Reuben Tam

Reuben Tam ANA, NA
Born	(1916-01-17)January 17, 1916 Kapa'a, Kauaʻi, Territory of Hawaii
Died	January 3, 1991(1991-01-03) (aged 74) Kauaʻi, Hawaii, U.S.
Education	California School of Fine Art (BFA)
Alma mater	University of Hawaiʻi Columbia University

File:'From Cliffs to Evening' by Reuben Tam, oil on canvas, 1978, Honolulu Museum of Art, 6230.1.JPG

From Cliffs to Evening by Reuben Tam, oil on canvas, 1978, Honolulu Museum of Art

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

Early life and education

He was born in Kapa'a on the Hawaiian island of Kauaʻi. He earned a BA degree from the University of Hawaiʻi in 1937. He attended classes in 1940 at the California School of Fine Art (later the San Francisco Art Institute). In 1941 he moved to New York City and he continued his studies from 1942 until 1945 at Columbia University with Meyer Schapiro.

Career

Tam became affiliated with the Downtown Gallery in 1945. 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.

From 1946 to the 1974, he taught at the Brooklyn Museum Art School (BMAS). Some of his notable students from BMAS included Frances Kornbluth, Mel Tanner, Jean Arcoleo, Pat Adams, and Richard Mayhew. He spent many summers painting on Monhegan Island in Maine, starting around 1950. He later taught courses at Queens College (City College of New York) and Oregon State University.

Death and legacy

Tam returned to Kauaʻi in 1980, and died there on January 3, 1991, of lymphoma.

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), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City), and the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.) are among the public collections holding works by Reuben Tam.

Awards and honors

• 1940 – First National Prize for his painting Koto Crater at the Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE)
• 1948 – Guggenheim Fellowship
• 1975 – Associate National Academician (ANA), National Academy of Design
• 1978 – American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, Award in Art
• 1987 – National Academicians (NA), National Academy of Design
• 1989 – Elliot Cades Literary Award for his poetry, from University of Hawaiʻi

Further reading

• Chang, Gordon H., Mark Dean Johnson, Paul J. Karlstrom & Sharon Spain, Asian American Art, a History, 1850-1970, Stanford University Press, , pages 429–430
• 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