Art: Big Plaque

Two years ago the Associated Press wanted to adorn the entrance to its new building in Manhattan's Rockefeller Center with a large, impressive plaque in conventional bronze, offered a prize of $1,000 for the best design. Winner was Isamu Noguchi, muscular, California-born, Japanese-Irish sculptor, who submitted a small-scale plaster model depicting five symbolic figures (editor, reporter, photographer, teletype and telephoto operators) straining eyes and ears for news. With sudden inspiration and daring, A. P. decided to have its plaque in stainless steel.

Sculptor Noguchi worked for about a year at a full-scale plaster model from which the steel plaque could be cast....

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