She was born to Japanese immigrant parents in Pepeekeo, Hawaii, in 1922.[2] She studied at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and at the University of Hawaii under Claude Horan from 1948-1951. From 1951-1954 she continued her studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where she befriended Finnish ceramist Maija Grotell, who became her mentor.[1]
In 1955, Takaezu traveled to Japan, where she studied Buddhism and the techniques of traditional Japanese pottery, which continue to influence her work.[1] She taught for ten years at the Cleveland Institute of Art, and then from 1967-1992 she taught at Princeton University, where she was awarded an honorary doctorate.[3]
She retired in 1992 to become a studio artist, living and working in Quakertown, New Jersey, about thirty miles northwest of Princeton. In addition to her studio in New Jersey, she made many of her larger sculptures at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. She lived in Hawaii for 10 years and died March 9, 2011 in Honolulu.[1]
Toshiko Takaezu made functional wheel-thrown vessels early in her career. Later she switched to abstract sculptures with freely applied poured and painted glazes.
(June 17, 1922 – March 9, 2011)
Public collections containing work
The Addison Gallery of American Art (Andover, Massachusetts), the Allentown Art Museum (Allentown, Pennsylvania), Bloomsburg University (Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania), the Butler Institute of American Art (Youngstown, Ohio), the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Currier Museum of Art (Manchester, New Hampshire), the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery (Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY), Grounds for Sculpture (Hamilton, New Jersey), the Hawaii State Art Museum, the High Museum of Art (Atlanta, Georgia), the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Kresge Art Museum (Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the New Jersey State Museum (Trenton, New Jersey), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Racine Art Museum (Racine, Wisconsin), the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C.), the University Art Museum (Albany, New York), the University of Hawaii at Hilo, and the Zanesville Museum of Art, Zanesville, OH, are among the public collections holding works by Toshiko Takaezu.Selected works
- Shiro Momo (White Peach), porcelain by Toshiko Takaezu, 1992, Hawaii State Art Museum
- 'Garden Piece', hand built stoneware by Toshiko Takaezu, 1973, Hawaii State Art Museum
- 'Gaea', glazed stoneware by Toshiko Takaezu, 1984-1990, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu courtesy of the artist
- 'Ceramic Forest - Three Trees', stoneware sculpture by Toshiko Takaezu, 1975-1980, Honolulu Academy of Arts
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