Takao Tanabe

Takao Tanabe is a former Head of the Art Department and Artist-in-Residence at The Banff Centre. Tanabe was born in Prince Rupert in 1926 and studied at the Winnipeg School of Art from 1946-49 before going to New York where he continued studies at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. After a summer at the Banff School of Fine Arts in 1953, Tanabe went to the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, England and then to Tokyo University in Japan. Takao Tanabe was awarded the Emily Carr Foundation Scholarship in 1953, a CanadaCouncil Fellowship in 1959 and a Canada Council Senior Fellowship in 1969. More recently, Tanabe was awarded the Order of Canada for his ongoing contribution to the cultural landscape of Canada and his continued support of younger artists. A member of the Royal Canadian Academy, Takao Tanabe has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally, has carried out a number of public commissions and is represented in the National Gallery of Canada and many other public and private collections. Tanabe has had a long and distinguished career as a Canadian landscape painter. His paintings are done in acrylic characteristically executed in thin washes which have a subtle, translucent quality reminiscent of watercolour.