{"id":630012,"date":"2026-09-19T23:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T23:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630012\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T23:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T23:44:15","slug":"acclaimed-artist-takao-tanabes-100th-birthday-honoured-with-60-year-retrospective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630012\/","title":{"rendered":"Acclaimed artist Takao Tanabe’s 100th birthday honoured with 60-year retrospective"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two decades ago, 79-year-old Takao Tanabe stood in the Vancouver Art Gallery, examining a painting he had done in 1983.<\/p>\n

It was part of a series created shortly after he returned to Canada’s West Coast, following a stint producing landscapes of the prairies and foothills near Banff, Alta.<\/p>\n

“This series I called Queen Charlotte Summer, but it looks more like winter,” Tanabe mused.<\/p>\n

“I love the whole idea of not being able to see things clearly. Indistinct land masses, indistinct water with bits and pieces floating on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It suits my temperament. Being secretive.”<\/p>\n

Over a career spanning seven decades, the prolific Prince Rupert, B.C.-born artist has created hundreds of artworks in a wide array of artistic styles, though he is primarily known for his landscapes.<\/p>\n

“What I am trying to do is create new forms based on nature so that I see the world in a new way,” he said in a 1981 interview.<\/p>\n

\"PaintingTakao Tanabe’s Dawn, 2003. (Photo: NGC \/ MBAC)<\/p>\n

A retrospective at the Audain Art Museum in Whistler, Takao Tanabe 100: Inside Passage, was created to coincide with Tanabe’s 100th birthday this week.<\/p>\n

“When I approached Tak two years ago with this idea of doing his survey he told me ‘make it quick. I’m old, make it happen sooner. I may not be alive in 2026’,” chief curator Kiriko Watanabe told CBC’s North by Northwest.<\/p>\n

She said her initial goal was to hang 100 paintings, but the number was reduced because they were so large.<\/p>\n

“We decided to focus only on his paintings and not include watercolours and prints because they have been showcased at other galleries. We really wanted to address a long span of his career from the 50s to the 2010s,” she said.<\/p>\n

Despite his morbid warning, Tanabe was there to see the exhibit open.<\/p>\n

“He stayed with us for a very long time, walking through the galleries with his wife, Anona,” Watanabe said.<\/p>\n

“They both truly enjoyed the opportunity of being able to see so many of Tak’s paintings put together for presentation.”<\/p>\n

\"TakaoTakao Tanabe and his wife, Anona Thorne. (Kyle Graham)<\/p>\n

Tanabe’s straight-talking, sometimes prickly demeanor has earned him the nickname “Crabby Tanabe.”<\/p>\n

But Nikkei National Museum Director Sherri Shinobu Kajiwara said the man wandering the Audain Museum halls was relaxed and at ease.<\/p>\n

“I have never seen him so gleeful, so joyful, just belly-laughing and smiling.”<\/p>\n

As part of the birthday celebrations, Watanabe said the museum would donate 100 copies of the exhibition book to libraries and art galleries across Canada.<\/p>\n

“We’re doing everything we can to make sure that Tanabe’s legacy will be remembered and celebrated.”<\/p>\n

Tanabe, who has exhibited works throughout Canada, the United States and Europe, was made a Member of the Order of Canada in April 1999.<\/p>\n

Takao Tanabe receives the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts in 2003. (Canadian Press)Exploring identity<\/p>\n

Tanabe’s career began at the Winnipeg School of Arts, where he was a student from 1946 to 1949.<\/p>\n

“I went to art school thinking I could become a commercial artist and make a few dollars that way, and not have to work as a labourer for the rest of my life,” he said in 2006.<\/p>\n

But he soon became enamoured with the idea of life as a creative.<\/p>\n

“He never stopped exploring new styles \u2026 he was always curious about different combinations of art, colours, styles, lines and shapes,” Watanabe said.<\/p>\n

“And once he sets to a certain direction, then he completely devotes himself to experimenting, coming up with variations of different styles.”<\/p>\n

As a child of Japanese immigrants living in Canada during the 1940s, Tanabe and his family became the target of racist government policies introduced during the Second World War.<\/p>\n

They were among 22,000 people of Japanese descent who were rounded up and sent to internment and work camps across Canada.<\/p>\n

“Tak and his parents and younger siblings were incarcerated at Hastings Park \u2026 and the conditions were horrible,” Kajiwara said.<\/p>\n

“It was so early in the internment era that the shacks were not ready for them. His father, who was a trained carpenter, and Tak actually helped build some of the housing that they were then further detained in.”<\/p>\n

Despite his family’s experiences, Tanabe, who was born and raised in Canada without learning his parents’ native tongue, has resisted classification as a Japanese artist.<\/p>\n

“I felt the mark of being branded Japanese, not knowing anything about Japan,” he said in 1961.<\/p>\n

“People say there’s a Japanese influence in my work today but I don’t believe it. I nod my head now because I’m too tired to argue but I don’t believe it.”<\/p>\n

But he did spend time in Japan.<\/p>\n

In 1959, Tanabe used a grant from the Canada Arts Council to study the black-ink calligraphy of Sumi-e in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

\"WatercolourHillside at Dusk, 1960. (Burnaby Art Gallery)<\/p>\n

Kajiwara said his time there had a lot to do with identity.<\/p>\n

“He was curious about learning to paint in Japanese style \u2014 but also \u2014 was he Japanese?<\/p>\n

“Really, after two years, he concluded that he was not Japanese in the sense that the Japanese think of themselves,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Having said that, it’s evident to me\u2026 in his work and especially the work that followed, there is such a strong influence.”<\/p>\n

Back in the Vancouver Art Gallery, the final painting of Tanabe’s 2006 retrospective, Crossing the Strait, depicts a stormy night over Nanaimo’s Departure Bay.<\/p>\n

Standing before the artwork all those years ago, Tanabe reflected on how visitors might perceive it.<\/p>\n

“People will say, oh he’s getting to be 80, he’s looking at the end of his life. Darkness is creeping in and it’s going to envelop him completely.<\/p>\n

“That’s one reading. But right after this, I did a seven-foot painting looking over the Pacific Ocean. And it’s dawn. If that was hanging here, what would people say?”<\/p>\n

Takao Tanabe 100: Inside Passage runs until October 19.<\/p>\n

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