This exclusive online presentation features a group of ceramic sculptures by Toshiko Takaezu (1922–2011), reflecting the artist’s lifelong pursuit of the freedom and expressive possibilities she found in working with clay.

Toshiko Takaezu with moons, 1979. Photo by Hiro. © Family of Toshiko Takaezu

“I was able successfully to merge the glaze as painting to the form, so that the two—painting and form—became one total and complete piece.”

—Toshiko Takaezu

Toshiko Takaezu

Makaha Blue Closed Form, c. 1997

Porcelain with wood ash

5 3/4 x 5 x 5 inches (14.6 x 12.7 x 12.7 cm)

Inquire

Takaezu treated her forms as abstract paintings in the round and is best known for her round “moons” and her oblong “closed-form” works, both of which she would typically present in groups.

Created using glazing techniques such as oxidation, reduction, and complex layering that allowed for variations and imperfections, her forms would reveal their final colors only after gas firing.

Toshiko Takaezu with works in Hawai‘i, 1987. Photo by Macario Timbal. © Family of Toshiko Takaezu

Inspired by a chance occurrence while trimming the rim of a pot, Takaezu began to intentionally drop tiny pieces of clay into some of her closed forms, wrapping them in paper to keep them from adhering to the interior surface during firing. Referred to as “rattles,” these fragments transformed the form into a sounding sculpture, as one can hear the noise of the loose piece when handling the vessel—an exercise encouraged by the artist.

Toshiko Takaezu

"Ocean Edge" Momo, c. 1995

Stoneware

20 1/8 x 13 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches (51.1 x 34.3 x 34.3 cm)

Inquire

Toshiko Takaezu

Closed Form, c. 2005

Glazed stoneware

7 1/4 x 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches (18.4 x 12.1 x 12.1 cm)

Inquire

“Self-contained, these orbs are like miniature universes, with their storms of color encapsulating the emotional climate of the artist’s vision at any one moment in time.”

—James Jensen, late curator of contemporary art, Honolulu Museum of Art

Installation view, The Ceramic Presence in Modern Art: Selections from the Linda Leonard Schlenger Collection and the Yale University Art Gallery, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, 2016. Works by Takaezu are seen with paintings by Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell

Toshiko Takaezu

Pair of Copper Red Closed Forms, 1990-1999

Porcelain

Part 1: 6 1/4 x 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches (15.9 x 10.8 x 10.8 cm)
Part 2: 5 x 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches (12.7 x 11.4 x 11.4 cm)

Inquire

“For Takaezu, clay is a sentient being, alive, animate, and responsive, which, she believes, ‘has much to say.’ Her lifelong association with clay represents a lifetime of self-discovery and self-revelation. Her art is a reflection of her spirit, as she works from deep within herself.”

—Jennifer Saville, curator

Toshiko Takaezu

Double Form, 1965-1975

Stoneware

17 3/8 x 11 5/8 x 11 5/8 inches (44.1 x 29.5 x 29.5 cm)

Inquire

“After many years a natural pure form arrived, one which I enjoy and also one on which I could paint.”

—Toshiko Takaezu

Toshiko Takaezu

Makaha Blue Closed Form, c. 1990

Porcelain

5 x 6 x 6 inches (12.7 x 15.2 x 15.2 cm)

Inquire

Colors, textures, and titles recall the settings of her childhood and young adulthood spent in Hawai'i—many works reference Mānoa and Mākaha, and the glazing on some forms produced deep blues and warm earth tones that evoke the sight and feel of coastal waters and volcanic soil.

Toshiko Takaezu

Closed Form, c. 1990

Porcelain

6 1/4 x 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches (15.9 x 14 x 14 cm)

Inquire

Toshiko Takaezu

Untitled Deep Purple “Ocean Edge” Closed Form, c. 1995

Porcelain

6 1/4 x 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches (15.9 x 14 x 14 cm_

Inquire

Installation view, Women Take the Floor, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2019. Works by Takaezu are seen with paintings by Grace Hartigan and Joan Mitchell

Toshiko Takaezu

Manoa, 1987

Stoneware

27 1/2 x 23 x 23 inches (69.8 x 58.4 x 58.4 cm)

“Takaezu was inspired by historical precedents—in her case, East Asian pots and calligraphy—and found ways to transform these idioms to make them relevant to contemporary art. Most obviously, this involved sheathing her ceramics in glorious veils and supervening splashes of glaze, in implicit dialogue with Abstract Expressionism. She also activated her work in another, subtler way, by introducing loose rattles of fired clay inside her closed forms, making them into kinetic, sounding sculptures.”

