Background Artist: The Life and Work of Tyrus Wong
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 ten-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 multitalented Asian American artist and pioneer.
1145007591
Background Artist: The Life and Work of Tyrus Wong
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 ten-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 multitalented Asian American artist and pioneer.
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Background Artist: The Life and Work of Tyrus Wong
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 ten-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 multitalented Asian American artist and pioneer.
KAREN FANG is a film scholar and cultural critic who writes for museums and film festivals around the world. She is a professor of English at the University of Houston, and 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.
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE NOTE ON NAMES AND TRANSLATIONS
PART I. NOT JUST A PAPER SON
1 Not Too Far from Alcatraz . . . 2 S.S. 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
