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Takao Tanabe: A Retrospective
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“Throughout my life I have lived and worked in many places, but I’ve always been a painter and I always will be,” Takao Tanabe says
of his long career. “My work has brought me a lot of joy and to share more than 50 years of it with Gallery visitors will be a pleasure.”
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Title: Sky, 1952
Artist: Takao Tanabe (Canadian b. 1926)
Medium: Watercolor on Paper
Photo: Tim Bonham
Permanent Collection: Vancouver Art Gallery,
Gift of the Artist
Image Courtesy: Vancouver Art Gallery
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The visitors to this retrospective are the ones that will receive the pleasure as they have the opportunity to view the artist's oeuvre. From
his early abstract works to his later landscape series this exhibit accurately reflects the styles that are unique to the Canadian artist.
Untitled 3/68 (Passing Rainbow), 1968
Artist: Takao Tanabe (Canadian b. 1926)
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Photo: Trevor Mills
Permanent Collection: Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of J. Ron Longstaffe
Image Courtesy: Vancouver Art Gallery
Tanabe has been well recognized for his achievements with the Order of Canada, the Order of British Columbia, two honorary doctorates and
and the Governor General’s Award in the Visual and Media Arts.
Untitled #5, 1968
Artist: Takao Tanabe (Canadian b. 1926)
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Photo: Trevor Mills
Collection of the Artist
Image Courtesy: Vancouver Art Gallery
The retrospective consists of over sixty paintings and works on paper. It is the breadth of Tanabe’s career encompassing
abstract expressionist images, uncompromising abstractions and minimalist prairie vistas
completed between 1950-1980, and more recent works.
Title: Low Tide, Hesquiat Bay 1/94, 1994
Artist: Takao Tanabe (Canadian b. 1926)
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Photo: Trevor Mills
Collection of the Artist
Image Courtesy: Vancouver Art Gallery
Biography
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Title: Study, 1955
Artist: Takao Tanabe (Canadian b. 1926)
Medium: Ink on Paper
Photo: Tim Bonham
Permanent Collection: Vancouver Art Gallery,
Gift of the Artist
Image Courtesy: Vancouver Art Gallery
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Takao Tanabe enrolled at the Winnipeg School of Art, and while there he studied with painter Joseph Plaskett.
In 1953, after capturing the attention of Lawren Harris; a member of the Group of Seven, Tanabe received
an Emily Carr Scholarship. This gave him the opportunity to study in London and importantly travel extensively throughout Europe and
learn from the works of the masters, a common teaching technique for artistic study.
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Tanabe’s studies and travels significantly influence his work. They emerge in his prairie paintings,
highly reduced views of the landscape, that are generally executed in single painting sessions.
Title: Peace River 26/99, 1999
Artist: Takao Tanabe (Canadian b. 1926)
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Photo: Trevor Mills
Collection of the Artist
Image Courtesy: Vancouver Art Gallery
Takao Tanabe has generously given of his time to help fellow artists whether as a teacher or a lobbyist for
the creation of the Governor General’s Award in the Visual and Media Arts, and also to acknowledge British
Columbian artists’ work through the establishment of the Audain Prize commonly known as the VIVA Award, in 2004.
He was the director of The Banff Centre art program and is credited with the revitalization of the institution,
thus establishing it as one of the most important art centers in North America.
The exhibition is accompanied by a self-titled text,
Takao Tanabe, exploring the artist, his life and his work in detail.
Vancouver Art Gallery:
January 21 - April 17, 2006
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia:
May 27 - August 27, 2006
McMichael Canadian Art Collection:
January 27, 2007 - May 21, 2007
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