Miyuki tanobe
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The publishing house Tundra books publish works by Tanobe for a book on children's games. Coming from a well-to-do family, the young Miyuki takes classes in Japanese schools with European education. Nestled between the countryside and the city, Tanobe creates a series of paintings that make her famous throughout Canada. Her panels are filled with scenes that she has observed like children playing hockey.
Her modern primitive works depict everyday life in the working-class neighborhoods of Montreal with humour and great sensitivity.
Her pictures are to be found in prestigious corporate collections, such as Lavalin, Montreal, Pratt & Whitney, Shell Canada, Selection du Reader’s Digest, Montreal, etc...
Miyuki Tanobe
(1937 - -)
Canadian artist, R.C.A Canadian Order, Quebec Order
The Canadian artist, Miyuki Tanobe was born in Japan in 1937.
Several exhibitions are held in Quebec.
In 1975, Miyuki Tanobe made the large painting illustrating the Faubourg at M'lasse for the Japanese pavilion at Terre des Hommes. To make the message of her works more effective, she transforms “humble and unavoidable reality” by reformulating it, adding or deleting elements depending on her assessment of their contribution to the scene she is recording.
She was named Miyuki, which means “deep snow”, for there was a violent snowstorm raging on the day she was born. She illustrated the secondhand book in 1983. Because there was a violent snowstorm raging on the day she was born, her parents named her Miyuki, which means "deep snow". She became a student at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
She paints principally on rigid supports such as wood or masonite sheets. Working with superimposed layers and applying pigments with her pliable, flexible Japanese brush, Miyuki Tanobe succeeds in revealing unexpected aspects of the objects and people she depicts without making them difficult to read. Tanobe attended Japanese primary and secondary schools.
In 1963, possessing incipient artistic gifts, she painted at the studio of La Grande Chaumière in Paris before registering at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, France's leading school of fine arts.
When she entered university, Miyuki chose nihonga, a school of painting which describes itself as “Japanese painting”, for that is what the word means.
Nihonga artists use the traditional Japanese brush, colours made from hand-ground powders and glue, applied with water and incorporating pictorial matter.
While nihonga formed the main focus of her studies, Miyuki Tanobe’s university programme required her to attend workshops in oil painting, watercolours and engraving and to take courses in European, Chinese and Japanese art.
Tanobe arrived in France in 1963 where she painted at La Grande Chaumière in Paris before registering at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, France’s leading school of fine arts.
Miyuki Tanobe’s arrival in Canada in 1971 came as a result of a chance meeting in Paris with Maurice Savignac, her future husband, a french Canadian from Montreal.
Miyuki Tanobe’s work reflects a freedom of action.
She then portrays the popular scenes of the neighborhoods of the city of Montreal. In 1994, she was a member of the Royal Academy of Canada.
1. Definition of nihonga from the book Tanobe, Signature by Leo Rosshandler page 11
Selling and buying artworks by artist Miyuki Tanobe. She wants to open our eyes so that we may see better what we already know, to adjust our perception of what we think we know.
The colour in Miyuki’s paintings is rich and full of contrasts. A friendship is created and after a few years the latter convinces Miyuki Tanobe to settle in Montreal in 1971.
Miyuki Tanobe’s work has been shown at Galerie Valentin since 1972.