SEATTLE — The passing of Akio Takamori last Wednesday has resulted in an outpouring of sadness and loss. All the ceramic blogs have posted tributes. In some ways when I wrote of Akio in mid-December it was the beginning of a farewell. He had stopped chemotherapy. My partner Mark Del Vecchio and I had been following his progress closely. Mark’s post on Facebook over the weekend said all that I could say for the moment and better:
Above image: Akio Takamori with his two self-portrait sculptures, March 7, 2002. Photograph by Greg Gilbert for the Seattle Times.
Wasn’t sure when I would eventually get back to Facebook and it took a sad moment to get me here. Losing Akio Takamori this week was a devastating reality for Garth and I. We have known Akio since 1980 and watched his career blossom, become married to a wonderful woman, had two terrific children and we remained always the best of friends. This photo, which is a Polaroid, I took in 1984 in the Garth Clark Gallery New York was Akio’s first show with us there. And it was shortly after he and Vicky got married. I love these two people, always will. And I will miss Akio forever. There was no one like him.
The following is a detailed obituary from The Seattle Times that we republish with thanks. You can read the full obit here. Please join us in leaving your memories of this exceptional artist and man in the comments section below.
From the Seattle Times:
UpSeattle ceramic artist Akio Takamori spent Wednesday working in his Magnolia studio.
He put the finishing touches on some pieces with the help of his son, Peter, and loaded a kiln. Then he returned home, where he died. He was 66.
A child running through Takamori’s “Young Woman, Girl and Mother and Child,” 2006 in Seattle. Photograph by Ken Lambert of the Seattle Times. Click to see a larger image.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, said James Harris, a friend whose Pioneer Square gallery is showing an exhibition of Mr. Takamori’s new work next month.
Mr. Takamori, who taught at the University of Washington for 21 years, had a career that spanned traditional industrial pottery, ceramic slab vessels and ultimately larger-than-life, sometimes cartoonish figures. His work drew heavily from his Japanese heritage, and from images from art history and culture.
“His work always had a sense of beauty,” Harris said. “And I think that came from a real love of people in the world. He really had a very gentle soul.”
Photograph by Barry Fitzsimmons for the Seattle Times. Click to see a larger image.
Mr. Takamori was born in 1950 in Nobeoka on Japan’s Kyushu Island, the youngest of three children. His father was a doctor and his mother helped run a clinic attached to their house.
He studied ceramics and industrial design in Tokyo, and apprenticed as a production potter on Kyushu.
Mr. Takamori enrolled at Ferguson’s Kansas City Art Institute, where he would meet his wife, the former Vicky Lidman. Later, he attended graduate school at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.
He drew early recognition in the 1980s for a series of vessels made up of slabs in human forms, often with sexual themes.
Mr. Takamori joined the UW faculty in 1993 and was a cornerstone of a ceramics program that would be recognized as among the best in the country.
Photograph by Scott Cohen. Click to see a larger image.
By then, his work had moved from vessels to distinct human figures. He mixed villagers drawn from his childhood in Japan with people in modern settings, as well as political and cultural figures, like depictions of U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Japanese Emperor Hirohito with their height difference exaggerated.
“It was extraordinary that he was willing to take these kind of risks,” said Jamie Walker, a UW art professor who helped recruit Takamori to the school. “Here was this guy who was doing funny, highly suggestive sexualized work, suddenly talking about these incredibly powerful emotional, psychological relationships.”
As a celebrity in the ceramics world, Mr. Takamori could probably have gotten out of teaching introductory courses at the UW. But he never asked, and Walker said Mr. Takamori particularly enjoyed the opportunity to help guide students new to the art.
Akio Takamori poses in his exhibit “The Laughing Monks.” Photograph by Erika Schultz. Click to see a larger image.
“He did a really good job juggling working as an artist, and a teacher,” said Ayumi Horie, a graduate student of Mr. Takamori’s in the late 1990s. “He was always evolving and growing; it never seemed like he was stuck.”
Mr. Takamori retired from the UW in 2014. That same year, he was diagnosed with cancer.
Recently, he had been creating figures that drew on images of men apologizing, from humbled chief executives to political leaders.
Akio Takamori in the studio, November 2015. Photograph by Vicky Takamori. Click to see a larger image.
“My interest is humanity,” he told the The News Tribune of Tacoma in 2006. “That doesn’t change, even over a thousand years. Everyone from a 2-year-old to an old man still has love, compassion, appreciates beauty.”
In addition to his wife, Vicki, and son, Peter, of Chicago, Mr. Takamori is survived by a daughter, Lena, of New York.
Services are pending.
Garth Clark is the Editor-in-Chief of cfile.daily.
Please leave your memories of this powerhouse of contemporary ceramic art in the comments.
his art makes me giggle
Akio will always be there with me in the studio as I work. He was such an example of how to be as a person and an artist with such humor and caring. He articulated his thinking so well. “It is no doubt that it is helpful to write down the idea to clear in your head but also working the idea though visualizing with hands help me to understand great deal”.
I met Akio at the Bray where I was a resident artist during the summers of 1987 and 1988.
Akio was so friendly and so helpful. He would stop by my small space, sit down and chat about my work and my interests. He was so easy to talk to, even if he was a bit of a rock star to me.
There were many communal dinners at the Bray and Akio’s wife and baby Peter would be there too. They were such a sweet family. I am so very sad about his passing.
Akio worked at the EKWC at the same time as Betty Woodman and Viola Frey. Every year at Sint Nicolaas, December 5 , beautiful marsepain sweets are made. I gave Akio and Viola several and invited them to my home, in the house of Benno Premsela, Prinseneiland 91 C in Amsterdam.
I made a diner party with Benno, Friso(his friend) , some other people and Akio. Akio was helping me immediately. When he left the Netherlands he gave me one of the pieces he made in the EKWC. I live with his work. My piece is a human shape , three figures draw onto the piece. The shape has a belly and shoulders . On a ne site the shoulders form the tits of the woman. It is so Akio! The last time we met was in Houston at the exhibition of Garth and Marks collection. He was such a genereus person. The last days I put his piece in different places in my house as a farewell. He was a great Artist. Bye Akio!
While I always admired Akio’s work, I feel truly privileged to have met him as well. He was so personable which made me appreciate his work all the more. I was also fortunate to meet Lena thanks to the late Debby Neumark. I hope that it is some consolation to his family that his work remains endeared to so many.
r.i.p. his art will always stay in my mind
Thank you for the wonderful tribute to Akio. I am numb and in denial at this point, and
your words and photos make me realize what we will miss.
I had the opportunity to meet then work with Akio at a symposium in Israel. I also shared time with Vicky. It was a wonderful time shareing friendship and working time.
The next time we met was by pure chance. Whilst wanderi g around the ethnographic museum in Paris. Quite out of the blue we virtually bumped into Akio and Vicky. They were enroute to an exhibition in Switerland via Paris, and Bologna, we were on holiday in Paris. The news that we received last week came with a great sadness that the ceramics world has lost a lovely man and a great artist. So sad.