Interview: Bard Alumnus John Yau ’72 Talks about His Latest Book Please Wait by the Coatroom on the LA Review of Books Radio Hour

Poet and art critic John Yau ’72 talks with LA Review of Books Radio Hour hosts Kate Wolf and Eric Newman about his process and experiences writing about artists and art in New York City. He discusses the complexities of how biracial, multiracial, and transcultural identities influence artists’ work within American art, and the ways those identities have been traditionally and historically ignored by the art world. “It enlarges the notion of identity to have at least two identities or in [artist] Wifredo Lam’s case three identities, Afro, Cuban, and Chinese,” says Yau. “In my essay, I talk about how he’s read as a white artist that is derivative. So his whole identity gets ignored.” The deeper Yau dives into these questions, the more he realizes how this monocultural lens pervades the art world. Drawn from decades of writing, Yau’s first collection of essays, Please Wait by the Coatroom: Reconsidering Race and Identity in American Art, reflects on the work of Black, Asian, Latinx, and Native American artists who have been overlooked and misrepresented. 

Post Date: 07-25-2023