Takao Tanabe

Takao Tanabe (Canadian, b. 1926) is an important figure in Canadian painting and printmaking with a career spanning nearly 75 years. Dominated by strong horizons and vast expanses of water and sky, his landscapes of BC’s coasts fluctuate from delicate and misty to stormy and brooding. Interned with his family and other Japanese-Canadians in the BC interior during the Second World War, his art studies included the Winnipeg School of Art, the University of Manitoba, the Brooklyn Museum Art School, Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, UK and Tokyo University of Fine Arts, where he combined painting and calligraphy with travel in Japan. A distinguished art teacher and arts advocate, Tanabe taught at the Vancouver School of Art and was head of the art department at the Banff Centre (1973-1980). Tanabe’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including in a 2005 retrospective at the Vancouver Art Gallery, and is held in public and private collections throughout the world. The artist holds numerous awards and recognitions, including the Order of Canada, the Order of BC, the Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts and the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts.