Corbett vs. Dempsey

works by Joseph Goto

Joseph Goto was one of the most forceful and original artists in 20th century Chicago. An enormous talent and a voluble personality, Goto was born in Hawaii, where he learned to weld while working for the military, but he moved to Chicago to follow his brother, Byron Goto, who had studied at the School of the Art Institute.

Very early in his career, Joseph was singled out by curator Alfred Barr, who bought the 1951 sculpture "Organic Form I," a 12-foot tall piece, for the permanent collection of MoMA, and throughout his first decade as an artist Goto's welded steel sculpture was shown in major national and international shows, including a 1963 exhibit in Battersea Park, in London, where his first monumental work sat alongside large pieces by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.

Among Goto's many admirers and collectors was Frank Lloyd Wright, who routinely made special nooks in his buildings especially for Goto's sculptures.