Toshiko Takaezu

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/arts/design/toshiko-takaezu-ceramic-artist-dies-at-88.html?_r=1Toshiko Takaezu, Ceramic Artist, Dies at 88 By WILLIAM GRIMES New York Times: Published: March 19, 2011 Toshiko Takaezu, a Japanese-American ceramist whose closed pots and torpedolike cylinders, derived from natural forms, helped to elevate ceramics from the production of functional vessels to a fine art, died on March 9 in Honolulu. She was 88. Her death was confirmed by Scott Ashley, the associate director of the Perimeter Gallery in Chicago. In her stoneware and porcelain works, some small enough to fit in the palm of one hand, others monoliths more than six feet tall, Ms. Takaezu blended the expressive bravura of painters like Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline with the calm, meditative quality of traditional Japanese pottery in forms suggestive of acorns, melons or tree trunks. Her work is in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Early in her career she made traditional vessels but in the late 1950s, strongly influenced by the Finnish ceramist Maija Grotell, she embraced the notion of ceramic pieces as artworks meant to be seen rather than used. She closed off the top of her vessels, leaving a vestigial nipple-like opening and creating, in effect, a clay canvas for glazing of all kinds: brushing, dripping, pouring and dipping. She became known for the squat balls she called moon pots; the vertical “closed forms,” which grew sharply in height in the 1990s; and thin ceramic trunks inspired by the scorched trees she had seen along the Devastation Trail in Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park. At times Ms. Takaezu exhibited the moon pots in hammocks, an allusion to her method of drying the pots in nets. She also cast bronze bells and wove rugs. Strongly influenced by her study of Zen Buddhism, she regarded her ceramic work as an outgrowth of nature and seamlessly interconnected with the rest of her life. “I see no difference between making pots, cooking and growing vegetables,” she was fond of saying. Indeed, she often used her kilns to bake chicken in clay, and dry mushrooms, apples and zucchinis. Toshiko Takaezu (pronounced Toe-SHEE-ko Taka-YAY-zoo) was born on June 17, 1922, in Pepeekeo, Hawaii, the middle child of 11. Her parents were Japanese immigrants from Okinawa. She studied art at the University of Hawaii at Manoa but in 1951 enrolled in the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., to study with Ms. Grotell, a strong believer in experimentation and in allowing students to find their own way. During a visit to Japan with one of her sisters in 1955, Ms. Takaezu spent time in a Zen monastery and with some of Japan’s most eminent traditional potters. “You are not an artist simply because you paint or sculpt or make pots that cannot be used,” she told Ceramics Monthly in 1975. “An artist is a poet in his or her own medium. And when an artist produces a good piece, that work has mystery, an unsaid quality; it is alive.” Ms. Takaezu was an influential teacher, both in the classroom — where she insisted on the high calling of the ceramist by repeating the mantra “no ashtrays, no souvenirs” — and in the studio, where she took on apprentices throughout her career. She taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art for nearly a decade after returning from Japan and for 25 years at Princeton, where she helped to develop the visual art program. She retired from Princeton in 1992. She is survived by two brothers and four sisters. Her work was the subject of a traveling retrospective that originated at the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto in 1995 and the exhibition “The Poetry of Clay: The Art of Toshiko Takaezu” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2004. “The Art of Toshiko Takaezu: In the Language of Silence,” edited by Peter Held, is scheduled to be published by the University of North Carolina Press in April. An earlier version of this article misstated the year in which Toshiko Takaezu was born. It was 1922, not 1933.Source: Charles Cowles Gallery, New York www.cowlesgallery.comTakaezu, born in Hawaii of Japanese descent, has been working with clay for over four decades, and her work reflects the combined traditions of Eastern and Western techniques and aesthetics. Takaezu's work ranges from breathtaking understatement to expressive excitement while remaining fundamentally consistent in its Zen-like simplicity. Since her retirement from teaching at Princeton for 25 years, Takaezu continues to create some of her most vital and creative work. Her work is included in numerous museum collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Renwick Gallery Smithsonian American Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the National Museum in Bangkok, Thailand. Among her many