John Yau

Art

Ruth Asawa, a Pioneer of Necessity

Asawa was a woman of Japanese ancestry making art in the years after World War II, which was a double whammy.

Art

Peter Saul Knows What to Do with the President and a Hamburger

Some artists get the honor of having their work displayed in the White House, but chances are Saul will never be one of them.

Art

Hoot and Holler with Stanley Whitney

Whitney’s drawings cite influences from Harlem Renaissance literature to bebop.

Art

Stanley Twardowicz, a Neglected Minor Master

The unsung Abstract Expressionist wanted his paintings to show none of the effort he put into making them.

Art

Rosalyn Drexler Does Not Look Back

Since the 1960s, Drexler has continued to make powerful art and to go her own way.

Art

Portrait of a Young Artist, from New York to Vietnam and Back

The challenge for younger artists — particularly ones of color like Tammy Nguyen — is this: do you accommodate yourself to the marketplace, or do you find another way?

Art

Twenty-Nine Thoughts on Jasper Johns

He pushes back against the widely accepted view that the artist’s primary goal is formal innovation.

Art

Four Uncompromising Finnish Women Artists

There are no portraits of men or depictions of happy couples in this exhibition at Scandinavia House.

Art

Twenty-Six Thoughts on Robert Rauschenberg

MoMA's retrospective runs from stench and perfection to perfection and putrefaction.

Books

An Art Critic's Independent Gaze

Michael Glover takes nothing for granted in his art criticism; he is not dogmatic, nor does he seem to have axe to grind.

Art

Joshua Marsh’s Inimitable Drawings

Marsh might begin with close observation, but he ends up in a fever dream — a garden of otherworldly delights.

Books

Will Alexander's Celebration of the Possible

Alexander’s poetry is swarming with information from a vast library — like the one lost in Alexandria — that he has absorbed into his bloodstream.