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Akio Takamori On Sale

Honey Thief
By Akio Takamori
Located in Kansas City, MO
Honey Thief, 2016 Medium: 5 Color Lithograph Edition: 27 Paper: Handmade HMP Waterleaf Paper Size: 24.5″ x 20.5″ (irregular) Image Size: 21.75″ x 13″ (irregular) COA provided On the...
Category

2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples

Materials

Lithograph

Recent Sales

Cup IX
By Akio Takamori
Located in Kansas City, MO
Artist : Akio Takamori Title : "Cup IX" Materials : Porcelain, Glaze Date : 1980-1989 Dimensions : 4x 3.5 x 4 Inches Description : Cup with Face, signed ...
Category

1980s American Modern Sculptures

Materials

Ceramic, Porcelain, Glaze

Cup IX
Cup IX
H 4 in W 3.5 in D 4 in
Cup VIII
By Akio Takamori
Located in Kansas City, MO
Artist : Akio Takamori Title : "Cup VIII" Materials : Porcelain, Glaze Date : 1980-1989 Dimensions : 4x 3.5 x 4 Inches Description : Cup with Face, signed...
Category

1980s Modern Sculptures

Materials

Ceramic, Porcelain, Glaze

Cup VIII
Cup VIII
H 4 in W 3.5 in D 4 in
Cup VII
By Akio Takamori
Located in Kansas City, MO
Artist : Akio Takamori Title : "Cup VII" Materials : Porcelain, Glaze Date : 1980-1989 Dimensions : 4x 3.5 x 4 Inches Description : Cup with Face, signed ...
Category

1980s Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Porcelain, Glaze, Ceramic

Cup VII
Cup VII
H 4 in W 3.5 in D 4 in
Cup V
By Akio Takamori
Located in Kansas City, MO
Artist : Akio Takamori Title : "Cup V" Materials : Porcelain, Glaze Date : 1980-1989 Dimensions : 4x 3.5 x 4 Inches Description : Cup with Face, signed T...
Category

1980s Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Ceramic, Porcelain, Glaze

Cup V
Cup V
H 4 in W 3.5 in D 4 in
Cup III
By Akio Takamori
Located in Kansas City, MO
Artist : Akio Takamori Title : "Cup III" Materials : Porcelain, Glaze Date : 1980-1989 Dimensions : 4x 3.5 x 4 Inches Description : Cup with Face, signed ...
Category

1980s Modern Sculptures

Materials

Ceramic, Porcelain, Glaze

Cup III
Cup III
H 4 in W 3.5 in D 4 in
Cup II
By Akio Takamori
Located in Kansas City, MO
Artist : Akio Takamori Title : "Cup II" Materials : Porcelain, Glaze Date : 1980-1989 Dimensions : 4x 3.5 x 4 Inches Description : Cup with Face, signed ...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Sculptures

Materials

Ceramic, Porcelain, Glaze

Cup II
Cup II
H 4 in W 3.5 in D 4 in
Sleeping Woman in Black Dress with Red Hair
By Akio Takamori
Located in Kansas City, MO
Akio Takamori Sleeping Woman in Black Dress with Red Hair, 2013 Stoneware with Underglazes 8 × 27 × 17 in Takamori was born in Nobeoka, Miyazaki, Japan in 1950 October 11. The son o...
Category

2010s Contemporary Sculptures

Materials

Stoneware, Underglaze

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Akio Takamori for sale on 1stDibs

Akio Takamori (1950 – January 11, 2017) was a Japanese-American ceramic sculptor and was a faculty member at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. Takamori was born in Nobeoka, Miyazaki, Japan in 1950 October 11. The son of an obstetrician/gynecologist who ran a clinic, Takamori was exposed to a wide range of people from an early age. At home, his father’s extensive library of both art and medical texts became a fascination for Takamori, who relished everything from Picasso reproductions to anatomical charts. Takamori’s interest in the arts persisted into early adulthood and upon his graduation from the Musashino Art College in 1971, he apprenticed to a master folk potter at Koishiwara, Fukuoka, Kyushu – Koishiwara ware. While learning the craft of industrial ceramics in a factory setting, he saw a traveling exhibition of contemporary ceramic art from Latin America, Canada, and the United States. Blown away by what he describes as the “antiauthoritarian” quality of the work, Takamori began to question his future as an industrial potter. When renowned American ceramist Ken Ferguson visited the pottery, the two had an immediate rapport and Ferguson encouraged Takamori go to the United States and study with him at the Kansas City Art Institute. In 1974 Takamori made the move to the United States, receiving his B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute and later attending Alfred University in New York for his M.F.A. After working as a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, he moved to Seattle, Washington in 1993, where he took his current teaching position as associate professor of the ceramics department. Takamori’s evolution as an artist began as he worked with Ferguson to break free of the constraints of industrial pottery and find new ways to express himself in clay. Since those first years at the Kansas City Art Institute his work has changed greatly, but it has always been figurative, based on the human body and expressive of human emotion and sensuality. In the 1980s, Takamori worked innovatively with the vessel form and its structure, creating flat envelope shaped pots formed from slabs. In the mid-1990s a visit to the European Ceramic Work Center in the Netherlands resulted in a shift from vessels back to an early interest in sculpture and the figure. Takamori created groupings of standing figural sculptures. The figures portray historical characters, contemporary society and rural villagers recalled from the artist's childhood in Japan. Most of Takamori’s work has been strongly influenced by his Japanese heritage. He has translated traditional Japanese prints into three-dimensional porcelain sculptures, he recreated his hometown in Japan from memory using clay, and he has translated Peter Bruegel’s paintings into sculptures of Japanese people. Takamori collaborated with Master Printer Mike Sims, of The Lawrence Lithography Workshop in Kansas City, Missouri, to create a series of prints that combine digital images of his ceramic sculptures with more traditional lithography printing techniques.

Finding the Right Figurative-sculptures for You

Figurative sculptures mix reality and imagination, with the most common muse being the human body. Animals are also inspirations for these sculptures, along with forms found in nature.

While figurative sculpture dates back over 35,000 years, the term came into popularity in the 20th century to distinguish it from abstract art. It was aligned with the Expressionist movement in that many of its artists portrayed reality but in a nonnaturalistic and emotional way. In the 1940s, Alberto Giacometti — a Swiss-born artist who was interested in African art, Cubism and Surrealism — created now-iconic representational sculptures of the human figure, and after World War II, figurative sculpture as a movement continued to flourish in Europe.

Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon were some of the leading figurative artists during this period. Artists like Jeff Koons and Maurizio Cattelan propelled the evolution of figurative sculpture into the 21st century.

Figurative sculptures can be whimsical, uncanny and beautiful. Their materials range from stone and wood to metal and delicate ceramics. Even in smaller sizes, the sculptures make bold statements. A bronze sculpture by Salvador Dalí enhances a room; a statuesque bull by Jacques Owczarek depicts strength with its broad chest while its thin legs speak of fragility. Figurative sculptures allow viewers to see what is possible when life is reimagined.

Browse 1stDibs for an extensive collection of figurative sculptures and find the next addition to your collection.