Jay Xu

Jay Xu (Chinese: 许杰; born 1963)[1] is a Chinese-born American art museum director, art historian, and curator.[2] He is the first Chinese-American curator of a major museum in the United States.[3] Xu is the director and CEO of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, since 2008.[4]

Jay Xu
许杰
Born1963 (age 59–60)
Shanghai, China
Alma materShanghai University,
Princeton University
Occupation(s)Art museum director, art historian, curator

Early life

Jay Xu was born in 1963 in Shanghai, China.[5][6] He attended Shanghai University. Xu work as an assistant to the museum director Ma Chengyuan at the Shanghai Museum.[3] Later, due to work reasons, he came into contact with Robert Bagley, a professor at Princeton University who came to Shanghai for academic exchanges.

Career

He moved to the United States in 1990, to attended a M.A. degree and PhD program at Princeton University.[7] After graduation he worked as a research fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, from 1995 until 1996.[3] Xu worked as the curator of Chinese art at the Seattle Art Museum from 1996 to 2003; and as the head of the Asian art department and chairman of the Department of Asian and Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago from 2003 to 2006.[3][7]

Since June 2008, Xu has served as the director and CEO of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, succeeding Emily Sano.[3] Under his leadership, the Asian Art Museum avoided a financial crisis,[4] it has grown its collection with more than 2,200 new art acquisitions over the past 15 years, and it has hosted 100 or more museum exhibitions.[3] In 2017, Xu led a fundraising campaign to fund the museum's building renovation and expansion.[8][3][9] In 2020 during the Black Lives Matter protests, the museum under Xu's leadership removed the bust of Avery Brundage, someone accused of being a Nazi sympathizer and a racist.[10][11] During this time the museum also decided to critically examine the provenance of the artwork in the collection.[10]

References
  1. Reilly, Janet (2021-10-06). "The Interview: Jay Xu's Journey". NobHillGazette.com. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  2. Hamlin, Jesse (2008-03-12). "Chicago curator Jay Xu to run Asian Art Museum". SFGATE. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  3. Vaziri, Aidin; Bravo, Tony (April 19, 2023). "S.F. Asian Art Museum director plans to step down". Datebook, San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  4. Cotter, Holland (2011-05-30). "A Storied Paradise, Tempered by Reality". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  5. Cheng, Scarlet (2010-05-23). "Asian Art Museum's 'Shanghai' a taste of exhibits to come". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  6. Cheng, Scarlet (2010-05-23). "The View from an East–West angle". The Los Angeles Times. p. 67. Retrieved 2023-05-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Jay Xu". Asia Society.
  8. Desmarais, Charles (2016-03-01). "Asian Art Museum announces expansion". SFGATE. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  9. "Asian Art Museum Moves Toward $90 Million Transformation". KQED. 2017-09-26. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  10. Pogash, Carol (2020-06-15). "Asian Art Museum to Remove Bust of Patron. That's Just a Start". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  11. Greschler, Gabriel (2020-07-24). "S.F. Asian Art Museum to remove bust of founding donor with antisemitic views". J. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
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