Senior Canadian artist, Takao Tanabe has been making paintings for nearly 50 years.

Takao Tanabe. Image: gov.bc.ca

Takao Tanabe was born in British Columbia in 1926 and was interned with other Japanese-Canadians in BC during World War II. He studied in Winnipeg, London and Toyko, and in New York at the Brooklyn Museum Art School where he was taught by the famous German-born American abstract expressionist painter Hans Hoffman.

Landscape V - Oil on canvas

Image: Kelowna Art Gallery

Tanabe was awarded the Emily Carr Foundation Scholarship in 1953, a Canada Council Fellowship in 1959 and a Canada Council Senior Fellowship in 1969.

Gogit Passage Q.C. by T.Tanabe
Paul Kuhn Gallery

The subjects of Takao Tanabe’s paintings are almost exclusively landscapes of the west coast and are executed in thin, translucent washes of acrylic paint reminiscent of watercolour.
He is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy and was awarded the Order of Canada for his ongoing contribution to the cultural landscape of Canada and his continued support of younger artists. Surprisingly, his woodblock prints are relatively affordable. They range in price from $2,200 - $3,500 at Vancouver’s Equinox Gallery.

His work is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada among many others, and he is represented by Equinox Gallery in Vancouver.

Resource: VoCA