San Francisco has been richly influenced by Asian culture since its beginnings. Some of the earliest immigrants to this part of California came from China during the Gold Rush. Subsequent waves of immigrants from Asia came with the Japanese in the 1880s, later joined by groups from Vietnam, Korea, India and many more. Today, two-thirds of San Francisco’s population are from Asia or of Asian descent.
Those who came from San Francisco’s distant Pacific neighbors have been vital in forming the fabric of our city’s culture. So it is only fitting that San Francisco is home to one of only a handful of museums in the country exclusively devoted to Asian culture: The Asian Art Museum.
Home to one of the most complete collections of Asian art in the world with more than 18,000 works of art from 48 countries, the museum’s exhaustive collection of works not only embraces ancient artifacts from across the Asian continent, it serves as a place to celebrate and understand contemporary Asian art and culture.
The museum occupies a unique intersection between the present in the past, famous for both exhibitions that bring collections rarely seen outside Asia itself, such as the recent exhibition Phoenix Kingdoms: The Last Splendor of China’s Bronze Age, as well as exhibitions that look to the influence of Asia on global culture now, such as their love letter to the ubiquitous influence of contemporary Korean culture: Hallyu! The Korean Wave.
The building housing today’s Asian Art Museum was once San Francisco’s main public library; the museum was opened in 1966 as part of the original de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. The magnificent 1916 beaux arts structure that currently houses the museum was reimagined in 2003 by the Italian architect and designer Gae Aulenti, who was behind the creation of Paris’ Musée d’Orsay — which also involved converting an iconic historic building into a museum space.
Since 2008, the museum has been headed by noted scholar of ancient Chinese bronzes Dr. Jay Xu, the museum’s Barbara Bass Bakar Director and CEO. He led the museum towards a new approach, to solidifying its goal to “awaken the past and inspire the next,” focusing on increasing the visibility of Asian American artists and providing a platform both for contemporary art and for cultural regions of Asia that have been historically underrepresented in museums. While there are still halls filled with an incredible history of Asia seen through priceless artifacts, the museum has also kept itself relevant with a by emphasizing other aspects of curating, bringing in dedicated spaces for new artworks, programs with living artists and educational facilities.
Featured Exhibitions
Hallyu! The Korean Wave
Whether it’s K-pop or winning Oscars or beauty influencers on Tiktok… arguably no global culture has managed to so completely permeate American culture recently than Korea. The Hallyu! The Korean Wave exhibition, which debuted in 2022 at the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum) in London, is inspired by the global influence of Korean culture. Hallyu is a Chinese term rendered in Korean meaning literally “Korean Wave”. Originating in the late 1990s via exported dramatic TV series, it surged across Asia, creating ripples that eventually reached every corner of the world.
The exhibition perfectly embodies the forward-looking and interactive vision of the museum. It features many non-traditional museum elements — Korean beauty products, a recreation of the bathroom in the Oscar-winning movie Parasite — and many opportunities for interactivity, from a Squid Game virtual experience to a chance to practice dance moves. There are also K-stars and artists in conversation, popups featuring Korean cuisine and screenings of Korean films.
“As the first non-Western cultural ‘wave’ in modern times, Hallyu offers a chance to understand how Asia is impacting so many aspects of our lives today — rewriting codes of artistry, economics, and even diplomacy,” says CEO Jay Xu. “With contemporary Korean culture as the lens, this exhibition poses critical questions: how do we find connection and community with the wider world around us? How do music, art, adornment, and creativity fuse into a real social movement? In times of discord, these are issues with real significance to all of us.”
The exhibit features over 200 displays of the culture’s evolution across cinema, drama, music, fashion, beauty, and delves into the fandom that has permeated the phenomenon. “With this exhibition, we aim to immerse audiences in the diversity of Korean pop culture and demonstrate how Hallyu is a distinctly contemporary phenomena,” says Yoon-Jee Choi, Assistant Curator of Korean Art. “By bringing movie sets and interactive experiences into the museum, we invite audiences to jump into the shoes of K-drama and K-pop stars — and their extremely creative fans. Audiences will come away with a renewed appreciation for the artistry underlying their favorite exports, as well as an understanding of the specific cultural circumstances that have catalyzed this social movement over the last 30 years.”
Chinese Ink: Qi Baishi
The museum’s other current exhibition comes from a completely different part of Asia and different era. Qi Baishi: Inspiration In Ink celebrates the work of the renowned Chinese ink painter Qi Baishi with an exhibition featuring works never seen before in the United State. It features 42 works on paper lent by the Beijing Fine Art Academy, where Qi served as its first honorary director.
Born during the late Qing Dynasty, Qi Baishi was positioned at a unique place in history, living through some of the most transformative shifts in China’s political and cultural history. Despite this changing landscape, the artist’s accessible subject matter and virtuosic style earned him immense respect and popularity, both at home and abroad. In 1960, Qi became the first Chinese artist ever to receive a solo exhibition at the de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. Sometimes referred to as China’s Picasso, his pieces have achieved record-breaking prices at auctions worldwide — as high as $141 million in 2017 for Twelve Landscape Screens (1925) — underscoring his profound impact on the art market and his status as an international cultural icon.
Additional Exhibitions:
Fukusa
Traditionally used as gift coverings at special events, the Japanese fukusa on display at the museum showcase a dazzling range of embroidered, woven, appliquéd, or hand-painted designs.
A Billion Buddhas: The Awakened Ones in Himalayan Tradition
Whether cosmic, crowned, or color-coded, the Buddha has a variety of appearances in Himalayan tradition.
Mountains of the Mind: A Chinese Landscape Journey
A collection of Chinese landscape ink paintings.
Permanent Collections
- The Southeast Asian galleries display betel containers from Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philipines.
- Ashwini Bhat’s sculpture What Will It Take / For Us To Awake?, a sculpture commenting on ecological consciousness.
- Community Feast by Chelsea Ryoko Wong, honoring how food brings us together with depictions of diners at a dim sum restaurant.
- Myself Mona Ahmed, a series of photo’s documenting one of India’s greatest artists.
- Japanese American artist Mayumi Oda’s colorful goddess prints and the ancient works of Guru Nanak’s Indian miniatures.
