Lecture | An Evening with John Yau

Join us in J. Pierpont Morgan’s historic library for an evening with renowned poet and author John Yau in celebration of Friends Who Came to See Me: Drawings from John Ashbery’s Collection, an exhibition devoted to American poet John Ashbery and his artist friends. Ashbery worked as an art critic for three decades and often found inspiration for his poetry in the visual arts, developing numerous friendships with artists. Having studied with Ashbery and earning an MFA at Brooklyn College, Yau’s career as a poet-critic in the New York art world has included over 50 books of poetry, fiction, and art criticism.

Poet, fiction writer, essayist, art critic, and publisher of Black Square Editions, John Yau has written across genres and worked in different mediums. Starting in the mid-1980s, he began collaborating with American and European artists, from the widely celebrated to the young and emerging. The collaborations took the form of paintings, drawings, artist books, prints, postcards, objects, clothing, and jazz compositions. Starting in the late 1970s, he began writing reviews and essays for art magazines, galleries, and museums in. He taught contemporary art history in the art department of the Mason Gross School of the Arts (Rutgers University) from 2001 to 2025, when he retired. He has written monographs on many artists, most recently, Liu Xiaodong (2021) and Joe Brainard: The Art of the Personal (2022). His most recent book of essays is Please Wait by the Coatroom: Reconsidering Race and Identity In American Art (2024) and his most recent book of poetry is Diary of Small Discontents: New & Selected Poems 1974-2024. In 2012, he began writing reviews regularly for the online magazine, Hyperallergic. He has published more than 20 books of poetry.

This program takes place In J. Pierpont Morgan’s Library on the First Floor. Doors to the Library will open 30 minutes before the program begins. Attendees are invited to view the exhibition Friends Who Came to See Me: Drawings from John Ashbery’s Collection from 5:30 to 6:30 PM.

Please e-mail public_programs@themorgan.org with questions about accessibility.