Art History from Home: Asian American Perspectives Tues, Mar 16, 2021, 6 pm

Art History from Home: Asian American Perspectives

Tues, Mar 16, 2021
6 pm

A vibrant and surreal artwork featuring numerous red lips with visible teeth set against a backdrop of swirling patterns in red, blue, and black. In the center, a figure resembling a candle with a flame for a head is surrounded by a halo of yellow and orange bursts, suggesting an aura or energy field. The overall effect is psychedelic and intense, with a strong emphasis on contrasting colors and repetitive motifs.
A vibrant and surreal artwork featuring numerous red lips with visible teeth set against a backdrop of swirling patterns in red, blue, and black. In the center, a figure resembling a candle with a flame for a head is surrounded by a halo of yellow and orange bursts, suggesting an aura or energy field. The overall effect is psychedelic and intense, with a strong emphasis on contrasting colors and repetitive motifs.

Ching Ho Cheng, Angelhead, 1968. Opaque watercolor, ink, and graphite pencil on paper mounted on pressboard, sheet: 29 1/2 × 38 3/4 in. (74.9 × 98.4 cm) Mount (board): 29 1/2 × 38 3/4 × 1/8 in. (74.9 × 98.4 × 0.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of the Ching Ho Cheng Estate 2010.48. © Ching Ho Cheng Estate/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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This event will have automated closed captions through Zoom. Live captioning is available for public programs and events upon request with seven business days advance notice. We will make every effort to provide accommodation for requests made outside of that window of time. To place a request, please contact us at accessfeedback@whitney.org or (646) 666-5574 (voice). Relay and voice calls welcome.

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Online, via Zoom

This session will explore work by American artists of Asian descent, including Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Ching Ho Cheng, Martin Wong, and An-My Lê, alongside artworks that engage with aspects of “Asian-ness” by artists from other backgrounds, such as Roy Lichtenstein and Ed Ruscha. Looking at these works together, we will consider what it means for an ethnic and cultural identity to be the frame through which we experience and understand representation and artistic expression. 

Xin Wang is a Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow at the Whitney and a Ph.D. candidate in modern and contemporary art at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU. She is the curator of numerous exhibitions in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Her latest writings have appeared in Art in America, Art Agenda, and Wallpaper (Chinese edition). She is currently planning an exhibition that explores Asian Futurisms for the Museum of Chinese in America in New York City.