The Perfect Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within Accessory [Ze2NJFMw]

Edited by Glenn Adamson, Dakin Hart and Kate Wiener. Contributions by Ai Fukunaga, Nonie Gadsden, Diana Jocelyn Greenwold, Laura Kina, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Margo Machida, Laura Mott and Katy Siegel

An expansive look at the multifaceted American artist Toshiko Takaezu within the history of postwar artmaking. Toshiko Takaezu (1922–2011) was an American artist whose multidisciplinary work in ceramics, painting, sculpture, weaving, and installation innovatively drew from the natural world, combining expressionist energies with influences from East Asia. The closed ceramic forms for which she is best known are effectively abstract paintings in the round. Her reputation as a ceramic artist, however, has obscured the breadth of her output in other mediums and her role within the larger art movements of the twentieth century. This book provides the first retrospective assessment of Takaezu’s art and life, representing her diverse oeuvre, which spanned six decades, and her hybrid identity as an Asian American woman, artist, and teacher. Beautifully illustrated with nearly 300 images of artworks and archival photographs, and including an updated chronology, exhibition history, and recollections from the artist’s former apprentices, the book offers a compelling and comprehensive account of this singular artist’s career. 

Hardbound: 368 pp.