The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of October 7, 2026

A stoneware sculpture takes a spherical form, a deep black glaze spilling across the crown and curving leftward. Its midsection displays mottled patches of tan, sage green, and earthy brown, where matte and glossy textures intermingle. Muted blue and white glazes streak vertically toward the base like melting ice. Light catches against the rounded surface, accentuating the organic patterns and the painterly movement of the flowing glaze.

Black Moon

1990s

Toshiko Takaezu

(American, 1922–2011)
America
stoneware
Diameter: 57.8 cm (22 3/4 in.); Overall: 52.1 cm (20 1/2 in.)
Gift of the Artist 2005.191
Location: 229C Contemporary

Description

Shortly after studying in Japan, and while teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Art in the 1950s, Takaezu launched her signature series of closed vessels applied with painterly glazes. Constituting her primary output for nearly a half century, these works reveal her combined interests in Western and Eastern philosophies and aesthetics.
  • Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, Long Island City, NY (organizer) (March 20-July 28, 2024) https://www.noguchi.org/museum/exhibitions/view/toshiko-takaezu/; Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI (September 7, 2024-January 12, 2025); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (February 23-May 18, 2025); Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI (September 8-December 23, 2025).
    Toshiko Takaezu. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20, 2009-May 15, 2010).
    The Cleveland Museum of Art (06/20/2009 - 05/15/2010); "Toshiko Takaezu"
  • {{cite web|title=Black Moon |url=false|author=Toshiko Takaezu|year=1990s|access-date=07 October 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2005.191