press release

Major Exhibitions: Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within – Touring Retrospective Continues at Cranbrook Art Museum, Michigan

December 12, 2024 - Hawai‘i was where I learned technique, Cranbrook was where I found myself. - Toshiko Takaezu, 1959

Bloomfield Hills, MI – The acclaimed touring retrospective Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within continues its journey at the Cranbrook Art Museum from October 9, 2024 to January 12, 2025. This significant exhibition highlights Toshiko Takaezu’s enduring legacy. She first traveled from Hawaii to attend Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, from 1951 to 1955. During her time at Cranbrook, Toshiko majored in ceramics and weaving and later returned to teach in a summer program. It was here that her practice evolved from functional ceramics to experimental and abstract forms, evidenced by her multiple-spotted pots and woven rya rugs, which allowed for more painterly compositions and abstract marks. 

Featuring over 200 works, this important traveling exhibition marks the first comprehensive showcase of Takaezu’s work in twenty years. Worlds Within traces the development of her practice from her early days in Hawai‘i, through her transformative years in the Midwest, to her final home in New Jersey where she taught at Princeton University. To accompany this extensive exhibition, a monograph has been published by Yale University Press.

Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within is organized by The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York, with assistance from the Toshiko Takaezu Foundation and the Takaezu family, and curated by Glenn Adamson, Kate Wiener, and Leilehua Lanzilotti. The exhibition was conceived and developed with former Noguchi Museum Senior Curator Dakin Hart.

This exhibition would not have been possible without the leadership support of the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Henry Luce Foundation.

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