Welcome Home, Toshiko: The Toshiko Takaezu Archive Debuts at RAM

While a perennial favorite among artists working in clay and an artist whose work has been collected by North American museums since the 1950s, Toshiko Takaezu (1922 – 2011) has recently been pushed into the spotlight. Takaezu is being applauded by those who marvel at what she accomplished with her chosen materials, sometimes making sculpture that was as tall as she was, and by those who appreciate her love of nature and the environment or her ability to find balance and harmony as a person and an artist. For several decades, RAM has been acquiring work by Takaezu, ranging from early functional pieces to her trademark closed forms and moons to landmark multi-piece groupings. With an archive of nearly 125 works, RAM has the honor of documenting this significant artist who pushed the boundaries of clay and drew no distinctions between the handwork of making a pot and the handwork of daily life such as cooking or gardening. This exhibition features major works, such as _Gaea_ and the highly acclaimed _Star Series_, that are returning after a two-year nationwide tour, as well as never before seen at RAM pieces. By all accounts, Takaezu's holdings at RAM comprise the largest collection of her work in a North American institution but, most importantly, they reflect a singular voice who helped expand the potential of a material not always associated with artistic vision.