Burckhardt was never surreptitious; he did not hide his camera, and his subjects often knew they were being photographed.
Author Archives: John Yau
John Yau has published books of poetry, fiction, and criticism.
His latest poetry publications include a book of poems, Further Adventures in Monochrome (Copper Canyon Press, 2012), and the chapbook, Egyptian Sonnets (Rain Taxi, 2012). His most recent monographs are Catherine Murphy (Rizzoli, 2016), the first book on the artist, and Richard Artschwager: Into the Desert (Black Dog Publishing, 2015). He has also written monographs on A. R. Penck, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol. In 1999, he started Black Square Editions, a small press devoted to poetry, fiction, translation, and criticism. He was the Arts Editor for the Brooklyn Rail (2007–2011) before he began writing regularly for Hyperallergic Weekend. He is a Professor of Critical Studies at Mason Gross School of the Arts (Rutgers University).
Posted inArt
Some Thoughts About England’s Obsession With Portraits
With the possible exception of Howard Hodgkin, not a single English abstract artist has attained anything comparable to the status achieved by Lucien Freud or David Hockney.
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Did You Know That Robert Hershon Is a Major Poet?
I cannot think of another contemporary poet who is willing to expose his vulnerability, worry, and pettiness through the lens of humor.
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The Chance Meeting of Robert Rauschenberg and Coho Salmon in a Dream
Everything connects; you just have to find out how.
Posted inBooks
This Be the Verse: Our Favorite Poetry Books of 2020
John Yau and Albert Mobilio select a few choice titles from the past year.
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Steve DiBenedetto’s Raw Nerves
Whatever the impulse that initiated the paintings, DiBenedetto clearly works everything out on the surface.
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George Condo’s Cutism
Condo’s paintings play to his viewers’ sense of superiority; it gives them something to smile at without thinking too deeply into the work.
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Anne Truitt’s Spiritual Quest
As her death approached, was the artist starting fresh or beginning to let go?
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Eric Fischl’s Privileged Bubble
Fischl finds a visual bond between the seclusion of the affluent white world and the pandemic’s enforced isolation.
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Theaster Gates and the Shapes of Black History
Gates reminds us of the many hidden, unacknowledged, and under-recognized histories of Black culture in America.
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Peter Saul, American Gadfly
Before he turned 30, it was clear that Saul had found his subject: an American society deeply rooted in consumerism, pervasive racism, and toxic masculinity.
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Lisa Corinne Davis Critiques Corporate America Through Abstract Art
Davis recognizes that grids, networks, and circuits are not purely a product of the art world, and there are myriad contexts in which the government and corporate America deploy them.