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by Rowan Johnson
SOU Class of 2025, Creative Writing

Archie Rand and John Yau, B from The Alphabet Paintings, 1987-94, Acrylic on gold lamé. Courtesy of the artists

Clement Greenburg

Around the turn of the 20th century, painting as a medium began to transform due to the introduction of photography. Still-lifes and portraiture fell out of style, and artists scrambled to fill the space. Enter Clement Greenburg, a New York art critic considered one of the biggest driving forces of modernism and abstract expressionism. His criticism helped shape the work of artists like Jackson Pollock and Helen Frankenthaler, and although his definitions of modern art have been challenged over the years, his literature has changed the landscape of art history and criticism. In 1952, beat painter and filmmaker Alfred Leslie wrote a play based on an argument he overheard between Greenburg and artists William de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, Peter Martin, and others. Although the original play was lost in a fire, Leslie rewrote the script from memory and put on a production in 1997. After reviewing the footage and feeling dissatisfied with the visual quality, Leslie added multiple reels of found footage from newsrooms, pornos, and Hollywood movies. The result was released in 2002 as a kaleidoscope of surrealist pop culture. Artists Archie Rand and John Yau reference this film in their piece B from The Alphabet Paintings. The words “Anna May Wong at The Cedar Bar” invokes a new layer to the conversation around art, access, race, and gender. Learn more about Clement Greenburg with the link below, and find B from The Alphabet Paintings in the Schneider Museum of Art of Art’s Main Gallery.

https://www.theartstory.org/critic/greenberg-clement/

Tom Burckhardt and John Yau, George Seurat Bar and Grill, 2018, colored pencil on paper. Courtesy of Tom Burckhardt

Georges Seurat

French post-impressionist artist Georges Seurat is most known for developing pointillism. Influenced by the impressionist use of light and atmosphere, Seurat took it a step further. Blending science with aesthetics, Seurat used several “points” or tiny strokes of pure color to create the illusion of a unified image. He believed the dots allowed him to create more intense, luminous work through optical blending. Viewers were unaware of the dots until they came closer to the piece, creating a new kind of relationship between perception, medium, and awareness. Artists Tom Burckhardt and John Yau play with Seurat’s legacy with their piece George Seurat Bar and Grill. Burckhardt’s use of signage and Yau’s linguistic wit blend to create a glowing nod to art history. Learn more about Georges Seurat with the link below, and find George Seurat Bar and Grill in the Main Gallery of the Schneider Museum of Art.

https://www.biography.com/artists/georges-seurat

Enrique Figueredo and John Yau, Genghis Chan: Private Eye, 2018, ed. 10, silkscreen on German etching paper, courtesy of John Yau

Charlie Chan

Earl Der Biggers wrote the Charlie Chan novel series between 1925 and 1932. From 1926 all the way to 1981, the Honolulu police detective captivated audiences on screen and changed the perception of Asian Americans. Although Chan is regarded as a caricature of Yellowface today, the success his series saw during the height of Yellow Peril (the belief that east and south east Asians were an existential threat to the Western world) was refreshing for both Asian Americans and Chinese citizens. It also brought light to the real Honolulu police officer Chan was based on, Chang Apana. In his interview with National Public Radio, English professor Yunte Huang argues that the benevolent and witty depiction of Charlie Chan, even if through a white actor, allowed Chinese Americans to rewrite their identity and reclaim a figure who otherwise would have been lost to the racist retellings of history. Listen to Huang’s interview with the link below, and find an artistic rendition of Chan’s office door done by Enrique Figueredo and John Yau in the Main Gallery of the Schneider Museum of Art.

https://www.npr.org/2010/09/07/129424778/investigating-the-real-detective-charlie-chan

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The Schneider Museum of Art is located within the ancestral homelands of the Shasta, Takelma, and Latgawa peoples who lived here since time immemorial. These Tribes were displaced during rapid Euro-American colonization, the Gold Rush, and armed conflict between 1851 and 1856. In the 1850s, discovery of gold and settlement brought thousands of Euro-Americans to their lands, leading to warfare, epidemics, starvation, and villages being burned. In 1853 the first of several treaties were signed, confederating these Tribes and others together – who would then be referred to as the Rogue River Tribe. These treaties ceded most of their homelands to the United States, and in return they were guaranteed a permanent homeland reserved for them. At the end of the Rogue River Wars in 1856, these Tribes and many other Tribes from western Oregon were removed to the Siletz Reservation and the Grand Ronde Reservation. Today, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon (https://www.grandronde.org) and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians (http://www.ctsi.nsn.us/) are living descendants of the Takelma, Shasta, and Latgawa peoples of this area. We encourage you to learn about the land you reside on, and to join us in advocating for the inherent sovereignty of Indigenous people.

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