Model for Lobby Ceiling, American Stove Company Building

Biomorphic shapes—amoeba-like abstractions evoking the natural world—are softly modeled in Isamu Noguchi’s maquette, or study, for the lobby ceiling of the American Stove Company, later Magic Chef, in St. Louis. The final, monumental relief, with its undulating curves and shifting play of light and shadow, led visitors from the building’s main entrance to the reception desk and sales floors. In addition to providing practical recessed lighting and discreet signage, Noguchi hoped it would make visitors “feel better, feel happier.”