National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the Abraham and Virginia Weiss Charitable Trust, Amy and Marc Meadows, in honor of Wendy Wick Reaves
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Toshiko Takaezu, 2003 June 16. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of Toshiko Takaezu conducted 2003 June 16, by Gerry Williams, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in Quakertown, N.J.
Takaezu describes growing up in Hawaii in a large family; her first work as a commercial potter; working with Claude Horan; how religion factors into her work; studying ceramics at Cranbrook Academy of Art with Maija Grotell; the role of universities and apprenticeships in the craft movement; teaching at Princeton and the Cleveland Institute of Art; visiting artists in Japan; setting up a studio in Clinton, N.J.; her teaching philosophy; the evolution of her work from functional to closed vessels; the inside of her large pots; the importance of color and glazes; her career highlights; the inspiration she finds in nature; her role in political and social activities; her relationship with galleries, including Perimeter and Charles Cowles Gallery; her exhibition history; and the changing face of the American craft movement. She also recalls Claude Horan, Maija Grotell, Otagaki Rengetsu, Kaneshige, Rosanjin, Jeff Schlanger, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Toshiko Takaezu (1922-2011) was a Japanese American ceramist of Quakertown, New Jersey. Gerry Williams (1926- ) is the co-founder and former editor of Studio Potter in Dunbarton, New Hampshire. Takaezu's birth date is also cited as 1929.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound cassette. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 38 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Business files and records; correspondence; files on commissions, consignments, and exhibitions; day books (16 vols.); order books; ledgers; legal documents; guest books; correspondence regarding inquiries, recipes, and tests for clays and glazes; photographs; information on the Pewabic Pottery building; and miscellaneous papers. Also includes some personal papers of Mary Chase Perry Stratton, such as a scrapbook, teaching records, tax returns, property documents, records, and day books of Revelation Kiln owned by Stratton.
Biographical / Historical:
Pottery center; Detroit, Mich. Founded in the early 1890s by Mary Chase Perry Stratton where she produced "Revelation Pottery." She experimented and developed potters' techniques and used specially developed kilns for firing, called Revelation Kilns. Michigan State University has subsequently acquired Pewabic Pottery.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1975 by Pewabic Pottery.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Outtakes from edited film shows homestead with children being bathed by their mother using a basin; scenes in the village at the flour mill of man loading sack of corn flour on his bicycle and making deliveries to a number of local shops; market scenes; washing kitchen utensils in a yard;and a woman potter at her craft making globular water vessels in traditional African style, building up the sides and forming the vessel by hand without use of a potter's wheel.
Credits:
Ssennyonga, Joseph (Social Anthropologist)
Strasburg, Ivan (Cameraman)
McDuffie, Michael (Soundman)
Legacy Keywords: Bathing children ; Mills flour ; Shops retail provisions ; Bicycle as transportation ; Employment self-employment ; Roads use of ; Pottery manufacture of ; Crafts potter ; Language and culture
General:
Local Numbers: HSFA 1978.2.1 (RF 25)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Sandra Nichols collection, Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Outtakes shows a mother, a Maragoli school teacher, going over lessons with her children at home in the evening; interior shots of the home by lamp light; shots around the homestead including domestic chores, splitting logs with an ax, and activity around a cattle kraal. Scene of a woman potter firing earthenware in a makeshift kiln covered with layers of heavy green grass.
Credits:
Ssennyonga, Joseph (Social Anthropologist)
Strasburg, Ivan (Cameraman)
McDuffie, Michael (Soundman)
Legacy Keywords: Teaching education mother children ; Fences corrals cattle ; Agricultural crops fields ; Tools ax splitting logs ; Pottery earthenware ; Kilns pottery firing ; Family labor ; Language and culture
General:
Local Numbers: HSFA 1978.2.1 (RF 29)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Sandra Nichols collection, Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Kwali, Ladi, d. 1984 (Nigerian potter) Search this
Extent:
1 Postcard (halftone., col., 10.5 x 15 cm.)
Container:
Volume 1
Type:
Archival materials
Postcards
Postcards
Picture postcards
Place:
Nigeria
Nigeria -- Federal Capital Territory -- Abuja
Date:
[ca. 1980]
Scope and Contents:
Printed caption on recto reads: "Woman Potter, Abuja, Northern Nigeria."
Additional printed text on recto reads: "Colour Photo by John Hinde, F.R.P.S."
Printed caption on verso describes the culture, climate, and landscape of Northern Nigeria.
Additional printed text on verso reads: "Printed and Published by John Hinde Limited, Cabinteely, Co. Dublin, Republic of Ireland; Published by the Ministry of Information, Kaduna, Northern Nigeria." Item number on verso: "2 NN 5." Publisher's logo on verso: "John Hinde Original."
Local Numbers:
EEPA NR-04-08
General:
Title source: Postcard caption.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Collection Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
