San Jose Museum of Art
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum in
downtown San Jose, California The Downtown Historic District of San Jose, California is a designated U.S. Historic District area of the city roughly the size of one square block. It is bounded by S. First Street to the west, E. San Fernando Street to the south, S. Third Str ...
, United States. Founded in 1969, the museum holds a permanent collection with an emphasis on
West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...
artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. It is located at Circle of Palms Plaza, beside
Plaza de César Chávez The Plaza de César Chávez is an urban plaza and park in Downtown San Jose, California. The plaza's origins date to 1797 as the '' plaza mayor'' of the Spanish ''Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe'', making it the oldest public space in Northern ...
. A member of
North American Reciprocal Museums The North American Reciprocal Museum (NARM) program is an affiliation of arts, historical, and cultural institutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, and El Salvador which offer reciprocal benefits to qualifying members of other part ...
, SJMA has received several awards from the
American Alliance of Museums American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
.


About

The San José Museum of Art is the largest provider of arts education in
Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...
, serving over 45,000 children per year. The permanent collection focuses on contemporary art by US
West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...
artists, with a growing emphasis on art of the Pacific Rim. The collection includes more than 2,600 artworks in a variety of media including
sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
,
painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...
s, prints, digital media,
photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now create ...
s, and
drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...
s.


History

Founded in 1969 by a group of artists, the art museum was first known as the Civic Art Gallery. Ann Marie Mix and Susan Hammer were co-founding
trustees Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to t ...
of the museum. The group sought to save a historic structure slated for demolition and to revitalize it as a community art gallery. The early arts organization was referred to as a "gallery" prior to the establishment of a permanent collection of artwork. In 1974, it was renamed the San Jose Museum of Art. The museum established a partnership with the
Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...
in 1994. Information about each exhibition was published for visitors in English, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese, reflecting the diversity of patrons in San Jose in the 1990s. By 1997, the museum had acquired a collection of approximately one thousand pieces of contemporary art, mostly works on paper. Susan Krane, executive director from 2008 through January 2017, continued to grow the collection in size and stature. Krane was succeeded by Susan Sayre Batton as executive director in April 2017. By 2019, after 50 years of operation, the SJMA had acquired a permanent collection with 2,600 objects.


Architecture

The museum's 33,000-square-foot historic wing was originally designed by federal architect
Willoughby J. Edbrooke Willoughby James Edbrooke (1843–1896) was an American architect and a bureaucrat who remained faithful to a Richardsonian Romanesque style into the era of Beaux-Arts architecture in the United States, supported by commissions from conservative ...
. Built from local Greystone Quarry sandstone in 1892, the structure was designed to serve as the main post office for the city of San Jose. It is an example of the
Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...
architecture style. The original steeple and clock tower were damaged in the 1906 earthquake. From 1937 to 1969 the historic wing served as the city of San Jose's library. The building was then converted by the Fine Arts Gallery Association, a group of community members and
San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...
art professors, who then reopened it as the Civic Art Gallery. In 1972 the building was named a
California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...
(#854), and in 1973 it was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
. A 45,000-square-foot modern addition known as the "New Wing", designed by architects
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...
to house the majority of the exhibition space, was opened to the public in 1991. Robinson, Mills & Williams oversaw the interior design of the new addition. The San Jose Museum of Art underwent a major
seismic retrofitting Seismic retrofitting is the modification of existing built environment, structures to make them more resistant to seismology, seismic activity, ground motion, or soil failure due to earthquakes. With better understanding of seismic demand on stru ...
in the late 1990s, at which time the building interiors were further modified and reintegrated to serve as a contemporary art gallery and exhibition space. In 1997, the museum reopened after the historic wing of the building had undergone a remodel for two and half years.


