Sources & Resources

In 1971, Takao Tanabe’s gallerist Mira Godard offered him a monthly stipend in exchange for the exclusive rights to his paintings. His longstanding relationship with the Mira Godard Gallery in Toronto has helped ensure the wide collection of his work by major public institutions and private collectors across Canada. Tanabe’s abstract and landscape paintings have been the subject of major exhibitions, including Takao Tanabe 1972–1976: The Land (Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, 1976) and Takao Tanabe (Vancouver Art Gallery, 2005). In 2009, he was the subject of Takao Tanabe: A Work of Art, a biographical film by Catharine Chesterman. Tanabe is equally distinguished as a painter, printmaker, and educator, and his work continues to expand understanding of the possibilities of landscape.

Major Solo Exhibitions

(includes first solo exhibitions with each of Tanabe’s dealers)

Tanabe has had regular solo exhibitions at his galleries (Equinox Gallery, Vancouver; Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto; and Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary), but these are too numerous to list.

Commissions

1953 Mural, Fine Arts Gallery, UBC, Vancouver

1956 Mosaic Mural, Builders’ Exchange Building, Winnipeg

1963 Summer Street Banners, City of Vancouver

1966 Paper Collage Mural, Department of Agriculture Building, Ottawa

1967 Silk Banners, Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg

1968 Nylon Banner, Confederation Centre, Charlottetown

1973 Nylon Banners, University of Alberta; University of Regina; The Land Fields, lithograph commissioned by Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto

1980 Nylon Banners, Canadian Embassy, Mexico City

1981 South Alberta Foothills 7/82, 18-foot acrylic on canvas painting, for Petro-Canada, Calgary (now in the collection of the Glenbow Museum)

1983 Low Foothills, Evening, woodblock for TD Bank, Toronto

1988 Spanish Banks, woodblock for the Vancouver chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians

1991 Early Evening, Narrow Passage, lithograph for Fletcher Challenge, Vancouver

1995 Marble Is. Q.C.I., lithograph for Artist’s for Kid’s Trust, North Vancouver

Television and Film

1961 CBC, Vancouver, The Lively Arts

1964 CBC, Vancouver, The 7 O’Clock Show

2009 Takao Tanabe: A Work of Art (Prometheus Films)

2009 Landscape as Muse – The West Coast with Takao Tanabe (291 Film Company / Knowledge Network)

Selected Publications

Boulet, Roger. Takao Tanabe: Wet Coasts and Dry Lands. Kelowna: Kelowna Art Gallery, 2000.

Cumming, Glen. Takao Tanabe: The Dark Land. Hamilton: Art Gallery of Hamilton, 1980.

Dillow, Nancy, and Jane Rule. Takao Tanabe, 1972–1976: The Land. Regina: Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, 1976.

Flatlands: Paintings by Takao Tanabe. London, UK: Canada House, 1987.

Kajiwara, Sherri, and Takao Tanabe. Takao Tanabe: Sumie: Ink Brush Paintings. Vancouver: Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre, 2016.

Martens, Darrin, Denise Leclerc, and Ihor Holubizky. Chronicles of Form and Place: Works on Paper by Takao Tanabe. Burnaby: Burnaby Art Gallery, McMaster Museum of Art, 2012.

Nasgaard, Roald. Takao Tanabe: A Survey Exhibition. Toronto: Mira Godard Gallery, 2023.

Plaskett, Joseph. Takao Tanabe: Paintings and Drawings, 1954–57. Vancouver: privately printed, 1957.

Reid, Robert. Takao Tanabe: Sometime Printer. Vancouver: The Alcuin Society, 2010.

Thom, Ian. Takao Tanabe: A Modern Landscape. West Vancouver: West Vancouver Art Museum, 2021.

Thom, Ian. Takao Tanabe: New Prints. Vancouver: Periwinkle Press, 1994.

Thom, Ian, and Christine May. Takao Tanabe: Printmaker. Kelowna: Kelowna Art Gallery, 2023.

Thom, Ian, Roald Nasgaard, Nancy Tousley, and Jeffrey Spalding. Takao Tanabe. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 2005.

Website

Takao Tanabe: Form and Place, http://en.formandplace.ca

Public Collections

Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, San Francisco
Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa
Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Edmonton
Alberta House, London, England
Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
Art Gallery of Guelph
Art Gallery of Hamilton
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Art Gallery of Sudbury
Art Gallery of Windsor
Art Museum at the University of Toronto

Audain Art Museum, Whistler
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Bank of Canada, Ottawa
British Columbia Provincial Collection, Victoria
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo
Burnaby Art Gallery
Canada Council for the Arts
Canada Council Art Bank
Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa
CBC, Vancouver
Cleveland Museum of Art
Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown
Dalhousie Art Gallery, Halifax
Florida State University, Tallahassee
Glenbow Museum, Calgary
Global Affairs Canada, Ottawa
Kamloops Art Gallery
Kelowna Art Gallery
Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery
Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal
MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina
McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton
Millennium Library, Winnipeg
Ministry of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, Ottawa
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery, UBC, Vancouver

Musée d´art contemporain de Montréal

Museum London
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Nickle Galleries, Calgary

Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre, Burnaby
Ottawa Art Gallery
Owens Art Gallery, Sackville
Province of Manitoba Collection, Winnipeg
Red Deer College
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa
The Rooms, St. John’s
SFU Galleries, Burnaby
Surrey Art Gallery
Tate, London, England

University of Alberta, Edmonton
University of Calgary
University of Lethbridge Art Gallery
University of New Brunswick
University of Regina
University of Victoria
University of Western Ontario
Vancouver Art Gallery
Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff
Winnipeg Art Gallery