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Born in Hawai’i to Japanese/Okinawan immigrant parents, multimedia artist Toshiko Takaezu created sculptural ceramics, textiles, and paintings that combine mid-century American abstraction with the traditions of East Asia. She earned recognition in her lifetime as a technically masterful and innovative ceramicist, as well as an artist-educator. Yet, her weaving was equally important to her own work. “It’s just another art medium, the blending of materials and color.” She noted, “I weave to relax.” Takaezu’s deeply integrated approach to art and life can be seen in her related explorations of color and gestural style in clay, fiber, and paint. Her cross-cultural and multidisciplinary practice make her one of the most compelling, though under recognized, American abstract artists of the late 20th century.
The second, untitled work beautifully complements the first. In shades of yellow, green, brown, deep red, and purple with a range of surface depth, this textile was made using a combination of techniques, including the Scandinavian technique of rya rug weaving. Takaezu hand wove a single loom width to create a piece 115” long, including its braided warp fringe. Most of the thin warps were dyed a deep yellow-gold, although the artist interspersed a few undyed white threads. Takaezu used yellow-green and olive green chenille threads and white plied threads to create weft stripes approximately 5” deep, which alternate with cut pile stripes in purple and red or yellow-green and white.
Requires Photography
Untitled
Toshiko Takaezu (American, 1922–2011)
American
1970s
Medium/Technique
Wool, nylon, silk, and rayon plain weave with knotted pile and applied threads
Dimensions
Overall: 292.1 × 114.3 cm (115 × 45 in.)
Credit Line
Partial gift of The Takaezu Studio and Museum purchase with the John H. and Ernestine A. Payne Fund and funds donated by Suzanne Werber Dworsky
Accession Number2023.343
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsTextiles
Born in Hawai’i to Japanese/Okinawan immigrant parents, multimedia artist Toshiko Takaezu created sculptural ceramics, textiles, and paintings that combine mid-century American abstraction with the traditions of East Asia. She earned recognition in her lifetime as a technically masterful and innovative ceramicist, as well as an artist-educator. Yet, her weaving was equally important to her own work. “It’s just another art medium, the blending of materials and color.” She noted, “I weave to relax.” Takaezu’s deeply integrated approach to art and life can be seen in her related explorations of color and gestural style in clay, fiber, and paint. Her cross-cultural and multidisciplinary practice make her one of the most compelling, though under recognized, American abstract artists of the late 20th century.
The second, untitled work beautifully complements the first. In shades of yellow, green, brown, deep red, and purple with a range of surface depth, this textile was made using a combination of techniques, including the Scandinavian technique of rya rug weaving. Takaezu hand wove a single loom width to create a piece 115” long, including its braided warp fringe. Most of the thin warps were dyed a deep yellow-gold, although the artist interspersed a few undyed white threads. Takaezu used yellow-green and olive green chenille threads and white plied threads to create weft stripes approximately 5” deep, which alternate with cut pile stripes in purple and red or yellow-green and white.
DescriptionWeaving of single loom width with thin gray, olive, and orange nylon warp threads braided on the ends. A variety of weft threads in a range of plies and thicknesses were used to create horizontal stripes in yellow-green, brown, purple and gray. The weft stripes of longer pile in biege and yellow-green were made with a knotted pile technique, while the weft stripes of shorter pile may have been created with chenille yarns cut from rewoven cloth.
Provenance2011, upon the artist’s death, to the Toshiko Takaezu Trust, Honolulu, HI; 2011, sold by the Toshiko Takaezu Trust to Donald Fletcher on behalf of The Takaezu Studio, Flemington, NJ; 2023, sold by The Takaezu Studio to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 21, 2023)