Community respected contemporary art curator

James Jensen, curator of contemporary art at the Honolulu Museum of Art and a beloved figure in the arts community, died Wednesday at his home in Honolulu. He was 67.

“He was just an amazing person,” said Sharon Twigg-Smith, a close friend of Jensen’s and trustee for the museum. “Most people have a job and their lives are separated into pockets. He just lived and breathed art. … His life was all one piece, and it was all about art.”

Twigg-Smith called Jensen, who was known to colleagues as “Jay” and to family as “Jim,” a consummate curator and walking encyclopedia of art facts.

“Anyone knew they could ask him a question about any artist, any artifact, and he had it at the tip of his fingers,” she said. “Historically, he knew so much. His knowledge bank was unlike anyone I’ve known.”

In addition, he was a good friend to many, she said, a warmhearted and selfless person who always made time to assist a fellow curator or to give feedback to artists. He shared his knowledge generously, and also collected art himself, she said, but always with the purpose of giving the pieces to the museum.

Jensen began working for the museum, then known as the Honolulu Academy of Arts, in 1976, as an aide to the director. He eventually worked his way up to curator of contemporary art at Spalding House, then known as The Contemporary Museum, and then the Honolulu Museum of Art when the two merged in 2011.

In a Facebook post Friday, the Honolulu Museum of Art said it was deeply saddened by the death, calling Jensen a “longtime member of its ohana.”

“We know the sudden loss has repercussions throughout the Hawaii arts community and beyond and we share in your grief,” the museum wrote in its post.

Born July 10, 1949, to a farming family in Waupaca, Wis., Jensen graduated with a bachelor’s degree in art history and master’s in arts administration from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He moved to Hawaii in 1976 to work for the museum.

Jensen mounted many wonderfully creative and popular art exhibitions during his 20 years as curator at the Makiki museum beginning in the early ’90s. In recent years some of the exhibitions he curated were “Serious Fun: Thurston Twigg-Smith and Contemporary Art,” “Courage and Strength: Portraits of Those Who Have Served” and “Decisive Moments: Photographs From the Collection of Cherye R. and James F. Pierce.”

He also worked closely with Hawaii artists, including Diane Chen KW, Wendy Kawabata, Kapulani Landgraf, Deborah G. Nehmad, Maya Lea Portner and Paul Pfeiffer, among others, to feature their works in a space dedicated to contemporary Hawaii art.

He is survived by mother Lucile Jensen, sister Joanne Handler (Thomas Harrison), brothers Lee (Jane ­Kusler-Jensen) and Mark (Kelly McGinty), and numerous nieces and nephews.

A celebration of life is scheduled for 11 a.m. April 29 at Spalding House, 2411 Makiki Heights Drive. Parking there is reserved, but the museum will offer free shuttle service from the ­Honolulu Museum of Art School, 1111 Victoria St., from 9:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Additional parking will be available at 1035 Kinau St.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the James Jensen Acquisition Fund for Contemporary Art at the Honolulu Museum of Art, 900 S. Beretania St., ­Honolulu 96814.