Background
Irene Poon was born in 1941 in San Francisco, California, to first-generation Chinese immigrants.
Irene Poon was born in 1941 in San Francisco, California, to first-generation Chinese immigrants.
Irene Poon graduated from the San Francisco State College. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in art in 1964 and a Master of Arts in photography in 1967.
Irene Poon is an educator, writer, and photographer. She serves as a slide curator at the Art Department of the San Francisco State University since 1965.
Poon was born in San Francisco's famed Chinatown, and this community provided the thematic material for much of her later work. In 1995 Irene Poon co-curated an exhibition at San Francisco State University titled With New Eyes: Toward an Asian-American Art History in the West. The success of that show encouraged Poon to document these aging artists before they were gone. Ultimately an exhibit was created at the Barrington Center for the Arts at Gordon College, and a book Leading the Way: Asian-American Artists of the Older Generation followed. Additionally, Irene Poon's photos were displayed at Barrington Center for the Arts at Gordon College, De Young Memorial Museum, University of New Mexico, University of California-Davis, and Crocker Art Museum.
Leading the Way represents twenty-five pioneering Asian-American artists who worked from 1930 to 1970. Poon includes biographical sketches of each artist as well as her own photographs of them. All of these artists overcame cultural, social, and political obstacles to succeed as artists. While working on the book, Poon discovered Tyrus Wong, an artist who was responsible for the paintings that inspired the Disney animated classics Bambi and Fantasia and, the Academy Award-winning special-effects artist Wah Ming Chang, whose credits include The King and I, Star Trek, and the Pillsbury Doughboy advertising icon.
Irene Poon is well known as an educator, writer, and photographer. She works as a slide curator at San Francisco State University for more than fifty years. As a photographer, her works were displayed at Barrington Center for the Arts at Gordon College, De Young Memorial Museum, University of New Mexico, University of California-Davis, and Crocker Art Museum.
(Irene Poon presents the work of 25 Asian American artists...)
2001Quotations: "I hope to convey what I see and feel at a particular moment in my life. My message is to be a human being and observe, believe and pursue your own vision."
Quotes from others about the person
Mark Johnson: "Irene is one of the most important scholars in the developing field of Asian-American art history and is helping situate San Francisco State University at ground zero for the field."
Irene Poon married Stanley Andersen.
