Background Artist

The Life and Work of Tyrus Wong

Karen Fang (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

404 Seiten

2024
Rutgers University Press (Verlag)
978-1-9788-3841-3 (ISBN)

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You might not know the name Tyrus Wong, but you probably know some of the images he created, including scenes from the beloved Disney classic Bambi. Yet when he came to this country as a child, Tyrus was an illegal immigrant locked up in an offshore detention center. How did he go on to a long and prosperous career drawing animation cels, storyboards, and greeting cards that shaped the American imagination?

Background Artist shares the inspiring story of Tyrus Wong’s remarkable 106-year life and showcases his wide array of creative work, from the paintings and fine art prints he made working for Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration to the unique handmade kites he designed and flew on the Santa Monica beach. It tells how he came to the United States as a 10-year-old boy in 1920, at a time when the Chinese Exclusion Act barred him from legal citizenship. Yet it also shows how Wong found American communities that welcomed him and nurtured his artistic talent. Covering everything from his work as a studio sketch artist for Warner Bros. to the best-selling Christmas cards he designed for Hallmark and other greeting card companies, this book celebrates a multi-talented Asian-American artist and pioneer.

KAREN FANG is a film scholar and cultural critic who writes for museums and film festivals around the world. A Professor of English at the University of Houston, her previous books include Arresting Cinema: Surveillance in Hong Kong Film and Romantic Writing and the Empire of Signs: Periodical Culture and Post-Napoleonic Authorship.

PROLOGUE
NOTE ON NAMES AND TRANSLATIONS

PART I. NOT JUST A PAPER SON

1 Not Too Far from Alcatraz . . .
2 SS China
3 Paper Son
4 Look Get/Wong Sai Po
5 Angel Island, Devil’s House
6 Alien, Excluded from Citizenship

PART II. BECOMING TYRUS

7 Boy Scouts, Baseball, and Apple Pie
8 Playing Hooky
9 “That City of Celestials”
10 “You Don’t Want to Paint This Shit”
11 The Otis Years
12 “An Outstanding Student Who Warrants Reentry”
13 Dragon’s Den, Artists’ Lair

PART III. PROFESSION: ARTIST

14 Ruth
15 Thank God for the WPA!
16 A Family Blooms on Juanita Avenue
17 Man of the Forest
18 War (“I Am Chinese”)
19 “Be a Good Boy”

PART IV. CHINA’S GREATEST GIFT TO WESTERN CULTURE

20 On the Warner Lot
21 Sunland, or Art of the Pacific
22 Model Minority?
23 America’s Favorite Card Designer

PART V. ALWAYS LOOK UP

24 Go Fly a Kite
25 Faan heang haa (The Return)
26 An Empty Place in the Sky
27 Legend
28 A Well-Lived Life

Coda
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
PLATES FOLLOW PAGE

Erscheint lt. Verlag	11.10.2024
Zusatzinfo	61 color and 38 B-W images
Verlagsort	New Brunswick NJ
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 235 mm
Gewicht	454 g
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Film / TV
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft
ISBN-10	1-9788-3841-7 / 1978838417
ISBN-13	978-1-9788-3841-3 / 9781978838413
Zustand	Neuware