Full-Blown Yuskavage

Lisa Yuskavage
Yuskavage's show at the Morgan places her work alongside titans of Western cultural history—the Gutenberg Bible, Thoreau’s journals, and Bach’s sheet music. Photo: EJ Camp/Courtesy of David Zwirner
Julie Brener Davich
July 1, 2025

Lisa Yuskavage was sitting in the café at the Morgan Library & Museum eating a smashburger, when two well-heeled women tucking into their dainty salads at the next table asked what she was doing there. Yuskavage, who was dressed down for the workday, told them she was on lunch break while installing her current show of about 40 career-spanning drawings. The women, clearly surprised by her answer, then asked what qualified her to have a show at the Morgan. Most artists of her stature might have crinkled up their greasy burger wrapper and tossed it at the interlocutors, but Yuskavage just laughed as she recounted the story at the press preview. “I loved it,” she said.