For Lisa Yuskavage, Painting Was ‘Pulling a Pin Out of a Grenade’

There aren’t many artists in the last 40 years who’ve been written about quite as much or as fervently as the painter Lisa Yuskavage, who is 63 and based in Brooklyn. On her website, she makes available PDFs of every article in which she’s ever been mentioned, including not just the major interviews and reviews (even the unkind ones) but also reviews of other artists that simply cite her work. The archive begins in December 1985, when a student magazine at Yale published an image from her M.F.A. thesis project. Yuskavage is uncommonly attuned to the weight of public opinion, and her engagement with other people’s takes on her has helped bolster her conviction to make only the art she wants to make, whether it’s met with praise or bewilderment (or worse).

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