American landscape painter, educator, poet and graphic artist.
From Cliffs to Evening by Reuben Tam, oil on canvas, 1978,
Honolulu Museum of Art
Reuben Tam (January 17, 1916 – January 3, 1991) was an American landscape painter, educator, poet and graphic artist.
Early life and education
He was born in
Kapa'a on the Hawaiian island of
Kaua'i . He earned a BA degree from the
University of Hawaiʻi in 1937.
[1] He attended graduate classes in 1940 at
California School of Fine Art (now known as San Francisco Art Institute).
[1]
[2] In 1941 he moved to New York City and he continued his studies from 1942 until 1945 at
Columbia University with
Meyer Schapiro .
[1]
[2]
Career
Tam became affiliated with the
Downtown Gallery in 1945.
[1] Tam is best known for his referential abstract landscape paintings showing both land and sea, such as From Cliffs to Evening . In his later career he worked more in pure abstraction.
[3]
From 1946 to the 1974, he taught at the
Brooklyn Museum Art School (BMAS).
[1] Some of his notable students from BMAS included
Frances Kornbluth ,
Mel Tanner , Jean Arcoleo,
Pat Adams , and
Richard Mayhew .
[4]
[5] He spent many summers painting on
Monhegan Island in Maine, starting around 1950.
[3] He later taught courses at
Queens College (City College of New York) and
Oregon State University .
[3]
Death and legacy
Tam returned to Kaua'i in 1980, and died there on January 3, 1991, of
lymphoma .
[6]
[7]
[8]
The
Addison Gallery of American Art (Andover, Massachusetts), the
Brooklyn Museum of Art (Brooklyn, New York ), the
Butler Institute of American Art (Youngstown, Ohio), the
Corcoran Gallery (Washington D. C.),
Des Moines Art Center (Des Moines, Iowa),
Farnsworth Art Museum (Rockland, Maine), Fisher Gallery (University of Southern California, Los Angeles), the
Hawaii State Art Museum , the
Henry Art Gallery (
University of Washington , Seattle), the
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.), the
Honolulu Museum of Art , the
Lowe Art Museum (
University of Miami ), the
Metropolitan Museum of Art , the
Museum of Modern Art (New York City), the
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum (
Washington University in St. Louis ), the
National Academy of Design (New York City), the
Newark Museum (Newark, New Jersey),
Reading Public Museum (Reading, Pennsylvania), the
San Diego Museum of Art (San Diego, California),
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery (Lincoln, Nebraska), the
Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D. C.), the
University of Michigan Museum of Art (Ann Arbor, Michigan) and the
Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City) are among the public collections holding works by Reuben Tam.
[7]
[9]
Awards and honors
References
^
a
b
c
d
e
"Biographical Note, A Finding Aid to the Reuben Tam papers, 1931-2006" . Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution . Retrieved 2020-11-10 .
^
a
b
"Reuben Tam Papers An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University" . Syracuse University . Retrieved 2020-11-10 .
^
a
b
c
d
e Price, Marshall N.; Marshall, Price N.; Buckner, Cindy Medley; Steinberg, Monica (2007).
The Abstract Impulse: Fifty Years of Abstraction at the National Academy, 1956-2006 . Hudson Hills. p. 75.
ISBN
978-1-887149-17-4 .
^ Schneider, Julie (2020-09-21).
"At 96 Years Old, Richard Mayhew Is Still Painting Transportive "Mindscapes" " . Hyperallergic . Retrieved 2020-11-10 .
^ Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy G. (2013-12-19).
North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary . Routledge.
ISBN
978-1-135-63889-4 .
^ Forbes, David W. (1992). Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People , 1778-1941. Honolulu: Honolulu Academy of Arts, pages 265–6.
ISBN
9780824814465
^
a
b
"Reuben Tam - Artist, Fine Art Prices, Auction Records for Reuben Tam" . www.askart.com . Retrieved 2019-02-10 .
^ Papanikolas, Theresa and Stephen Salel, Stephen, Abstract Expressionism, Looking East from the Far West , Honolulu Museum of Art, 2017,
ISBN
9780937426920 , page 30
^ Chang, Gordon H., Mark Dean Johnson, Paul J. Karlstrom & Sharon Spain, Asian American Art, a History, 1850-1970, Stanford University Press,
ISBN
9780804757515 , page 429
^
"John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Reuben Tam" . Retrieved 2020-11-10 .
^
a
b McCarthy, Jeremiah William; Thompson, Diana (2019-01-01).
For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design . Yale University Press. p. 293.
ISBN
978-0-300-24428-1 .
^ Saville, Jennifer (July–August 1991).
"Archipelago: Paintings by Reuben Tam" . Calendar News : 5–6.
Further reading
Chang, Gordon H., Mark Dean Johnson, Paul J. Karlstrom & Sharon Spain, Asian American Art, a History, 1850-1970, Stanford University Press,
ISBN
9780804757515 , pages 429–430
Hawaii State Department of Education (1985). Artists of Hawaii . Honolulu: Hawaii State Department of Education. pp. 47–54.
OCLC
13099980 .
Forbes, David W. (1992). Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778-1941 . Honolulu:
Honolulu Academy of Arts :
University of Hawaiʻi Press . pp. 215–266.
ISBN
9780824814465 .
OCLC
185823750 .
Haar, Francis ; Turnbull, Murray (1977). Artists of Hawaii . Vol. 2. Honolulu, Hawaii:
University of Hawaiʻi Press . pp. 85–90.
ISBN
9780824804671 .
OCLC
312830975 ,
18053919 .
Hartwell, Patricia L. (editor), Retrospective 1967-1987 ,
Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts , Honolulu, Hawaii, 1987, page 57
Johnston, Healoha, "Islanding: Reuben Tam", Honolulu Museum of Art , June • July • Aug 2018, page 5
Tam, Reuben (1998). Archipelago, Life Cycle of the Hawaiian Islands, A Portfolio of Paintings . Honolulu, Hawaii:
Honolulu Academy of Arts .
ISBN
9780937426401 .
OCLC
43783972 .
Tam, Reuben (1993). "Sketches".
Bamboo Ridge: Journal of Hawaiʻi Literature and Arts (Winter): 32–138.
ISSN
0733-0308 .
OCLC
61311690 ,
833909657 .
Tam, Reuben (1996). The Wind-honed Islands Rise, Selected Poems of Reuben Tam . Honolulu, Hawaii: Manoa Books.
ISBN
9780824819323 .
OCLC
35714632 .
Yoshihara, Lisa A. (1997). Collective Visions, 1967-1997 . Honolulu, Hawaii:
Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts . p. 73.
ASIN
B001THP47M .
OCLC
37890571 .
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