Sold for: $169,250

PROVENANCE
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Florida

In 1980, prominent West Coast modernist Takao Tanabe moved back to British Columbia from Alberta, settling on the east side of Vancouver Island. Tanabe had often gone through dramatic shifts in his work, and his return to the coast would transform his aesthetics yet again. He settled into the atmospheric work he has become renowned for - paintings with radiant skies, moody landscapes and seascapes enshrouded in mists and rain, depicted in a style of reductive realism.

In British Columbia, the Inside Passage stretches from Port Hardy on the northern tip of Vancouver Island up to Tanabe’s birthplace in Prince Rupert. It leads through a narrow maze of channels, passes and reaches, many of which Tanabe has painted, such as this stunning subject, Burke Channel, which leads to Bella Coola and the traditional territories of the Nuxalk. Dark headlands plunge into steely water, and Tanabe leads the viewer’s gaze through the gap between them into shadowy mountains beyond, under a glowing sky with subtle tones of mauve and pink. Inside Passage 1/89: Burke Channel is a painting that has found its transcendent centre, and it is saturated with peace.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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