—Glenn Adamson, art historian

Installation view, Takaezu & Tawney: An Artist is a Poet, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2023. Courtesy Stephen Ironside for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Toshiko Takaezu

Closed Form, c. 2002

Glazed stoneware

27 1/2 x 9 x 9 inches (69.8 x 22.9 x 22.9 cm)

Inquire

Toshiko Takaezu

Anagama Closed Form, 1994

Anagama-fired stoneware

22 5/8 x 13 x 12 1/2 inches (57.5 x 33 x 31.8 cm)

Inquire

Takaezu walking amongst her Star Series (c. 1994–2001). Photo by Tom Grotta, 1998

Toshiko Takaezu working in the workshop at Anderson Ranch, Snowmass Village, Colorado, 1982. Toshiko Takaezu Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

“One of the best things about clay is that I can be completely free and honest with it.… The whole process is an interplay between the clay and myself, and often the clay has much to say.”

—Toshiko Takaezu

Toshiko Takaezu

Closed Form, 1990-1999

Porcelain

5 3/4 x 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches (14.6 x 11.4 x 11.4 cm)

Inquire

Installation view of works by Toshiko Takaezu

Toshiko Takaezu

Alchemy Gold Moon, c. 1990-1993

Stoneware

14 x 13 x 13 inches (35.6 x 33 x 33 cm)

Inquire

Toshiko Takaezu

Tall Form Midnight, c. 1990-1993

Stoneware

27 x 25 x 23 inches (68.6 x 63.5 x 58.4 cm)

Inquire

Toshiko Takaezu

Alchemy Gold Closed Form, c. 1900-1993

Stoneware

23 1/2 x 14 x 15 inches (59.7 x 35.6 x 38.1 cm)

Inquire

Installation view, works by Toshiko Takaezu, on view in Crafting America, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2021. Private collection. Photo courtesy Stephen Ironside for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Toshiko Takaezu

“Persimmon” Moon, 1970-1989

Stoneware

21 x 23 x 22 inches (53.3 x 58.4 x 55.9 cm)

Toshiko Takaezu

Closed Form, 1965-1975

Stoneware

6 1/4 x 8 x 8 inches (15.9 x 20.3 x 20.3 cm)

Inquire

Toshiko Takaezu

Closed Form, c. 1980

Porcelain

5 x 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches (12.7 x 14 x 14 cm)

Inquire

Installation view, The Milk of Dreams, 59th Venice Biennale, 2022. Works by Takaezu are seen displayed across from looped-wire sculptures by Ruth Asawa. Ruth Asawa artwork © 2024. Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Ela Bialkowska, OKNO studio. Courtesy Archivio Storico della Biennale di Venezia, ASAC

Installation view, The Milk of Dreams, 59th Venice Biennale, 2022. Photo by Roberto Marossi. Courtesy Archivio Storico della Biennale di Venezia, ASAC

Takaezu’s work was featured in the 2022 edition of the Venice Biennale as part of Cecilia Alemani’s exhibition, The Milk of Dreams, where it shared a room with Ruth Asawa’s iconic looped-wire sculptures.

Toshiko Takaezu

Torso Form, c. 1990

Porcelain

14 3/8 x 6 x 6 inches (36.5 x 15.2 x 15.2 cm)

Inquire

Concurrent with this online presentation, Takaezu’s works are on view at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in Toshiko Takaezu: Shaping Abstraction through September 29, 2024, and at The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York, in Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within from March 20 to July 28, 2024, before traveling nationally through 2026.

Bobby Jae Kim, Toshiko Takaezu (detail), 1997. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Liliane and David M. Stewart Collection. Gift of Bobby Jae Kim. Image © Bobby J. Kim

“You are not an artist simply because you paint or sculpt pots that cannot be used. An artist is a poet in their own medium. And when an artist produces a good piece, that work has mystery, an unsaid quality; it is alive.”

—Toshiko Takaezu

Inquire about works by Toshiko Takaezu

Get in Touch