American artist Toshiko Takaezu (1922–2011) was born in Pepeekeo, Hawaii to Japanese immigrant parents Shinsa and Kama Takaezu. During her five-decade long career, the artist worked in many media, including painting, fiber, and bronze. However, her primary medium, and that for which she is best recognized, was ceramics. Takaezu was instrumental in the post-war reconceptualization of ceramics from the functional craft tradition to the realm of fine art. Her signature “closed form” merged the base form with glazed surface painting to create a unified work. Many of the works she sculpted are intimately scaled to the human hand while others soar up to six feet in height. Her emphasis on her sense of self and personal expression undergirded the artist’s creative practice and teaching career. For decades, Takaezu nurtured students’ processes of self-discovery. Throughout the artist’s lifetime, her work was exhibited widely in the United States and Japan, including a solo exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2004) and a retrospective at the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, Japan (1995). Takaezu was the recipient of a McInerny Foundation Grant (1952), Tiffany Foundation Grant (1964), National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1980), Watershed Legends Award (2007), and Konjuhosho Award (2010). The artist is the subject of numerous publications, including journal essays, exhibition catalogs, and monographs. Moreover, her work is represented in many museum collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, DeYoung/Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Smithsonian American Art Museum.

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