Reuben Tam Hawaii/California (1916-1991) GEOLOGY OF SPACE, 1953 oil on board, framed signed: lower right, and label on verso H17 " W30 " *Provenance: Property of a South Carolina museum; sold to benefit the Acquisitions Fund. *Note: Bears labels on verso "American Federation of Art, New York "; and also tag which reads "Gift of the American Federation of Art through the Museum Purchase Fund of Gloria Vanderbilt. " *Artist biography: Landscape painter, educator, and graphic artist, Reuben Tam has been described as a man of two islands because he was born and spent much of his adult life in Kapaa, Hawaii and spent most of his summers on Monhegan Island, Maine. He was also known as an artist who interpreted the moods of nature. He earned a BA degree from the University of Hawaii in 1937, and also studied at the California School of Fine Art, at Columbia University with Meyer Schapiro, and at the New School of Social Research in New York City. From 1946 to the 1970s, he taught at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. His paintings are in the New York collections of the Whitney Museum, Museum of Modern Art and in Washington DC at the Hirshhorn Museum and Corcoran Gallery and the Honolulu Academy of Art. Reuben Tam died in Hawaii in January 1991 of lymphoma.