Art History from Home:
Asian American Perspectives

Online, via Zoom

This series of online talks by the Whitney’s Joan Tisch Teaching Fellows highlights works in the Museum's collection and current exhibitions to illuminate critical topics in American art from 1900 to the present. During each thirty-minute session, participants are invited to comment and ask questions through a moderated chat for a fifteen-minute Q&A following the talk. Sessions are available live only, Tuesdays at 6 pm and Thursdays at 12 pm, but topics and speakers do periodically repeat. Check back here for more sessions added regularly.

In recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States, this session will explore work by American artists of Asian descent, including Isamu Noguchi, Sarah Sze, Walid Raad, and Salman Toor, alongside artworks that engage with aspects of “Asian-ness” by artists from other backgrounds, such as Chris Burden and Andy Warhol. 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, artistic expression, and the geopolitical tensions that shaped twentieth-century history.

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, focusing on Soviet hauntology in postmodernism. She has curated and lectured widely in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Her latest writings have appeared in Art in America, Art Agenda, and Mousse. She is currently planning an exhibition that explores Asian Futurisms (afuturism.tumblr.com) for the Museum of Chinese in America in New York City.