Toshiko Takaezu (American/Japanese, 1922-2011) Tea Bowl, late 20th century Glazed porcelain 2-3/4 x 5-1/8 inches (7.0 x 13.0 cm) Incised TT to underside Born in Hawaii to Japanese émigré parents, Toshiko Takaezu (1922-2011) received training in ceramics at the University of Hawaii (1945-1947) and Cranbrook Academy (1951-1954), where she discovered post-war Abstract Expressionism. In 1955, she traveled throughout Japan, encountering the works of emerging ceramicist who fused Japanese traditions, contemporary techniques, and avant-garde aesthetics. While Takaezu's early output included utilitarian vessels, such as bowls, dishes, and vases, she is best known for her later closed vessels. The simple, roughly round or cylindrical forms, with openings so miniscule that function is eliminated, can be understood as "paintings in the round," with the exterior surface serving as a three-dimensional "canvas" for glazes poured, splashed, and dripped. The painterly glazes, at once deliberate and subject to chance, evoke the work of post-war Abstract Expressionists, including Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, and Joan Mitchell, as well as traditional Japanese pottery. Yet, Takaezu was just as intrigued by the inaccessible, dark interiors of her closed vessels, which she imagined as a "metaphor for the human spirit." Toshiko Takaezu's works are held in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. HID03101062020 © 2020 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

Presents well with attractive glazing, a one and three-quarters firing-crack to underside, overall in good condition.
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