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    Background Artist
    The Life and Work of Tyrus Wong

    Karen Fang (Author)

    9781978838413

    Hardback, published 11 October 2024

    536 pages, 61 color and 38 B-W images
    23.5 x 15.6 x 4.2 cm, 0.88 kg

    "The definitive new biography." (Smithsonian Magazine) "Fang reveals how Wong's career . . . reflected the tension between visibility and invisibility experienced by many of the era's Asian immigrants, who shaped American culture in ways that were often overlooked or unseen. . . . The result is a worthy tribute to a groundbreaking artist." (Publishers Weekly) "Though a creative legend is the heart of Fang's well-researched and affecting book, it also explores L.A.'s Chinese American culture and the powerful potential of art." (Booklist) "A much-needed addition to the annals of Chinese American history." - Katie Gee Salisbury (Half-Caste Woman) "Fang tells the wider and deeper story of Wong as an Asian who expressed life through his art." (DisneyExaminer) "What is more amazing: the artwork of Tyrus Wong or the story of his life? Intertwining both, Fang’s captivating narrative unveils Wong’s immigrant journey to his groundbreaking contributions to Bambi and beyond. " - Pete Docter (director of Pixar's Monsters Inc., Up, Inside Out, and Soul) "Background Artist is simply a must-read for any art or history buff. Karen Fang blends art, Hollywood, California, and American history into a beautiful, important portrait of a beautiful, important life. Packed with vivid details, she brings Wong's fascinating story to life. As essential as it is moving, this book is just wonderful." - Mallory O'Meara (national best-selling author of The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Lega)

    "Karen Fang has created a sweeping and richly detailed portrait of Tyrus Wong that captures both the breadth and beauty of his art and the complexity and often cruel irony of living in a society that simultaneously embraced and tried to erase him. Background Artist is a stunning achievement."

    - Pamela Tom (director of award-winning PBS American Masters documentary Tyrus) "Karen Fang has written a deeply researched and intimate biography of the great modern Chinese American artist Tyrus Wong, whose elegant, poetic, and dramatic brushstrokes have been enjoyed by millions. This is an inspiring and pertinent portrait of Wong, an immigrant child who lived to be 106 years old and who struggled to overcome racism with his art." - John Canemaker (Oscar-winning animator and professor emeritus at NYU Tisch School of the Arts)

    "In Background Artist, Tyrus Wong finally receives the biography he deserves. Placing Wong’s life within the broader narrative of Asian American history, Karen Fang illuminates the ways in which events ranging from Chinese Exclusion to Japanese American wartime incarceration to the creation of the Model Minority myth influenced Wong's work as an artist. Fang’s engaging, highly readable style makes this a must-read for academic and general audiences alike."

    - William Gow (author of Performing Chinatown: Hollywood, Tourism, and the Making of a Chinese American Community) "Through incredible storytelling, Karen Fang effortlessly illuminates historical context through Tyrus's lived experiences of the injustices, restrictions, and complexities of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Background Artist broadens and deepens our perspective and above all humanizes our understanding of not only the past but our present. What a valued gift to our community!" - Li-Shin Yu (Emmy Award-winning filmmaker of The Chinese Exclusion Act) "Karen Fang has done a thorough and meticulous job chronicling the life of the remarkable and inspiring Chinese American artist Tyrus Wong. Here was a man of many firsts, who surmounted many professional obstacles and personal struggles. Without having met Tyrus, Fang has captured his sense of humor and the wondrous way he looked at the world around him. As a book, Background Artist is as versatile as Tyrus was and will find a place on many different shelves: Chinese American history, Disney lore, art history, and artist biography." - Lisa See (best-selling author of On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family)

    “In her compulsively readable, painstakingly researched biography of the multi-hyphenate Tyrus Wong-storyboard and sketch artist at Disney and Warner Bros., painter, illustrator, Hallmark card designer and kite maker, Chinese ÉmigrÉ and American trailblazer-Karen Fang skillfully blends political, cultural, and motion-picture history to tell the gripping story of one of classical Hollywood’s unsung heroes.”

    - Noah Isenberg (author of We'll Always Have 'Casablanca': The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Belove) "Karen Fang portrays Tyrus Wong's illustrious career in a way that's just as bright and brilliant as the artist's most dazzling work, all while examining it against a very dark time in America. This is an important story that's been left out of our history books." - Susan Blumberg-Kason (author of Bernardine's Shanghai Salon: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China) "Background Artist is a beautifully written biography of Tyrus Wong, an artist whose life spanned over a century and whose work crossed boundaries of fine, commercial, and entertainment art. Karen Fang is a master storyteller and deft interpreter who brings to life this remarkable individual by contextualizing Wong’s significance in relation to Chinese American history and the history of art." - Judy Tzu-Chun Wu (author of Doctor Mom Chung of the Fair-Haired Bastards: The Life of a Wartime Celebrity) "This is the inspiring journey of the long and extraordinary life of Tyrus Wong - an immigrant whose talent as a visionary artist transcended barriers, shaped unique cinematic landscapes, and left an indelible mark on our industry. Background Artist is a testament to the American dream!" - François Audouy (award-winning production designer) "A crucial account, brimming with illuminating detail, that brings to light the contributions of one of the unsung creators of twentieth-century popular culture, from Disney to Warner Bros. to Hallmark-and beyond. Karen Fang has given us the gift of a quintessentially American story." - Michael Lobel (author of Van Gogh and the End of Nature) "Karen Fang unveils the rich tapestry of Tyrus Wong’s remarkable life from his early struggles as an immigrant to his pioneering contributions in art, films, and beyond. Despite facing discrimination and adversity at every turn, he soared above every challenge with resilience and humor, reminding us of the Chinese saying ‘real gold does not fear the test of fire’. A must-read for anyone seeking to know the full story of a legend whose legacy extends far beyond his work on Bambi." - Rona Liu (production designer of Pixar's "Bao" and Turning Red)

    "In this deeply researched and timely biography, Karen Fang rightly positions Tyrus Wong at the center of American visual culture of the mid-20th century. Background Artist brings Wong and the Chinese diaspora to the foreground, reorienting how we think about Hollywood, California history, and American commercial production, generally."

    - Jennifer Greenhill (endowed professor of American art, University of Arkansas) "A classic Hollywood tale about an immigrant who overcame overwhelming odds to leave a lasting mark on American culture, Karen Fang has written the definitive biography of Tyrus Wong. Background Artist is a book that left me feeling uplifted and inspired. It makes an important contribution to our understanding of the Chinese American experience." - Julia Flynn Siler (author of The White Devil's Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco's Chinatown) "Tyrus Wong is an American treasure whose triumphant immigrant story and contributions to art will now be better known thanks to Karen Fang’s illuminating biography, Background Artist. Fang brilliantly paints a portrait of a man whose bold brush strokes helped make Bambi an iconic film, created the background for many Hollywood movie sets, and graced numerous Hallmark greeting cards, among other accomplishments." - Frances Dinkelspiel (author of Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California)

    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. 

    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
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