Reuben Tam

American (1916 - 1991)

Painter, educator and graphic artist, Reuben Tam was born in Kapaa, Hawaii, and became known as a man of two islands, as he spent much of his life living and working both in Hawaii and on Monhegan Island, Maine. Tam earned his degree from the University of Hawaii in 1937 and also studied at the California School of Fine Art as well as at Columbia University with Meyer Schapiro. From 1946 to the 1970s, he taught at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. Tam’s paintings are in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Corcoran Gallery and the Honolulu Academy of Art. Tam’s Monhegan Island works capture his interpretation of nature’s moods, of the strong forces of the rocks and sea as they came together on this remote fishing island.