Reuben Tam

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

Early life and education He was born in Kapaʻa on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. 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.

From 1946 to the 1974, he taught at the Brooklyn Museum Art School (BMAS). He spent many summers painting on Monhegan Island in Maine, starting around 1950.

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 Koko Crater at the Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) 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