Her father, Abraham Ber Tabachnick, was a prominent Yiddish literary critic and poet, and a news editor for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in New York.

After studying briefly with painter Nell Blaine, Tabachnick was awarded a scholarship from the Hans Hofmann School in New York City and Provincetown from February 1946 to August 1950.

Tabachnick drew inspiration from what she called “The Grand Tradition” of European Masters; especially El Greco, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse.

[2] A self-described lyrical expressionist, Tabachnick was associated with Leland Bell, Louisa Matthiasdottir, Jane Freilicher, Larry Rivers, Bob Thompson, and Robert De Niro, Sr.[8] Along with some two dozen solo shows, Anne Tabachnick's many honors and awards include the Longview Foundation Award (1960), grants from Radcliffe's Bunting Institute (1967 and 1969), grants from the Creative Artists Program (1975 and 1978), the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation (1982) and the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (1983).

In 1985, Tabachnick was appointed artist in residence at Altos de Chavón in the Dominican Republic and received numerous invitations to the MacDowell and Yaddo art colonies.