LACMA CURATOR HEADS TO ASIAN ART MUSEUM OF SAN FRANCISCO

Hyonjeong Kim Han, a curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, has been named curator of Korean art at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Kim, who will assume her new duties July 1, will be responsible for one of the most comprehensive overseas collections of Korean art at one of the largest Asian art museums in the Western world.

At LACMA, Kim was instrumental in last year’s reinstallation of the Korean art galleries—the largest such galleries outside of Korea. She joined the museum in 2006 and has served as associate curator of Chinese and Korean art and as the department’s acting head and curator.

“During her four years at LACMA, Hyonjeong has carried the collection and the display of Korean art forward in a major way, capped with the reopening of the substantial galleries in the Hammer Building,” says Nancy Thomas, LACMA deputy director.

Among Kim’s accomplishments, says Thomas, was negotiating the rare loan of the late-sixth century bronze “Pensive Bodhisattva,” a Korean national treasure. In San Francisco, Kim will head the Korean department and oversee a collection that contains approximately 800 objects including sculpture, ceramics, paintings, textiles, and metalwork, and spans 2,500 years.