Page 190 - Famous

YOICHI TANABE

Lives and works in Tokyo, Japan and Barcelona, Spain
w w w.gaka-tanabe.com

Yoichi Tanabe was born in Kumamoto, Japan in 1949. In 1957 he moved
to Tokyo, where he completed Political Science studies at the University
Waseda. In 1974 he completed a postgraduate artistic study of human
anatomy at the University of Fine Arts in Tokyo. From 1975 through 1978
he worked for the National Parliament’s library, and from 1979 through
1986 he participated in numerous solo exhibitions in a variety of Tokyo
art galleries, and became Professor of Drawing in the Bunka Fashion
College, Tokyo. In 1988 Tanabe moved to Sitges, a small town on the
Catalan coast near Barcelona, Spain. He spent a few years there, at
the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. His paintings are infused with the
Mediterranean landscape—the earth, the sea and the light. At the same
time, the rich tradition of his Japanese culture is very clearly evident in his
work. One of the first impressions one receives from Tanabe’s paintings
is the deep respect with which the subject is treated; a closing of the
distance between the painter, the subject and the viewer. Elements merge
within his work—nothing presents itself apart from the composition as a
whole. The principal trait of Tanabe’s work is the natural rhythm, which
implies life and reflects the sense of amazement that the artist feels
when confronted with the spectacle of nature. The magnificent works of
Tanabe are testimony to a place in space and time that will never repeat
itself, and that cannot be compared with anything else.


755 MONTE CON FUNICULAR (HILL WITH FUNICULAR), 1994
 MIXED TECHNIQUE ON JAPANESE PAPER 26X20 IN. / 66X51 CM.
704 LLUVIA EN PANTANO (RAIN IN SWAMP), 1992 OIL, MIXED
TECHNIQUE ON GLUED JAPANESE PAPER TO WOOD .30X22½ IN. / 76X56 CM.

778 MAGNOLIA (MAGNOLIA), 1995 OIL, MIXED TECHNIQUE ON GLUED
JAPANESE PAPER TO WOOD 32X22 IN. /81X65 CM. 

190
FAMOUS
CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS