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 rt Interview Online Magazine is proud to introduce the modern realist painter Nobuhito Tanaka, who won first place in the Art Interview - 3rd International Online Artists’ Competition.
Nobuhito Tanaka was born in 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in studio Art from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and a Masters of Fine Arts Degree in painting from the Academy of Art University (AAU) in San Francisco, California. During his years as a graduate student, Tanaka won numerous awards from the AAU’s Spring Shows, including the Society of Western Artists Award in 2003. He was also one of the featured artists in the book “How Did You Paint That? - 100 Ways to Paint People and Figures, Volume 2”, published by International Artist Magazine. Tanaka is currently working as a studio artist painting still lifes, figures and cityscapes and teaching workshops at the Academy of Art University.
Art Interview: Where are you from?
Nobuhito Tanaka: I was born in Chicago.
Art Interview: When?
Nobuhito Tanaka: In 1978.
Art Interview: You are living now in San Francisco, is that correct?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Yes.
Art Interview: Did you study art there?
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Nobuhito Tanaka
Nobuhito Tanaka in his studio.
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Nobuhito Tanaka: Yes, I got a BA, Bachelor of Arts, from the University of Minnesota, and I got my Masters of Fine Arts at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
Art Interview: Have you been exhibiting in galleries?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Yes, I have one gallery so far in Saint Helena, California. The gallery is the Christopher Hill gallery.
Art Interview: How long did it take you to get into that gallery? Were you just able to show some slides and they took you on?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Yes, I sent my portfolio to the gallery and they called me right away. I took some pieces in and they liked my work. So I got represented there. I actually heard about that gallery from the undergraduate director of the Academy of Art University.
Art Interview: Do you consider yourself a photo-realist?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Not really. I feel that it is realism, but not photo-realism.
Art Interview: Were there influences on your work?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Not that I can think of. Most of the artists that I admire are not really photorealistic artists, artists such as John Singer Sargent. I never actually studied photorealism. I think it just kind of happened that way, while I was studying at the Academy of Art University.
Art Interview: Do you work from life or from photos?
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Nobuhito Tanaka
Ginza
2000
Oil on canvas
48 x 24 inches
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Nobuhito Tanaka: If I am painting a cityscape I work from photographs that I take.
Art Interview: Have you also exhibited your photographs or do you just strictly present your paintings?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Just the paintings, the photographs are only for reference.
Art Interview: Are you familiar with the photorealist movement from the sixties then?
Nobuhito Tanaka: A little bit. I know the most popular artists like Chuck Close.
Art Interview: What did you study when you were in school?
Nobuhito Tanaka: At the University of Minnesota I studied art, but it was more from the expressionist point of view.
Art Interview: Then I take it you did not focus on life drawing and painting in Minnesota?
Nobuhito Tanaka: At the University of Minnesota it was kind of half and half. I painted from life but I would also create from my imagination. But even if I painted from life it was more in the direction of expressionism. It was when I went to San Francisco to go to the Academy of Art University for my Masters that I started to really study traditional painting. The school offered traditional, formal training in realism. That kind of interested me, because I'd never learned it. And that's when I started to paint realistically. At the University of Minnesota we started out painting right away, but at the Academy of Art University, they started us out with drawing. After you could draw from life then you were allowed to go on to painting.
Art Interview: Were you doing life studies then?
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Nobuhito Tanaka
Terry
Oil on canvas
21 x 26 inches
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Nobuhito Tanaka: Yes, most of what we studied was from life, we would also paint landscapes where we had to take a photograph and bring it into the studio and paint. But if it was a still life or a figure we would always work from life.
Art Interview: How long did you have to do drawing before you could go on to painting?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Not that long, because there was a Masters program which is shorter than an undergraduate program. So, I took drawing classes for only one or two semesters and then I began painting classes.
Art Interview: When did you graduate?
Nobuhito Tanaka: I graduated in fall of 2004.
Art Interview: How has your work changed since you've come out of school?
Nobuhito Tanaka: My paintings have gotten a lot tighter. When I first started I was looser: more brush strokes; a little bit more painterly. But since I've graduated and gone on my own, my paintings have gotten far tighter.
Art Interview: Do you think that that's a result of working from photographs or do you think it's just the development of your style?
Nobuhito Tanaka: I'm not sure, because I've worked with photographs in the past and I've been able to keep it loose. The tightness in my paintings could come from the subject matter. It wasn't until I graduated that I began painting cityscapes. Before then I mainly painted figurative works and still lifes. So it could be a result of switching to cityscapes that I have tightened my technique.
