Explore the Era

Delve into the postwar Los Angeles art world in this online archive, which provides additional material related to the exhibitions on view at the Getty Center. Learn about hipsters and happenings, and the venues across the city where all the action took place through images from the archives and first-hand accounts with the artists.

Henry Takemoto
Artist

Henry Takemoto

Henry Takemoto working on his glazed tile mural at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, 1959. Photo by John Mason. Image courtesy of Henry Takemoto

Henry Takemoto (born 1930) was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and moved to Southern California in the early 1950s to study under Peter Voulkos at Otis Art Institute. Like John Mason and Paul Soldner, both of whom were his classmates at Otis, Takemoto’s early ceramic sculptures were often large-scale constructions, expanding and extending the capacities of clay forms. Takemoto infused his ceramic pieces with a calligraphic flair, inscribing and incising the exteriors of the clay vessels. His objects display patterns and shapes reminiscent of both abstract expressionist painting and traditional Asian ceramics.

Historic Map Locations

Works of Art

  • Untitled, Takemodo

    Untitled, 1959, Henry Takemoto. Stoneware with iron and cobalt brushwork. 26 3/4 x 27 3/4 in. Collection of Pier Voulkos. © Henry Takemoto. Photo by Joe Schopplein

Explore the Archive

  • Henry Takemoto and Peter Voulkos

    Henry Takemoto and Peter Voulkos in front of Takemoto's mural at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, 1959. Image courtesy of Henry Takemoto

  • Henry Takemoto, ca. 1959

    Henry Takemoto with one of his coiled glazed stoneware pots at the studio of John Mason and Peter Voulkos, Los Angeles, ca. 1959. Image courtesy of Henry Takemoto