Data: Stephen Little, Head of Chinese and Korean art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

(As of August 3, 2016. Source: LACMA Press Release)

Stephen Little, Florence & Harry Sloan Curator and Department Head, Chinese Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Stephen Little is the department head of Chinese and Korean art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Since coming to LACMA in 2011, he has organized numerous exhibitions and installations, including Chinese Paintings from Japanese Collections (2014); Ming Master pieces from the Shanghai Museum (2013); and reinstallation of the museum’s permanent galleries for Korean and Chinese art.

An authority on Asian art, Stephen Little grew up in Southeast Asia and Near East. He received his BA from Cornell University (1975), MA from UCLA (1977), and PhD from Yale University (1987).

He served as Curator of Chinese Art at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (1977 – 1982) and the Cleveland Museum of Art (1987 – 1989), Curator of Asian Art at Honolulu Academy of Arts (1989-1994), Pritzker Curator of Asian Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (1995 – 2002), and Director of Honolulu Museum of Art (2003 – 2010) before moving to Los Angeles in 2011.

His research interests include Chinese and Japanese painting, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese ceramics, and the classical arts of Southeast Asia.

His publications include Chinese Ceramics of Transitional Period (1983), Visions of the Dharma: Japanese Buddhist Paintings and Prints in the Honolulu Academy of Arts (1991), Spirit Stones of China (1999), Taoism and the Arts of China (2000), Neo Rauch Works 1994 – 2002 (2005), New Songs on Ancient Tunes: 19th – 20th Century Chinese Painting and Calligraphy from Richard Fabian Collection (2007), View of Pinnacle: Japanese Lacquer Writing Boxes – The Lewis Collection of Suzuribako (2012), and the exhibition catalogue Chinese Paintings from Japanese Collections (2014), shown at LACMA.

He was awarded the College Art Association’s Alfred H. Barr Award for Best Museum Exhibition Catalogue for Taoism and the Art of China in 2000.

Between 2003 and 2008 he led an international team that organized the first exhibition to explore the Vajrayana Buddhist art of Bhutan: The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan (2008).

Little has taught at the Smithsonian Institution, the University of Vorginia, Case Western Reserve University, the University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies), the University of Chicago, and Harvard University.