"Black Sun" by Isamu Noguchi stands on edge at Seattle's Volunteer Park. The nine foot diameter sculpture is made of Brazilian black granite. According to the Seattle Public Art information, Noguchi "envisioned creating a fluid and timeless work that would appear to move as the sun does, creating a dialogue between the real sun and the artwork itself." The sculpture was installed in 1969. Soundgarden's 1994 number one hit "Black Hole Sun" may have been named for this sculpture.
Mr. Noguchi was born in Los Angeles, but lived in Japan until he was 13. While studying pre-medicine at Columbia he was taking sculpting lessons in the evening. He soon left the university and began working as an academic sculptor. Mr. Noguchi's first major work to be recognized in the US was dedicated to the freedom of the press and commissioned by the Associated Press and installed at Rockefeller Center in New York City in 1938.
At the time WWII broke out Mr. Noguchi had been living in New York for a number of years. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This provided the Secretary of War with the authority to exclude Japanese Americans from nearly a third of the country, mostly the west coast. This resulted in the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans. As a Japanese-American living outside of the west coast exclusion zone he was not put in an internment camp. Mr. Noguchi became a political activist and tried to raise awareness of the patriotism of Japanese-Americans. He was later placed, at his request, in an internment camp in Arizona.
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