Takao Tanabe
Takao Tanabe | |
---|---|
Born | Takao Izumi September 16, 1924 Seal Cove, now part of Prince Rupert, B.C. |
Nationality | Canadian |
Education | Winnipeg School of Art, Winnipeg, Manitoba (1946–1949), studying with Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, and Joseph Plaskett; Brooklyn Museum Art School, New York City, New York with Hans Hofmann (1951) and Reuben Tam (1951-1952); Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, UK (1953–1954); studied Sumi-e and calligraphy at Tokyo University in Japan |
Known for | Painting, Printmaking |
Awards | Order of Canada, Order of British Columbia, Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts; Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts, |
Elected | Member, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts |
Takao Tanabe, CM OBC RCA (born 16 September 1926) is a Canadian artist who painted abstractly for decades, but over time, his paintings became nature-based.
Biography[]
Born Takao Izumi in Seal Cove, today part of Prince Rupert, British Columbia,[1] the son of a commercial fisherman, he was interned with other Japanese-Canadians in the British Columbia interior during World War II.[2] Tanabe attended the Winnipeg School of Art, Winnipeg, Manitoba (1946–1949), studying with Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, and Joseph Plaskett.[3] He then studied at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, New York City, New York with Hans Hofmann (1951) and Reuben Tam (1951-1952).[3] He received an Emily Carr Scholarship and went to the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, UK (1953–1954) and during that time, traveled widely in Europe. From 1959 to 1960, on a Canada Council Scholarship, he studied Sumi-e and calligraphy at Tokyo University in Japan.[3][2]
Career[]
His art has gone through different phases.[4] In his "inscapes" (he called his paintings after a term used by Gerald Manley Hopkins) of the late 1950s, Tanabe explored his memories of lit interiors, painting them abstractly and expressing them with calligraphic signs. From 1961 to 1968, Tanabe taught at the Vancouver Art School. In 1968, he worked in Philadelphia, moving in 1969 to New York City where he lived until 1972. In New York, he painted hard-edge geometric abstracts.[2] From 1973, he was head of the art program and artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts. By then, he was consciously considered landscapes as a subject, while progressively eliminating references to the specific.[5] In 1980, he returned to British Columbia where he lives and works on Vancouver Island. He is considered today a painter who primarily evokes the landscape of British Columbia.[6]
In 2005, a major retrospective of his work curated by Ian Thom[1] was organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and Vancouver Art Gallery.[7]
Awards[]
- Member of the Order of Canada[8]
- Order of British Columbia
- two honorary doctorates
- Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts
- Member, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts[9]
- Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts (2013)[10]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b Brennan, Brian. "Takao Tanabe". www.gallerieswest.ca. Galleries West Magazine. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "Takao Tanabe". www.gallery.ca. National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Zemans, Joyce (2010). "Abstract and Non-Objective Art in English Canada". The Visual Arts in Canada: the Twentieth Century. Foss, Brian., Paikowsky, Sandra., Whitelaw, Anne (eds.). Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-19-542125-5. OCLC 432401392.
- ^ "Takao Tanabe Speaks About His Art". www.youtube.com. You Tube, Jan 31, 2007. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
- ^ Murray, Joan (1999). Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century. Toronto: Dundurn. OCLC 260193722. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
- ^ "Order of Canada, Takao Tanabe". archive.gg.ca/. Governor General of Canada. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
- ^ "Takao Tanabe". mcmichael.com. McMichael Canadian Art Gallery. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
- ^ Order of Canada citation
- ^ "Members since 1880". Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
- ^ "Takao Tanabe, Gathie Falk win $30K Audain Prize for art". CBC News. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
External links[]
- Takao Tanabe exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery, January 21, 2006 – April 17, 2006
- Takao Tanabe at the Mira Godard Gallery
- Takao Tanabe information at gc.ca
- Bilingual website for the touring exhibition "Takao Tanabe: Chronicles of Form and Place", organized and circulated by the Burnaby Art Gallery and the McMaster Museum of Art
- Records of Takao Tanabe and Periwinkle Press are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books
- Takao Tanabe fonds at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
- 1926 births
- Canadian painters
- Members of the Order of British Columbia
- Members of the Order of Canada
- People from Prince Rupert, British Columbia
- Japanese-Canadian internees
- Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
- Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners
- Canadian expatriates in the United States
- Canadian expatriates in the United Kingdom
- Canadian expatriates in Japan