Join us on Monday, June 29 at 6:30 pm for an author talk with Karen Fang, in conversation with Jay Ponteri.
You might not know the name Tyrus Wong, but you probably know many of the images he shaped, 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 is a kaleidoscopic story about the immigrant origins of some of America's best loved visual imagery. Sharing the inspiring story of Tyrus Wong's remarkable 106-year life, this biography showcases the artist's 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 in his retirement to fly on the Santa Monica Beach. It tells how Tyrus 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 Tyrus 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.
"The definitive new biography." —Smithsonian Magazine
Karen Fang is a film scholar and visual culture critic who writes and speaks for museums and film festivals around the world. Known for previous books about Hong Kong cinema and nineteenth-century British interest in exotic objects, Karen often writes about the intersection of eastern and western aesthetics.
Listen to this episode of Biographers in Conversation — film scholar Karen Fang joins Dr. Gabriella Kelly-Davies to discuss her biography of Tyrus Wong.
Jay Ponteri directs the Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing program at PNCA. Somone Told Me was published by Widow+Orphan House in fall 2020. His memoir, Wedlocked, was published by Hawthorne Books, April 2013, and it received the 2014 Oregon Book Award in Creative Nonfiction. His chapbook of short prose, Darkmouth Strikes Again, was published by Future Tense Books, summer 2014. His essay “Listen to this” was mentioned as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2010, and more recently, “On Navel Gazing” was mentioned as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2015. He has published prose in Knee-Jerk, Essay Daily, Ghost Proposal, Seattle Review, Salamander, and Forklift, Ohio, among others.