09/16/2026
Happy 100th Birthday to the legendary Takao Tanabe!
Takao Tanabe is one of Canada's most respected artists with a career spanning over six decades. In the 1950s through the early 1970s, Tanabe's painting focused on the non-objective before his work evolved into expansive realist depictions of prairie, plateau, and coastal land- and seascapes.
Born on September 16, 1926, in Seal Cove, BC, Tanabe was interned with his family during the Second World War. Afterwards, he attended the Winnipeg School of Art and continued his studies at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. The Emily Carr Scholarship enabled him to travel to Europe in 1953, and a Canada Council grant supported him for a year studying in Japan in 1959. In 1962, he settled in West Vancouver, living in a modern house designed by Peter Baker. In 1973, Tanabe became the Head of the Painting Program at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, living and working there until 1980, when he moved to Vancouver Island, where he lives now.
Tanabe’s artwork is held in important national and international public and private collections, including the Audain Art Museum, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the National Gallery of Canada, the Tate Museum, and the West Vancouver Art Museum. WVAM is honoured to be part of this remarkable artist's legacy with our exhibitions 𝘛𝘢𝘬𝘢𝘰 𝘛𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘣𝘦 (2010) and 𝘈 𝘔𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦: 𝘛𝘢𝘬𝘢𝘰 𝘛𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘣𝘦 (2021), as well as our Artist Editions Program. Click the LINK IN BIO to purchase.
Images:
1) Takao Tanabe, 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥, ed. 13/25, 1967, silkscreen on paper, 16" × 11". Collection of the West Vancouver Art Museum. Gift of the artist.
2) Takao Tanabe, 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘐𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥, 2023, 2 plate polymer photogravure, 68 × 112 cm. Edition of 15. WVAM Artists Editions Program.
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