honors, she has been named a Living Treasure of Hawaii, received the Human Treasure Award from the University of North Carolina, and has been awarded several honorary doctorates for her lifetime work. http://www.toshikotakaezu-theearthinbloom.com/Toshiko Takaezu The Earth In Bloom Born in Hawai'i of Japanese parents in 1922, Toshiko Takaezu is considered one of the finest ceramic artists in the world today. Her five-plus decade career has touched the lives of many students, colleagues, and collectors. Early in her career, Takaezu developed an approach to art that combines techniques and sensibilities of both East and West. In the 1950s, she studied in Japan with master potter Toyo Kaneshige and in 1967 began teaching at Princeton University, which awarded her an honorary doctorate in 1996.Toshiko Takaezu: The Earth In Bloom, is the first book ever published on the lifework of Ms. Takaezu. This widely celebrated, collected, and respected ceramic artist and her work are shown in this lovely and loving tribute. Toshiko Takaezu: The Earth in Bloom is a beautiful color photography book of Toshiko and her pots. Her forms are photographed in their element: in the studio, out of doors, nestled among the flowers."In my life I see no difference between making pots, cooking, and growing vegetables. They are all so related. However there is a need for me to work in clay. It is so gratifying and I get so much joy from it, and it gives me many answers in my life."Over the years, Takaezu's signature forms have become the closed vessel, rounded to an open, gentle point at the top. They have come in many sizes, with the major, large pots (Sometimes app. 4 ft. in diameter, while more than 6 ft. tall!) of relatively recent vintage. But her extraordinary creativity could already be seen with her early 2-spouted pot with small openings at the top, which when seen from above look like a pair of eyes. Her plates and tea bowls over the years have exhibited that same gentle and soft creativity, as has her outstandingly blue teapots, the genius of which lies in the organic links between color and shape: these 3-dimensional forms never seem to be decorated! Takaezu has shared her creativity, her imagination and her highly disciplined practical techniques in many ways—as formal faculty at Cranbrook, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, at Cleveland Art Institute, and at Princeton University for 25 years; as a workshop teacher at many places, including more than 20 summer stints for Skidmore College's Summer Six Ceramics program; and then in a more intensive, personal way with her annual, year-long apprentices at her studio in Quakertown, NJ.In this way she has inspired several generations of ceramics students.The many awards and honors she has received, from the Hawaii Living Treasure Award to her honorary doctorate degree from Princeton, also demonstrate the wide range of people and institutions that find inspiration, history, and meaning in her work and life. Stan Yake's richly illustrated book captures the elegance of Takaezu's work in 150 pages, featuring 175 color images. Available in hard cover, $50, or soft cover, $40, this book is a must-have for any student of ceramics, art department or library.Toshiko Takaezu's art has been featured in major one-person exhibitions, including at:The Contemporary Museum of Hawaii, HonoluluThe Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PADickinson College, Carlyle, PAMontclair Museum, Montclair, NJLongHouse Reserve Museum, East Hampton, NYThe American Crafts Museum of New York (Now, The Museum of Art and Designs)The Museum of Art of The University at Albany, Albany, NYThe Hunterdon Museum, Clinton, NJGoshen College, Goshen, INPerimeter Gallery, Chicago, ILThe Racine Art Museum, Racine, WIThe Ohr-O'Keefe Museum, Biloxi, MIThe Charles Cowles Gallery, NY, NYThe Gallery at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, NJ The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PAManatee Community College, Bradenton, FLGreen Hill Center for North Carolina Art, Greensboro, North CarolinaNational Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, JapanNeuberger Museum, Purchase, NYAnd her work is featured in the permanent collections of many great museums, including:The Japanese American National Museum of Los Angeles, CA The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.The Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OHThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, NYThe Milwaukee Museum of ArtThe Johnson Wax Collection, Racine, WIThe Honolulu Academy of Art, Honolulu, HIThe Everson Museum, Syracuse, NYCranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MIBoston Fine Arts Museum, Boston, MAThe Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MISt. Paul Gallery, St. Paul, MNNewark Museum of Art, Newark, NJToledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH