Toshiko Takaezu revolutionized the world of clay with the abstract shapes and painterly glazes of her ceramic forms. She came to her signature closed vessels in the late 1950s, continuing to push their scale to new heights over the course of her long career. Takaezu related her simplified sculptures and expressive glazes to her engagement with Zen Buddhism and Japanese art and culture; for her, the form and decoration were intuitive and she embraced what she called “the unknown, the intangibles” in her work.