OC
1926 -
Canadian
The Land
acrylic on canvas
signed and on verso signed, titled, dated 3/76 and inscribed "Banff" and "Acrylic"
32 1/4 x 55 3/4 in, 81.9 x 141.6 cm
Estimate: $15,000 - $25,000 CAD
Sold for: $31,250
Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave
PROVENANCE
Marlborough-Godard, Toronto
Private Collection, Montreal
LITERATURE
Ian M. Thom et al., Takao Tanabe, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2005, essay by Jeffrey Spalding, page 118
In 1976 Takao Tanabe was teaching at the Banff School of Fine Arts and painting landscapes of the open spaces of the Prairies. This spare and transcendental canvas is from the series The Land, which Jeffrey Spalding wrote melded “the universal language of formalism with Canadian imagery,” declaring it to be “his most lasting, personal contribution to art.” Tanabe painted without using primer to seal the surface, and his thin washes of acrylic soaked right into the raw canvas. Like drawing with ink, this kind of painting did not allow reworking, and it required rapid and sure brushwork. These landscapes, seen as if at a distance, were simplified into planes, with just the barest of details—as in The Land, where subtly modulated planes of radiant blue and velvety brown are separated by slivers of gold along the horizon. There are no details such as roads, telephone lines or grain elevators to interrupt our contemplation of the vista. Subtle works such as this exist on the border between abstraction and representation, expressed through the universal language of formalism, yet grounded in the prairie landscape.
Estimate: $15,000 - $25,000 CAD
All prices are in Canadian Dollars
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