Collections

The San Jose Museum of Art's permanent collection has grown over the years to include 2,600 art objects as of 2019. ''Artforum'' reported that senior curator Lauren Schell Dickens oversaw the acquisition of works by California-born live simulation artist
Ian Cheng Ian Cheng (born March 29, 1984) is an American artist known for his live simulations that explore the capacity of living agents to deal with change. His simulations, commonly understood as "virtual ecosystems" are "less about the wonders of new t ...
and German moving image artist
Hito Steyerl Hito Steyerl (born 1 January 1966) is a German filmmaker, moving image artist, writer, and innovator of the essay documentary.
in the late 2010s. The San Jose Museum of Art has several works in its collection by the painter
Hung Liu Hung Liu (劉虹) (17 February 1948 – 7 August 2021) was a Chinese Americans, Chinese-born American contemporary artist. She was predominantly a painter, but also worked with mixed-media and site-specific installation and was also one of the f ...
, a Chinese-born contemporary artist and professor of art at Oakland's
Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...
. The museum added a number of works to their collection in 2016 from artists:
Robert Arneson Robert Carston Arneson (September 4, 1930 – November 2, 1992) was an American sculptor and professor of ceramics in the Art department at University of California, Davis for nearly three decades. Early life and education Robert Carston Arn ...
,
Squeak Carnwath Squeak Carnwath (born 1947 in Abington, Pennsylvania) is a contemporary American painter and arts educator. She is a Professor Emerita of Art at University of California, Berkeley. Background Carnwath has explained "Squeak" as "a childhood name ...
, Enrique Chagoya, Luis Cruz Azaceta,
Lesley Dill Lesley Dill (born 1950) is an American contemporary artist. Her work, using a wide variety of media including sculpture, print, performance art, music, and others, explores the power of language and the mystical nature of the psyche. Dill curre ...
,
George Grosz George Grosz (; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objec ...
,
George Herms George Herms (born 1935) is an American artist best known for creating assemblages out of discarded, often rusty, dirty or broken every-day objects, and juxtaposing those objects so as to infuse them with poetry, humor and meaning. He is also kn ...
,
Italo Scanga Italo Scanga (June 6, 1932 - July 7, 2001), an Italy, Italian-born List of American artists, American artist, was known for his sculptures, prints and, paintings, mostly created from found objects. Career Italo Scanga was an innovative neo-Dadais ...
, and
Fritz Scholder Fritz William Scholder V (October 6, 1937 – February 10, 2005) was a Native American artist. Scholder was an enrolled member of the La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians, a federally recognized tribe of Luiseños, a California Mission tribe. Schold ...
. In 2018, the SJMA acquired new works for the permanent collection: from sculptors
Louise Nevelson Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. Born in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Kyiv Oblast, ...
and
Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and his ...
, from the American artists
Andrea Bowers Andrea Bowers (born 1965) is a Los Angeles-based American artist working in a variety of media including video, drawing, and installation. Her work has been exhibited around the world, including museums and galleries in Germany, Greece, and To ...
, Russell Crotty,
Morris Graves Morris Graves (August 28, 1910 – May 5, 2001) was an American painter. He was one of the earliest Modern artists from the Pacific Northwest to achieve national and international acclaim. His style, referred to by some reviewers as Mysticism, ...
,
Lara Schnitger Lara Schnitger (born 1969 in Haarlem, Netherlands) is a Dutch-American sculptor and painter, living and working in Los Angeles and Amsterdam. Schnitger studied at the Royal Academy of Art (The Hague) from 1987 to 1991 and spent a year on a resi ...
, and
Terry Winters Terry Winters (born 1949, Brooklyn, NY) is an American painter, draughtsman, and printmaker whose nuanced approach to the process of painting has addressed evolving concepts of spatiality and expanded the concerns of abstract art. His attention ...
, as well as from the Palestinian artist
Mona Hatoum Mona Hatoum ( ar, منى حاطوم; born 1952) is a British-Palestinian multimedia and installation artist who lives in London. Biography Mona Hatoum was born in 1952 in Beirut, Lebanon, to Palestinian parents. Although born in Lebanon, Hatoum ...
.


