Reuben Tam

Reuben Tam (January 17, 1916 – January 3, 1991) was an American landscape painter, educator, poet and graphic artist.

Reuben Tam

ANA, NA
Born(1916-01-17)January 17, 1916
Kapa'a, Kaua'i
DiedJanuary 3, 1991(1991-01-03) (aged 74)
Kaua'i
EducationSan Francisco Art Institute
Alma materUniversity of Hawaii
Columbia University
From Cliffs to Evening by Reuben Tam, oil on canvas, 1978, Honolulu Museum of Art

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 Hawaii 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 between 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 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, Washington), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D. C.), the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Lowe Art Museum (University of Miami, Florida), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (New York City), the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum (Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri), 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
  1. "Biographical Note, A Finding Aid to the Reuben Tam papers, 1931-2006". Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  2. "Reuben Tam Papers An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University". Syracuse University. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  3. 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.
  4. Schneider, Julie (2020-09-21). "At 96 Years Old, Richard Mayhew Is Still Painting Transportive "Mindscapes"". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  5. 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.
  6. Forbes, David W. (1992). Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778-1941. Honolulu: Honolulu Academy of Arts,pp. 265–6. ISBN 9780824814465
  7. "Reuben Tam - Artist, Fine Art Prices, Auction Records for Reuben Tam". www.askart.com. Retrieved 2019-02-10.
  8. Papanikolas, Theresa and Stephen Salel, Stephen, Abstract Expressionism, Looking East from the Far West, Honolulu Museum of Art, 2017, ISBN 9780937426920, p. 30
  9. Chang, Gordon H., Mark Dean Johnson, Paul J. Karlstrom & Sharon Spain, Asian American Art, a History, 1850-1970, Stanford University Press, ISBN 9780804757515, p. 429
  10. "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Reuben Tam". Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  11. 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.
  12. Saville, Jennifer (July–August 1991). "Archipelago: Paintings by Reuben Tam". Calendar News: 5–6.

Further reading
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