TT At The MET

 

Bill's past mentor Toshiko Takaezu for whom he sits on the foundation board, currently has a large sculpture in the Mezzanine of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. It is a most prestigious placement of a tall closed form from her Cobalt series. Photo by Maxwell Mustardo.

Another Cobalt piece installed in the Chicago Museum of Art. The blue is reminiscent of the ocean at Makaha Beach, Hawaii (provides the most challenging big surfing waves in Hawaii).

"One of Toshiko Takaezu's “closed forms,” the unseen interior cavity of this ceramic sculpture suggests the protected space of an egg. To create these forms, Takaezu threw a pot at her wheel, then coiled and hand built the clay into a nearly closed spheroid. She often placed pieces of paper and clay inside before firing that became rattling ceramic beads in the kiln.

Many species of birds, like ducks, communicate with each other before they hatch. They peep and click from inside their eggs to synchronize their emergence, preparing the family to leave the nest together. Like chattering eggs in a nest, Takaezu’s closed forms conjure new imaginings about the tenderness of home."

Star Series photo by Tom Grotta, 1998