Tanaka Ryohei

Born: 1933

Selected works,  Biography, Chronology, Collections

Selected Works

An Entrance No. 1 1993 124/150	Barge Pool No. 3 1978 25/100
Daytime at a Beach 2008 11/100	Kawakubo No. 2 1991 106/150
Kurama Road 1996 38/150	Kyoto No. 19: Gion 1998 135/150
Kyoto No. 30: Ninnaji-Temple 2000 66/150	Orange Tree 2008 43/100
Roofs of Kurama Road 1994 55/120	Season of Fallen Leaves No. 3 1990 132/150
Sogabe No. 2 1995 76/150	Spring Village No. 2 2005 18/100
Summer Day No. 5 1989 118/150	Summer Day No. 6 1992 55/150
Tachikui 2000 52/100	Takafune 2004 37/100
Washing Day No. 2 2007 42/100

Biography:

In 1963, when he was well beyond school age, Tanaka started his career under Furuno-sensei.  What lured Tanaka into the arts was the medium: etching.  Unlike many of his peers, Tanaka knew what he wanted to depict:  the world in which he came from and lived and in particular where man and nature combined.  His minutely accurate etchings focus on thatched-roof farmhouses and threadlike tree branches that are quickly disappearing from the Japanese landscape.  Human figures play almost no part in Tanaka’s works, but they are implied at every turn.  Their absence, along with his color selection of umber, black, greenish gray tones provide a sense of quiet and distance.  What grabs Tanaka as an artist also grabs us:  the use of etching to bring life and spirit to a place of habitation – a place that we may call our own.

Chronology:

Collections:

• Fogg Museum, Harvard University

• Archenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts

• Cincinnati Art Museum

• Boston Museum of Fine Arts

• Cleveland Museum

• Singapore National Museum

• Joseph H. Hirshorn collection

• International Graphic Art Society in New York

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

• Honolulu Academy of Art

• Museum of Japanese Culture, Florida

• Portland Museum of Art

• David Rockefeller Collection