Toshiko Takaezu

Born in 1922 in Pepeekeo, Hawaii. Toshiko Takaezu’s closed vessels and asymmetrical forms blend Eastern and Western traditions, recalling the landscape of her native Hawaii; the scale and drama of her pots demand an intimate participation from the viewer. For most of her career she divided her time between gardening, teaching, and her ceramic work. She taught at many institutions, including the Cleveland Institute of Art and at Princeton University, where she helped build the visual arts program, and remained for 27 years; she retired in 1992. In 2004, her work was the subject of two retrospectives: a traveling exhibition that originated at the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, Japan, and "The Poetry of Clay: The Art of Toshiko Takaezu" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Among her many honors, she was named a Living Treasure of Hawaii, and received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Princeton University. Toshiko Takaezu received the American Craft Council’s Gold Medal in 1994. She died in 2011. 

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