Ceramic Closed-Form Moon Pot by Toshiko Takaezu

A ceramic closed-form pot by Japanese American artist Toshiko Takaezu (American, 1922 - 2011), circa 1980-1990s. The small moon pot takes a near perfect rounded form. It has small sprout with a tiny air hole on top and a ring base that cut to minimize the height in order to accentuate the moon shape. The surface of this pot showcases a wonderful display of glazes of purple, light brown, mottled with deeper shades and grey and black with a slight metallic sheen. The artist both brushed and dripped the glaze in layers freely with control to create an abstract expressionist pattern. On a relatively small but continuous rounded surface, the change of the glaze seems endless and mesmerizing. There are places where the purple glaze thins to reveal the pinkish color beneath while other areas the purple color pools and deepens. There is scattered glaze slip on the lower part as well as a small kiln grit on the wall from the making process, creating a wabi-sabi aesthetic that often seen in the spontaneity of the artist's practice. There is no rattle inside and the base was marked with the artist's TT signature.
From an American collection in NY.
The iconic close-form vessel by the artist takes the simplest organic form but is instilled with a deeper philosophy. The void space and the air trapped inside of the pot was considered by the artist as important as the physical material that defines the space. They were created with the artist's signature abstract and poetic approach: free hand and wabi-sabi. The artist's work, heavily influenced by the Japanese ceramic tradition and aesthetics, elevated pottery into the status of fine art.