''Floor Frame'' is a series of abstract sculptures by

Isamu Noguchi was an American artist, furniture designer and Landscape architecture, landscape architect whose career spanned six decades from the 1920s. Known for his sculpture and public artworks, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Grah ...

that were created in 1962 and cast between 1963 and 1987. Noguchi said that when he created ''Floor Frame'' he had "made many other pieces in relation to floor space at that time, but this seemed to best define the essentiality of floor, not as sculpture alone but as part of the concept of floor". He also intended the piece to represent the "intersection of a tree and the ground, taking on the qualities of both an implied root system and the canopy". Displayed in two pieces, ''Floor Frame'' seems to fall into and rise from the ground. The larger piece drives into the ground and arises at an angle with a smaller piece seeming to emerge at a small distance. A 1970 sculpture by Noguchi, called ''Floor Frame (Remembering India)'' is in the collection of the

Noguchi Museum The Noguchi Museum (chartered as The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum) is a museum and sculpture garden at 3237 Vernon Boulevard in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in New York City, designed and created by the Japanese-Amer ...

. It is made from Siena marble and black granite, arranged in stripes.

List of versions

The casting model for ''Floor Frame'' was made from balsawood in 1962. It has the number 519A in Noguchi's

catalogue raisonné A (or critical catalogue) is an annotated listing of the works of an artist or group of artists and can contain all works or a selection of works categorised by different parameters such as medium or period. A ''catalogue raisonné'' is normal ...

. A 1963 casting in bronze with a black patina, number 519B-2/6 was fabricated by Fonditori Artistici, Rome. 519B-4/6, cast in 1974 in bronze with a black patina, was formerly part of the collection of Eileen and

I.M. Pei Ieoh Ming Pei
– website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners ( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...

and was sold from their collection at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

in 2019 for $399,000. It was fabricated by Fonderia D'Arte Tesconi, Pietrasanta. 519B-5/6 was cast in 1984 in bronze with a brown patina, and was fabricated by Fonderia D'Arte Tesconi, Pietrasanta. The final cast, 519B-6/6, cast in 1987 in bronze with a gold patina, was fabricated by Fonderia D'Arte Tesconi, Pietrasanta. The 1962 casting model, 1963 bronze with a black patina cast and the 1984 and 1987 casts are in the collection of the

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a neighborhood within the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; Sunnyside to the east; and Newtown Creek, which separates Queens from Greenpoint, Brook ...

, New York.

White House edition

The first of the six pieces created in the initial 1962 series is displayed at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

in Washington, D.C. It is item 519B-1/6 in Noguchi's

and was cast in bronze in 1963. It was bought at auction at

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

in March 2020 on behalf of the

White House Historical Association The White House Historical Association, founded in 1961 through efforts of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, is a private, nonprofit organization that works to preserve the history of the White House and make its history more accessible to the publ ...

for $125,000. It was the first art work by an

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans with ancestry from the continent of Asia (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of those immigrants). Although this term had historically been used fo ...

artist to enter the official collection of the

. The work was chosen for the White House collection by Lydia Tederick, the curator of the White House with the approval of the Committee for the Preservation of the White House. It was unveiled in the

White House Rose Garden The White House Rose Garden is a garden bordering the Oval Office and the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., United States. The garden is approximately 125 feet long and 60 feet wide ( by , or about 684m2). It balances the Jacqueli ...

in November 2020 by the

First Lady of the United States First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) is a title typically held by the wife of the president of the United States, concurrent with the president's term in office. Although the first lady's role has never been Code of law, codified or offici ...

Melania Trump Melania Knauss Trump (born Melanija Knavs, April26, 1970) is a Slovenian and American former model who is married to U.S. President Donald Trump. Since 2025, Melania Trump has served as the first lady of the United States, a role she previous ...

and

Stewart McLaurin Stewart McLaurin is an author and non-profit executive who has been the president of the White House Historical Association since 2014. Background McLaurin is the son of Stewart Parnell McLaurin and Gwendolyn McLaurin (née Stafford). An Alabam ...

, the director of the White House Historical Association. On her official

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

account Trump wrote that ''Floor Frame'' was " ... humble in scale, complements the authority of the Oval Office, & represents the important contributions of Asian American artists". She described it as "embodying themes of resilience and renewal" in her eponymous memoir of 2024. The piece is situated under a

magnolia tree ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphology (biology), morphological research shows that former genera ''Talau ...

on a raised white concrete floor at the east entrance to the Rose Garden. McLaurin wrote for ''

ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American art magazine, based in New York City. It covers visual arts from ancient to contemporary times. It is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. ''ARTnews'' has a readership of 180,000 in 124 co ...

'' that the piece represented "the beautiful multiplicity of cultures that make up the United States of America" and that it was an example of how the collection of the White House has expanded to include piece by diverse artists. He also wrote that it "signifies the ongoing efforts we must make to affirmatively lift up American artists of all backgrounds and experiences" and that the work was a "vote of confidence in the diverse cultures that make up the United States". The director of the Noguchi Museum, Brett Littman, said that the acquisition came at "a complicated moment" in reference to

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

's refusal to accept his loss in the recent presidential election but said that "Administrations come and go, but artwork remains. We do feel proud, and we think Noguchi would feel proud as well". Writing in

Hyperallergic ''Hyperallergic'' is an online arts magazine, based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded by the art critic Hrag Vartanian and his husband Veken Gueyikian in October 2009, the site describes itself as a "forum for serious, playful, and radical thinki ...

, Amy Lyford "gasped at the vicious cynicism of the choice" feeling that it was an attempt to artwash the immigration polices of the Trump administration.

References

{{White House 1962 sculptures Abstract sculptures in Washington, D.C. Art in the White House Outdoor sculptures in Washington, D.C. Modernist sculpture Asian-American culture in Washington, D.C.