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Nobuhito Tanaka
One Night in Tokyo
Oil on canvas
10 x 20 inches
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Art Interview: Is that because the city has more details that you are trying to capture?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Yes. There is a lot more to take in when you do a cityscape because there is so much going on, especially in the background.
Art Interview: What was it about cityscapes that appeals to you?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Living in a big city like San Francisco is pretty diverse. There is so much life in a city. I hadn't really painted cityscapes, but I thought it might be interesting, so I took a few pictures. I had also had some older pictures that I wanted to paint. Basically, when I was in school I didn't really have that much time to explore cityscape paintings. I always wanted to do it but I didn't really have the time.
Art Interview: By time I assume you mean the actual time it takes to paint a detailed cityscape?
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Nobuhito Tanaka
Mini Mini Cooper
Oil on canvas
16 x 20 inches
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Nobuhito Tanaka: Yes, or at least the time that I thought it would take. I figured that it would take me a lot longer to paint cityscapes than any other subjects. I didn't take any cityscape classes while I was in school. My final project was focused on still lifes. But towards the end I started incorporating cityscapes into my still-life paintings. That's probably what awakened my interest in making cityscape paintings.
Art Interview: Now is it true then that the cityscapes take longer?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Yes, for me it takes longer.
Art Interview: How long does it take you to do a cityscape painting?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Depending on the size, I think 30 to 50 hours.
Art Interview: The painting would be what size?
Nobuhito Tanaka: On average they would be between 16 x 20 inches to 40 x 30 inches.
Art Interview: That's relatively small and intense. Are you working in oils?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Yes.
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Nobuhito Tanaka
Columbus Study
Oil on canvas
4 x 6 inches
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Art Interview: And what type of brushes do you use?
Nobuhito Tanaka: I use a lot of small brushes. Probably the smallest size is one and the largest is around ten. And I use a variety of flat brushes and round brushes.
Art Interview: Do you work with a glazing technique?
Nobuhito Tanaka: I do glazing and some scumbling. I usually start with a drawing and after that I do an under-painting, usually in one color, such as brown. When that is done, I start putting in the colors.
Art Interview: Do you copy the photograph exactly?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Not really. The way I work is just by looking at the photograph. If I wanted to be tighter like a photorealist would do it, I probably would either project the image onto the canvas or use a grid. But I prefer not to use these methods because I want to allow a little more room to change things. I feel like this method gives me more freedom. It's probably a lot more work and there is a lot more room for error, but I enjoy it more. It gives me a feeling of being artistic that I wouldn't have if I was relying on a projector. Although, I don't see anything wrong with the other methods, they're just not for me.
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Nobuhito Tanaka
Down Hemlock
Oil on canvas
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Art Interview: How long have you been concentrating on your cityscapes?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Not that long. I started right after I graduated so it has probably been about a year. In that time I've done about seven or eight.
Art Interview: How often do you paint?
Nobuhito Tanaka: I paint practically every day.
Art Interview: Do you have a side job?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Right now, I work part time at the Academy of Art University.
Art Interview: How do you survive financially?
Nobuhito Tanaka: The part-time job and the gallery allow me to just get by. Once I make enough paintings, I'll search for other gallery representation and I'll probably look for a full-time teaching position in the near future.
Art Interview: What are you currently teaching at the university?
Nobuhito Tanaka: I'm a figure painting workshop instructor.
Art Interview: That sounds interesting. Do you think it's important to teach as an artist? Does it give you something?
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Nobuhito Tanaka
Daydreamer
Oil on canvas
24 x 18 inches
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Nobuhito Tanaka: Yes, I think it is very important. I feel that by teaching, an artist is giving back something. In addition, doing my undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, I learned little about representational art. It wasn't until I came to the Academy of Art University that I finally had a choice between traditional and expressionism. Once I started to learn about traditional art, I thought: This is important knowledge that almost all artists should have. Even if they feel that they want to go more expressive or even abstract, I still feel they should learn the traditional, representational form of painting. Most of the expressive artists from the past, like Picasso, had formal training before they went in a different direction. Even if you decide to go a more expressive route, traditional painting gives you an advantage because it gives you knowledge of color theory and composition.
