The Art Of Toshiko Takaezu: In The Language Of Silence

The Art of Toshiko Takaezu: In the Language of Silence

Tracing the artistic development of renowned potter Toshiko Takaezu (1922-2011), this masterful study celebrates and analyzes an artist who held a significant place in the post-World War II craft movement in America.Born in Hawaii of Japanese descent in 1922, Takaezu worked actively in clay, fiber, and bronze for over sixty years. Influenced by midcentury modernism, her work transformed from functional vessels to abstract sculptural forms and installations. Over the years, continued to draw on a combination of Eastern and Western techniques and aesthetics, as well as her love of the natural world. In particular, Takaezu's vertical closed forms became a symbol of her work, created through a combination of wheel-throwing and hand-building techniques that allowed her to grow her vessels vertically and eased the circular restrictions of the wheel. In addition to her art, Takaezu was renowned for her teaching, including twenty years at Princeton University.This beautifully illustrated book offers the first scholarly analysis of Takaezu's life work and includes essays by Paul Smith, director emeritus of the American Craft Museum, and Janet Koplos, former senior editor of Art in America. Jack Lenor Larsen, a textile designer, author, collector, and advocate of traditional and contemporary craftsmanship, provides a foreword.ReviewFor anyone who understands art as a journey, who has ever been, in Takaezu's words, "interested in what would happen," this is a book worth reading--International Sculpture Center Book ReviewsThis books shines so brightly and speaks so eloquently. . . . In the Language of Silence is a perfect tribute." --Books&CultureLong overdue, this book is a fitting tribute to a major figure in the ceramics field. Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers." --ChoiceReviewThis book is an important addition to writings on Toshiko Takaezu, her life and her work. Held succeeds in combining personal accounts and anecdote with scholarly analysis of her works and their significance to the arts. From the quiet interiors of her vessels to the chiming of her bronze bells, the essays and the images reveal her reverence, her passion, her discipline, and her drive.--Elaine Olafson Henry, editor and publisher, Ceramics: Art and Perception and Ceramics: TECHNICALFrom the Inside FlapTracing the artistic development of renowned potter Toshiko Takaezu, this masterful study celebrates and analyzes an artist who holds a significant place in the post-World War II craft movement in America.About the AuthorPeter Held is curator of ceramics at the Ceramics Research Center, part of the Arizona State University Art Museum.