Various works, ca. 1960s-1990s

Glazed porcelain and stoneware
© The Family of Toshiko Takaezu. Photo by Ian Reeves.

A leading ceramist and educator and a key figure in the mid-century transformation of ceramics from craft to fine art, Toshiko Takaezu created unique rounded, bottle-like forms inspired by the natural world, with nipple-like openings at their tops that allowed gases to escape while firing. She is also known for the diverse methods of glazing she employed, from brushing and dripping to pouring and dipping. In her stoneware and porcelain works, some of which are small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, Takaezu used her clay “canvas” to blend the expressive bravura of Abstract Expressionism with the peaceful, contemplative quality found in traditional Japanese pottery. Among Takaezu’s best-known bodies of work are the thick orbs she called “moons” and her vertical “closed forms.”