Closed+Form

Date: ca. 1980s or 1990s
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/2007/2007.38.1_1a.jpg&max=460 width="299" height="390" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=76597"]] || Title: **Closed Form**

Artist: **Toshiko Takaezu** Born: Pepeekeo, Hawaii 1922 Died: Honolulu, Hawaii 2011

Medium: porcelain Dimensions: 6 1/8 x 7 1/2 in. (15.6 x 19.1 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Lenore Tawney

Accession: 2007.38.1

SAAM Collections Page High Resolution Image || Date: ca. 1980s or 1990s
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/2007/2007.38.2_1a.jpg&max=460 width="301" height="349" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=76598"]] || Title: **Closed Form**

Artist: **Toshiko Takaezu** Born: Pepeekeo, Hawaii 1922 Died: Honolulu, Hawaii 2011

Medium: porcelain Dimensions: 7 1/8 x 6 3/4 in. (18.1 x 17.1 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Lenore Tawney

Accession: 2007.38.2

SAAM Collections Page High Resolution Image || Date: ca. 1980s or 1990s
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/2007/2007.38.3_1a.jpg&max=460 width="302" height="393" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=76599"]] || Title: **Closed Form**

Artist: **Toshiko Takaezu** Born: Pepeekeo, Hawaii 1922 Died: Honolulu, Hawaii 2011

Medium: porcelain Dimensions: 5 3/8 x 6 1/4 in. (13.7 x 15.9 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Lenore Tawney

Accession: 2007.38.3

SAAM Collections Page High Resolution Image ||
 * About the Artwork: **

Toshiko Takaezu (1922 – 2011) is an artist known for her ceramic vessels as well as her work in bronze, weaving, and painting. Born in Hawaii to Japanese immigrants, Takaezu learned about poetry and drawing as a young school girl. After graduating from high school, she went to live with her sister in Honolulu. There Takaezu accepted a position at Hugh and Lita Gantt’s commercial pottery, //Hawaii Potter’s Guild//. At the pottery, she encountered press molds used to craft such functional items out of clay as ash trays. Takaezu also meet, Carl Massa, a New York sculptor working with the U.S. Army. Massa and others encouraged the young artist, who in 1947 began studying with University of Hawaii ceramicist, Claude Horan. During her time at the university, Takaezu discovered dyeing and weaving practices and she taught classes at the YWCA in Honolulu. Interested in the ceramic work of Maija Grotell, Takaezu continued her studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
 * About the Aritst: **

Beginning in fall 1955, Takaezu spent eight months traveling with her mother and sister in Japan. This experience inspired the artist’s appreciation of traditional ceramic forms and Japanese religious practices based on Zen and Daoist thought. As Takaezu’s career continued, she meet new acquaintances and taught apprentices. Students not only learned artistic techniques, they also followed daily activities important to Takaezu, especially morning yoga, gardening, and attending events. She worked at several different schools, and spent twenty-five years teaching at the Program in the Visual Arts at Princeton University. One of her notable accomplishments was casting a bronze bell for a memorial to the thirteen Princeton University alumni lost on September 11, 2001 (Liu, 54-56).

Pieces like the three SAAM vessels are non-functional, combining organic elements of color and form with traditional Japanese ceramic as well as Western aesthetic taste. Clay is the medium in which Takaezu produced the most works. Beginning in 1958 she began making closed bottle forms. This experiment was spurred by Takaezu’s interest in creating a continuous form to decorate. The bottle forms range from small (about 9” x 8” x 9”) to fairly large (over 6’ tall). Some of her closed bottle forms have a sound element. Through a ritualized process, the artist left a small clay piece that rattles inside the bottle when moved (Smith and Sherman, 10-11; Liu, 47). Takaezu considered there to be a dialogue between an artist and her work. The artistic qualities of Takaezu’s vessels were also incorporated by her friend and colleague, Peter Voulkos, into Contemporary American Ceramics.

Liu, Cary Y. //Presence and Remembrance: The Art of Toshiko Takaezu. Record of the Art Museum//, Princeton University 68 (2008).
 * Resources: **

//Maija Grotell: Works Which Grow From Belief//, by Jeff Schlanger and Toshiko Takaezu (Studio Potter Books, 1996).

Smith, Paul J. and Sherman E. Lee catalogue essays. //Toshiko Takaezu: Four Decades// (Montclair, N.J.: Montclair Art Museum, 1990).

Artist Biography Ferrin Contemporary Toshiko Takaezu Wikipedia Entry Toshiko Takaezu: Closed Forms, Delaware Art Museum
 * Links: **