Julie Chang Genser
Adjunct Faculty
MA, Columbia University; BBA, University of Michigan
Although her formal studies specialize in modern & contemporary periods, Genser has had a unique connoisseurship training in Early Asian Art, particularly in Chinese Works of Art & Paintings. Under Carol Conover and Arnold Chang, respectively recognized in the field as foremost experts from their long engagements at Sotheby’s Works of Art, Genser served as a hands-on assistant at Kaikodo Gallery, absorbing details of every ceramic, bronze, hanging scroll, fan painting both in scholarly and formal detail, working with prominent high-level private collectors and curators of major museums (including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale Galleries, Asia Society, Cleveland Museum of Art, Nelson-Atkins, Minneapolis Museum of Art, University of Michigan Art Museum, et. al.). Chinese art connoisseurship traditionally consists of cultivating the triumvirate of scholarship, expertise, and praxis. As such, Genser also trained in traditional ink-and-brush painting under Arnold Chang (Zhang Hong) in the most orthodox system by learning to copy old master pieces. Zhang Hong himself was trained as a painter and connoisseur by CC Wang (Wang Ziqian) who was a major donor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Genser additionally earned a Certificate in Chinese Painting at Christie’s Works of Art, studying the history of Chinese painting under leading scholars such as James Cahill (UC Berkeley), Robert Mowry (Harvard), David Sensabaugh (Yale), Cary Liu (Princeton), Richard Pegg (Chicago), Jonathan Hay (NYU Institute of Arts), and Robert E. Harrist Jr (Columbia University), who served as the Leo & Jane Swergold Chair of the Department of Graduate Art History at Columbia and was Genser’s thesis advisor. The subject of Genser’s thesis was: De-centered Subjectivity: Anonymity, Pseudonymity, and Collective Identity which undertook a study of art projects by Canadian-Chinese artist Terence Koh, e-flux Corporation, and the art collective recognized as Reena Spaulings.
Professional Experience
Genser has been teaching Visual Narration Asia since 2014 at CCS. Prior to teaching, she has held various museum positions both in Detroit and New York City, including the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), Kunsthalle Detroit, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and PS1 Contemporary Art/MoMA. She earned her Master of Arts Critical & Curatorial Studies in the Dept of Art History at Columbia University in the City of New York, and a Bachelor of Business Administration at University of Michigan Ross School of Business. In addition to working on the Gordon Matta-Clark exhibition at the Whitney, the Summer Warm-Up Festival at PS1, and various artist-led projects such as the Martha Rosler Library project at E-Flux Corporation, a decade-long career in New York offered exposure to collections and exhibitions traveling through the major museums in NYC.
