Toshiko Takaezu

Toshiko Takaezu
Born(1922-06-17)June 17, 1922
Pepeekeo, Hawaii, U.S.
DiedMarch 9, 2011(2011-03-09) (aged 88)
Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.
EducationHonolulu Museum of Art School,
University of Hawaiʻi,
Cranbrook Academy of Art
Occupation(s)Ceramist, painter, sculptor, educator
Known forPottery
Websitetoshikotakaezufoundation.org

Toshiko Takaezu (June 17, 1922 – March 9, 2011)[1] was an American ceramic artist, painter, sculptor, and educator whose oeuvre spanned a wide range of mediums, including ceramics, weavings, bronzes, and paintings. She is noted for her pioneering work in ceramics and has played an important role in the international revival of interest in the ceramic arts. Takaezu was known for her rounded, closed ceramic forms which broke from traditions of clay as a medium for functional objects. Instead she explored clay's potential for aesthetic expression, taking on Abstract Expressionist concepts in a manner that places her work in the realm of postwar abstractionism.[2] She is of Japanese descent and from Pepeeko, Hawaii.[3]

A remarkable artist and influential teacher, Takaezu is recognized as one of a number of ceramic artists in the 1950s and 1960s who were instrumental in moving the practice of ceramics beyond a commercial trade to become a form of artistic expression.[4] A major retrospective of her work at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston in 2023, and a traveling retrospective organized by The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum to be launched at The Noguchi Museum in 2024 are reflective of the recent revival of interest in her practice and legacy.

  1. ^ Grimes, William (March 19, 2011), "Toshiko Takaezu, Ceramic Artist, Dies at 88", The New York Times, ISSN 0362-4331
  2. ^ Wechsler, Jeffrey, Asian Traditions, Modern Expressions: Asian American Artists and Abstraction 1945 - 1970, exh. Cat. (New Brunswick: Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 1997), 174.
  3. ^ "Oral history interview with Toshiko Takaezu, 2003 June 16 | Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution". www.aaa.si.edu. Retrieved 2023-03-30.
  4. ^ Liu, Cary Y., "Presence and Remembrance: The Art of Toshiko Takaezu," Princeton University Art Museum Record 68 (2009): 47.