Art Interview: Do you feel that learning academic painting and drawing skills are more valuable than having open free time to experiment?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Yes, I think that it is very important. It makes a very significant difference. If you start off painting on your own, you don't know what you are doing. You have no direction, nobody really guiding you, especially in terms of technique. For example, if a musician doesn't know the keys of the piano and you just tell him to bang on the keys and try to make music it's probably not going to work. But if you have the formal training and if you want him to improvise, it will be probably easier. That's how I feel about art. I feel that it's better to have formal training in a discipline even if you feel you will be going in a more expressive manner, because then you will have the foundation and something to work from.
Art Interview: Do you believe the expressionists created a generation of students who never really learned the basic foundation and, consequently, now that those students are teachers they don't have anything solid to offer?
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Nobuhito Tanaka
Into the City
Oil on canvas
24 x 30 inches
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Nobuhito Tanaka: I think the original idea of the expressionist movement was very important to the art community, that's obvious. I have a lot of respect for the abstract movement, but the people who initiated it were originally trained in the formal arts. They basically knew what they were doing. They wanted to break away from formal art, but they had the discipline already. The tradition got lost somewhere, probably around the sixties or seventies. They started to think that we didn't need traditional art at all. I think that's where the movement went wrong. All aspects of art are important, even expressive art. I've taken some expressive classes at the Academy and I feel I have learned more about expressive art here than I did at the University of Minnesota. This is mainly because the teachers that taught abstract art were actually formally trained in art. They chose to go abstract; it wasn't like that was the only thing they knew, they chose expressive art over realism, but they knew how to do realism. And in that respect they knew more about art than teachers who had only studied expressive art and abstract expressive art.
Art Interview: Do you think that there is a trend now in the younger generation to move back toward realism?
Nobuhito Tanaka: I feel that realism is starting to come back. I think there are a lot of artists nowadays moving toward realism, or who at least are more for a formal training in realism before they go off on their own.
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Nobuhito Tanaka
Under the Clouds
Oil on canvas
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Art Interview: Do you visit art fairs, biennials and art conventions?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Once in while I try to get a fresh eye for inspiration. In San Francisco there is an event called First Thursday, when most of the galleries in the city have a new opening for a show. I try to go to those. So I go from one gallery to the next to see what work the artists are showing.
Art Interview: Do you believe the new art in San Francisco is leaning toward realism?
Nobuhito Tanaka: I think its kind of half and half, from the galleries that I have seen. There are a lot of galleries that are traditionally based. There are also a lot that are more expressive or contemporary.
Art Interview: How do you see your work in the future as far as the art scene?
Nobuhito Tanaka: I'm not sure right now. I feel like I'm still finding myself as an artist. I'm still pretty young as an artist. It wasn't until maybe four, five years ago that I actually started painting realistically. In the near future I might actually get looser but for the moment I want to be a tight painter. My future as an artist is kind of open.
Art Interview: What kind of feedback do you get from the general public about your work?
Nobuhito Tanaka: I know that I've gotten good responses from the gallery. But there are those who don't like it, mainly because it's so tight. But I think in general the response is good.
Art Interview: Are most of your works then relatively small?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Yes, the largest painting I've worked on so far is 30 inches by 40 inches. I mainly work small, but I'm starting to work my way up.
Art Interview: How much is your gallery currently selling your work for?
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Nobuhito Tanaka
Columbus
Oil on canvas
30 x 40 inches
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Nobuhito Tanaka: I think the price for the smallest piece, 11 x 14, is $1,000. The largest piece, which is 30 x 40, is selling for $7,000.
Art Interview: And they take a 50% commission?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Yes.
Art Interview: So in order to make a living as an artist you will have to either increase your productivity or raise the prices?
Nobuhito Tanaka: Yes.
Art Interview: What do you think will happen? Do you think you will become more productive or will just try to raise the prices?
Nobuhito Tanaka: I think I will be more productive. I'm still relatively young and I've only been with my gallery for about 8 months. So I think at this stage in my career I will try to increase my productivity and gradually raise the prices.
Art Interview: Did you suggest your prices or did the gallery set them?
Nobuhito Tanaka: It was kind of half and half. I brought in a price list and told them it was flexible. He set the prices according to what he thought would be appropriate for an emerging artist.
Art Interview: What's the next step for your career?
This oral history transcript is the result of a tape-recorded interview with Nobuhito Tanaka on March 6, 2006. The interview took place over the telephone between Berlin, Germany, and San Fancisco, California, USA and was conducted by Brendan Davis for Art Interview Online Magazine.
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