- 43
Takao Tanabe b. 1926
Description
- Takao Tanabe
- Skeena I
- signed, titled and dated '70 on the reverse
- acrylic on canvas
- 80 by 101.6 cm.
- 31½ by 40 in.<br><br>Property to be sold to benefit the Museums Foundation of Canada and the Dr. Shirley L. Thomson Award for Curatorial Excellence
Provenance
Collection of the Artist
Museums Foundation of Canada
Catalogue Note
Tanabe's paintings from the 1960s and early 1970s were a considerable contrast to those done earlier, which were heavily influenced by a sojourn in Japan in the 1950s, and also very different from those he did later, which were evocative landscapes first of the prairies and then of the British Columbia coast.
This work is a particularly fine example of the paintings Tanabe did in New York, where he lived for a year, even though it refers back to his British Columbia roots in the title. Tanabe was also a master typographer, and often draws on his work in typesetting, book design, and graphic design in general. These geometric works have not often been shown in recent years, but they drew a great deal of attention from critics, curators, and collectors when a selection of them was shown in a recent retrospective that toured across Canada.