Lecture

Thursday, January 17, 2013
John Yau presents Three Lectures on Jasper Johns John Yau presents Three Lectures on Jasper Johns

John Yau, poet, critic, and essayist
Andrew Joron, poet
Introduced by Caitlin Haskell, assistant curator of painting and sculpture, SFMOMA

Phyllis Wattis Theater
7:00 p.m.

An award-winning and prolific writer on visual culture, John Yau has published more than 50 books of poetry, artists' books, fiction, and art criticism, including The Passionate Spectator: Essays on Art and Poetry and A Thing Among Things: The Art of Jasper Johns. The latter collection of essays, drawing on conversations with the artist over a period of 30 years, considers the relationship of Johns's work to lived experience. Most recently Yau contributed two essays to SFMOMA's catalogue accompanying the exhibition Jasper Johns: Seeing with the Mind's Eye, examining Johns's approach to his work. As Johns has said, "I am interested in the idea of sight . . . in how we see and why we see the way we do" — and how this challenges the viewer with the task of making meaning through seeing. Local poet Andrew Joron leads a Q & A with Yau following his talk.

$10 general; $7 SFMOMA members, students, and seniors.

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Image: John Yau