James "Jim" Bash Cuno (born April 6, 1951 in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

) is an American

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

and

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

. From 2011–22 Cuno served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the

J. Paul Getty Trust The J. Paul Getty Trust is the world's wealthiest art institution, with an estimated endowment of US$7.7 billion in 2020. Based in Los Angeles, California, it operates the J. Paul Getty Museum, which has two locations—the Getty Center in the ...

Career

A native of

, Cuno received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

from

Willamette University Willamette University is a private liberal arts college with locations in Salem and Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest college in the Western United States. Originally named the Oregon Institute, the school was an unaffiliated ...

in 1973. He then earned two

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degrees in

Art History Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, in 1978 and 1980 respectively. In 1977, Cuno married his Willamette classmate, Sarah Stewart. He continued on at Harvard to receive a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

in Art History in 1985, and his doctoral dissertation was on the artist

Charles Philipon Charles Philipon (19 April 1800 – 25 January 1861) was a French lithographer, caricaturist and journalist. He was the founder and director of the satirical political journals '' La Caricature'' and of ''Le Charivari''. Early life Cha ...

. While working on the doctorate, Cuno worked as Assistant Curator of Prints at the

Harvard Art Museums The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

from 1980 to 1983. In that final year, he was hired as Assistant Professor of Art History at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

, a position that he held until 1986. Cuno quickly began a career an illustrious career in museum directorship, serving as the director of many notable institutions within the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and abroad. He first served as director of the Grunwald Center for Graphic Arts at the

Hammer Museum The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...

from 1986 to 1989, and the

Hood Museum of Art The Hood Museum of Art is owned and operated by Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States. The first reference to the development of an art collection at Dartmouth dates to 1772, making the collection among the o ...

until 1991. Cuno was then appointed Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard Art Museums from 1991 to 2002, replacing

Edgar Peters Bowron Edgar "Pete" Peters Bowron (born May 27, 1943 in Birmingham) is an American art historian and curator. Bowron served a director of both the North Carolina Museum of Art and the Harvard Art Museums. He is a scholar of seventeenth- and eighteent ...

, and then moved on to

The Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

for a year from 2003 to 2004, succeeding

Eric Fernie Eric Campbell Fernie (born 9 June 1939, Edinburgh) is a Scottish art historian. Education Fernie was educated at the University of the Witwatersrand (BA Hons Fine Arts) and the University of London (Academic Diploma).‘FERNIE, Prof. Eric Camp ...

. While at Harvard, he was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

in 2001. He left the Courtauld to head the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

as Eloise W. Martin Director until 2011, replacing

James N. Wood James Nowell Wood (March 20, 1941 – June 11, 2010) was an American museum director who spent 25 years as head of the Art Institute of Chicago and later served as head of the J. Paul Getty Trust, starting in 2006. Biography Wood was born in ...

. In that final year, Cuno became the President and Chief Executive Officer of the

, and retired as of July 31, 2022. During his career, Cuno has also served as director of the

Association of Art Museum Directors The Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) is an organization of art museum directors from the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The AAMD was established in 1916 by the directors of twelve American museums and was formally incorporated in 1969 ...

Works

*1989: ''French Caricature and the French Revolution, 1789-1799''. *2006: ''Whose Muse?: Art Museums and the Public Trust''. *2007: ''The Silk Road and Beyond: Travel, Trade, and Transformation''. *2008: ''Who Owns Antiquity?: Museums and the Battle over Our Ancient Heritage''. *2009: ''The Modern Wing: Renzo Piano and the Art Institute of Chicago''. *2009: ''Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago''. *2012: ''Whose Culture?: The Promise of Museums and the Debate over Antiquities''. *2012: ''Museums Matter: In Praise of the Encyclopedic Museum''.

References

External links

American Academy of Arts and Sciences profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuno, James 1951 births Living people Writers from St. Louis American art historians American art curators Willamette University alumni University of Oregon alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Vassar College faculty Directors of museums in the United States Hammer Museum Dartmouth College faculty Directors of the Courtauld Institute of Art Directors of the Art Institute of Chicago People associated with the J. Paul Getty Museum

Career

Works

See also

References

External links