Toshiko TAKAEZU
1922–2011, USA

Toshiko Takaezu was born to Japanese immigrant parents in Pekeekeo, Hawaii in 1922. 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. In 1955, Takaezu traveled to Japan, where she studied the techniques of traditional Japanese pottery, which continue to influence her work. 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. She retired in 1992 to become a studio artist, living and working in Quakertown, New Jersey. Toshiko Takaezu made functional wheel-thrown vessels early in her career. Later she switched to abstract sculptures with freely applied poured and painted glazes. Her works are in the following collections: The Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Art, the High Museum of Art, the Hawaii State Art Museum, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Kresge Art Museum, New Jersey State Museum, the Currier Museum of Art, among others.

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