Middle-Aged Man

1999

Japanese (active in the United States), 1950 - 2017

Growing up in postwar Japan, Akio Takamori was exposed to a wide range of people through his father’s medical clinic, which was located near a red-light district. Years later, as a mature artist working in Seattle, Takamori recalled his childhood experiences by creating communities of individuals with carefully crafted identities, such as this group of villagers. The artist remarked: “I create my figures from memories. I examine and visualize the meaning of scale, space, material, and dimension of my memories.”

Stoneware

28 1/2 × 7 3/4 × 5 1/2 in. (72.4 × 19.7 × 14cm)

Purchased with funds from the Robert M. Shields Fund for Asian Ceramics, the Guendolen Carkeek Plestcheeff Endowment for the Decorative Arts, and the Mark Tobey Estate Fund, in honor of Julie Emerson

2014.21.1

Provenance: The artist; [Grover/Thurston Gallery, Seattle, Washington, 1999]; sold to private collection, Portland, Oregon, 1999–2014; [James Harris Gallery, Seattle, Washington, 2014]; purchased from gallery by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2014

Photo: Courtesy James Harris Gallery

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Grover/Thurston Gallery, Akio Takamori: New Work, 1999.

Portland, Oregon, Lewis & Clark College, Gallery of Contemporary Art, The Figure in Ceramic, 2002.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Be/longing: Contemporary Asian Art, Feb. 8, 2020 - ongoing.

Published ReferencesHackett, Regina. "Takamori's heavily built figures are adrift in clouds of memory." Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Thursday, March 18, 1999. Reproduced.

Nakane, Kazuro. "Akio's World: Scenes of Intimacy and Drama." International Examiner vol. 26, no. 6, Mar. 17 - April 7, 1999. Reproduced.

"Visual Arts Hot Ticket." Seattle Times, March 18, 1999: p. 11G, reproduced.

Bonansinga, Kate. "Akio Takamori's Theater of Memory." Ceramics Monthly, February 2000; pp. 55-57, reproduced.

Held, Peter, ed. "Between Clouds of Memory: Akiio Takamori, A Mid-Career Survey." Tempe, Arizona: Arizona State University Art Museum, Ceramics Research Center, 2005: reproduced p. 44.

Beal, Suzanne. "When Memories Collide," in Seattle City Arts Magazine, December 2008: pp. 16-21, 26, reproduced on cover.

Foong, Ping, Xiaojin Wu, and Darielle Mason. "An Asian Art Museum Transformed." Orientations vol. 51, no. 3 (May/June 2020): p. 68, reproduced fig. 28 (installation view).

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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