 1923, he won a Guggenheim fellowship and became Constantin Brancusi’s assistant for two years (1927–29) in Paris. He did work for UNESCO and worked on the design and art for institutions all over the world. The first major retrospective of his work was at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City in 1968.

Noguchi started Nisei Writers and Artists Mobilization for Democracy in 1942 to raise awareness of the patriotism of Japanese Americans during WWII. He received the Edward MacDowell Medal for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to the Arts in 1982, the National Medal of Arts in 1987, and the Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Japanese government in 1988. The U.S. Postal Service issued a 37-cent stamp honoring him in 2004.

The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum was founded and designed by Noguchi to display his artworks; it opened in May 1985 in Long Island City. The museum is located in an old photogravure plant and gas station, which Noguchi purchased in 1974, across the street from the studio where he had worked and lived since 1961.