Anastasia Aukeman w/ Deborah Treisman

Anastasia Aukeman in discussion with Deborah Treisman, moderated by Paul Yamazaki

Anastasia Aukman, author of Welcome to Painterland: Bruce Conner and the Rat Bastard Protective Association meets Deborah Treisman, co-author with Walter Hopps and Anne Doran of The Dream Colony: A Life in Art. They will explore two enigmatic and influential figures in the world of art and how their work intersected via art creation and curation. City Lights very own Paul Yamazaki will moderate an evening of discussion that traverses the San Francisco, Los Angeles, and national art scenes. Mid-century San Francisco artist Bruce Conner and legendary arts curator Walter Hopps walked in familiar worlds. The Rat Bastard Protective Association intersected with Wallace Berman’s Semina Scene of which Hopps was a supporter (and integral part of) via the Ferus Gallery. Through following the threads that connected artists with each other and the gallery scenes that supported them, we hope to show the rich history that California mid-century artists and curators shared.

Anastasia Aukeman is an art historian and curator who teaches at Parsons School of Design in New York City. She has contributed essays to numerous exhibition catalogues and written articles and reviews for Art in America, Art on Paper, and ARTnews, among other publications.

Deborah Treisman is the fiction editor of The New Yorker. This year, she won the Maxwell E. Perkins Award for distinguished achievement in the field of fiction. She has edited 20 Under 40: Stories From The New Yorker.

Paul Yamazaki has been the principal buyer and board member at City Lights Booksellers for over 30 years. He has served on the boards of the Council of Literary Magazines & Presses, Small Press Distribution, Kearny Street Workshop, and has worked with the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council and many others. He recently spoke at the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas discussing the history of City Lights in relation to the BEAT Generation for the exhibit Holy Barbarians: Beat Culture on the West Coast.