Exhibitions

The San Jose Museum of Art held major exhibitions for artists
Leo Villareal Leo Villareal (born 1967) is an American artist. His work combines LED lights and encoded computer programming to create illuminated displays. He is living and working in New York City. Early life and education Villareal was born in 1967 in A ...
in 2010, and
Richard Misrach Richard Misrach (born 1949) is an American photographer. He has photographed the deserts of the American West, and pursued projects that document the changes in the natural environment that have been wrought by various man-made factors such as ...
,
Guillermo Galindo Guillermo Galindo is a Mexican composer, performer, and artist. Early life Composer Guillermo Galindo was born in Mexico City. As a young adult, he was trained in musical composition at the Escuela Nacional de Musica in Mexico City, while complet ...
, and
Tabaimo Ayako Tabata (born 1975), also known under her artist name Tabaimo, is a contemporary Japan, Japanese artist. She combines hand-drawn images and digital manipulation to create large scale animations which evoke traditional Japanese woodblock prints ...
in 2016, under the tenure of Susan Krane. In 2018, the museum presented a large scale solo exhibition of Vietnamese photographer Dinh Q. Lê. Later that year, SJMA held ''Other Walks, Other Lines,'' an exhibition of international artists "who examine not only where we walk, but how and why" that included artwork from the Dutch artist
Lara Schnitger Lara Schnitger (born 1969 in Haarlem, Netherlands) is a Dutch-American sculptor and painter, living and working in Los Angeles and Amsterdam. Schnitger studied at the Royal Academy of Art (The Hague) from 1987 to 1991 and spent a year on a resi ...
and a work commissioned by the museum from Philippine artist
Lordy Rodriguez Lordy Rodriguez (born 1976 in Quezon City, Philippines) is a contemporary artist who uses cartography and maps to reconfigure factual locations and create fictional assemblage pieces. Inspired by family road trips across the country, Rodriguez was ...
. ''
The Art Newspaper ''The Art Newspaper'' is a monthly print publication, with daily updates online, founded in 1990 and based in London and New York City. It covers news of the visual arts as they are affected by international politics and economics, developments ...
'' reported that the San Jose Museum of Art framed 2019 as "the year of visionary women artists” that featured shows by
Jay DeFeo Jay DeFeo (March 31, 1929 – November 11, 1989) was a visual artist who first became celebrated in the 1950s as part of the spirited community of Beat artists, musicians, and poets in San Francisco. Best known for her monumental work ''The Rose' ...
and Catherine Wagner, along with major exhibitions by artists
Rina Banerjee Rina Banerjee (born 1963) is an Indian Americans, Indian-American artist and sculptor."Bio"
Rinabanerjee.com, Retrieved onl ...
and
Pae White Pae White (born 1963) is an American multimedia visual artist who is known for her unique portrayal of nature and rather mundane objects through her creations of suspended mobiles. She currently lives and works between Sonoma CountySonoma County, ...
.


Awards

In 2007 the San Jose Museum of Art received the prestigious MUSE award from the Media & Technology Committee of the
American Alliance of Museums American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
, for its Artist of the Week podcast, in the category Extended Experience. In 2009, the museum received another MUSE award, in Public Relations and Development, for its video, ''Road Trip'', informally known as the "Giant Artichoke video". The work features a platform-shod traveler on a road trip to Castroville, California, who visits a quirky landmark and sends a postcard to SJMA. Created for the exhibition of the same name and inspired by the common experience of a summer road trip, this project aimed to promote the exhibition, sow the seeds for a participatory experience both outside and inside the museum, and build connections between the museum's online audience and on-site visitors. In 2017, the museum received the Superintendent’s Award for Excellence in Museum Education for the Sowing Creativity education program from the California Association of Museums. The same year, the museum received the first prize in the Exhibition Collateral Materials category of the American Alliance of Museum’s Museum Publications Design Competition for ''
Tabaimo Ayako Tabata (born 1975), also known under her artist name Tabaimo, is a contemporary Japan, Japanese artist. She combines hand-drawn images and digital manipulation to create large scale animations which evoke traditional Japanese woodblock prints ...
: Her Room'' by Connie Hwang. In 2018, SJMA received the Vietnamese American Cultural Center Award for work in the community. The same year, it received a Cornerstone of the Arts Award from the City of San Jose for the mural ''Sophie Holding the World Together'' by El Mac in collaboration with
The Propeller Group The Propeller Group is a cross-disciplinary structure for creating art projects. The collective is headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and works in conjunction with creative individuals in Los Angeles, California, United States. The mural, which depicts youth immigration activist Sophie Cruz, was commissioned by the San Jose Museum of Art in partnership with Empire 7 Studios and the
Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose (CDM) is a cultural institution serving children, families, and schools in the Silicon Valley/ San Francisco Bay Area. A member of the Association of Children's Museums and the Association of Science-Tec ...
.


See also

*
The Tech Museum of Innovation The Tech Interactive (formerly The Tech Museum of Innovation, commonly known as The Tech) is a science and technology center that offers hands-on activities, labs, design challenges and other STEAM education resources. It is located in downtown Sa ...
*
Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose (CDM) is a cultural institution serving children, families, and schools in the Silicon Valley/ San Francisco Bay Area. A member of the Association of Children's Museums and the Association of Science-Tec ...
*
Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA) is a contemporary arts space focused on the Chicano and Latino experience and history, located in the SoFA district at 510 South First Street in San Jose, California. The museum was founded in ...
(MACLA) * San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA)


References


External links

* {{authority control California Historical Landmarks Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums Art museums established in 1969 Art museums and galleries in California Museums in San Jose, California Clock towers in California 1969 establishments in California Art in the San Francisco Bay Area