Arts & Entertainment
Out Of The Wilderness
Kenneth Myers is named new chief curator of the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
W
ilderness — real and artistic
— spreads out as a central inter-
est of the new chief curator of
the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Kenneth Myers, who joined the museum
in 2005 as curator and department head
of American art, expanded his personal
enthusiasm for wilderness hiking into a
continuing career enthusiasm for wilderness
paintings and painters.
A current commitment is preparing a
traveling exhibit of works by Frederic Church,
represented at the DLk and known for his
scenic landscapes of the eastern United States
completed in the 1850s and 18605.
"I did a lot of hiking and remote back-
packing when I was in high school, college
and graduate school," recalls Myers, 54,
whose summer included attendance at a
Museum Leadership Institute in California
and vacation trekking in the Sierras.
"Out of that, I started teaching a course at
Yale on 'Wilderness in American Literature
and Painting, and my writing about land-
scape art grew out of that course. I wouldn't
have done the course except for the fact that I
had been doing so much hiking."
The promotion of Myers, who will retain
his responsibilities with the American collec-
tion, was joined with promotions that place
Alan Darr in charge of European paintings,
sculpture and decorative arts and designate
Salvador Salort-Pons as associate curator of
European paintings.
c^^ 11
"
"It is a pleasure to announce some good
Reconstructionist synagogue near the
news in these trying times:' says Graham
Smithsonian, has attended Conservative
W.J. Beal, DIA director."The DL-k always
services in Michigan and served as a mem-
has attracted top talent, and Ken, Alan and
ber of the Maas Prize Committee for the
Salvador are among the best in their fields:' Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.
Myers, among 12 curators, helped rein-
Myers, who grew up outside Manhattan,
stall the American collection after the
has been interested in the arts since his
recent museum renovation and now will
teenage years."' was serious about lit-
have more input into the larger strategy
erature and art by high school," he says."I
decisions at the facility.
majored in literature, expected
"This new position will get
to pursue a career as a profes-
me much more involved in
sor and received my Ph.D.
helping senior management
from Yale in American studies,
set long-term goals in policy
working on the relationship
and define our vision as we
between early 19th-century
move fonvard," says Myers,
writing about landscape and
also taking on more responsi-
early 19th-century painting
bility- for productivity and staff
about landscape."
mentoring.
After teaching in the
"I've been active in research
American studies program
and publications since I joined
at 'Middlebury College in
the museum, and its expected Kenneth My ers: "I still Vermont, Myers shifted from
see myself primarily
that I'll continue to pursue
writing about literature to
as
a teache r."
that. The Church project will
writing about art. During
be my first major traveling
his 10 years at Middlebury,
exhibition since coming to the DLC
he curated an exhibition that served as
Myers joined the museum after work-
a model for the kind of interdisciplinary,
ing at the Smithsonian Institution in
visitor-focused installations that the DIA
Washington, D.C., where he was curator of
is developing.
American art at the Freer Gallery of Art.
"I found I really liked working with
He organized numerous exhibitions focus-
objects:' says Myers, who has received
ing on the work of James McNeill Whistler,
fellowships from the J. Paul Getty Trust,
co-curated the exhibition "Mr.IVhistler's
National Endowment for the Humanities
Galleries: Avant-Garde in Victorian London" and Metropolitan Museum of Art. "I see
and wrote the related book Mr. 1.1rhistler -
exhibition designs as a different mode of
Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition.
teaching and still see myself primarily as
Myers, who was a member of a
a teacher:'
\\Idle at _ ' ■liddleburv, Myers wrote the
catalogue and organized the exhibition The
Catskills: Painters, Writers and Tourists in
the Mountains, 1820-1895.
The Frederic Church exhibit, which Myers
expects to be completed within five years,
will teach about the artist as tourist. It will
feature materials linked with the painter's
trip to the Holy Land and nearby countries.
The exhibit starts with the visual cul-
ture that Church would have anticipated,
continues with amassed photographs as
well as drawings and oil studies completed
during the travels and ends with works
later produced in the artist's studio. "There
are a handful of photos of Jews in the col-
lection:' says Myers.
Current essay projects surround two
DL-k-displayed paintings: Worthington
Whittredge's Twilight on the Shawangunk
Mountains, a landscape on long-terrn loan
from Richard Manoogian, and Henry Peters
Gray's Truth, a work donated to the muse-
um by a friend of the curator.
Myers, whose reinstallation of the
American collection included the acquisi-
tion of a Renaissance revival cabinet built
for the 1876 World Fair in Philadelphia,
looks forward to upcoming museum
enhancements allowed by his new position.
"I'm thrilled to be given this opportunity
by Graham to become even more involved
with the DL," says Myers, married with a
daughter starting Cornell University and a
stepdaughter at Brandeis University."' want
to work toward taking the museum to anoth-
er level of openness and inclusiveness:'
Search
On reality TV, mom knows best when helping son find his mate.
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the JelNish NeWS
Y
vonne Sabato might have become
a Jewish mother, but her religious
heritage was kept secret because
her family feared repercussions from the
Communist regime in Czechoslovakia.
Instead, she was raised as a Catholic relo-
cated to Italy and will show those cultural
leanings while appearing on a reality TV
series spotlighting her son, hunk actor and
model Antonio Sabato Jr.
My Antonio, a 10-episode mate-search by
this single celeb coached by his mom, debuts
Aug.16 on VI-11.
"This show is not made up',' says Yvonne
Sabato, 62, who had been a singer and
dancer in Europe and the Mideast. "It's all
38
August 13 • 2009
surprises, and it's very natural and fun:'
The series depicts the actor-model, mar-
ried briefly and with two children from
different relationships, ready to settle down
with someone who is serious about life and
love, adventurous, cultured and comfortable
— aside from being gorgeous.
The star, whose program operates out
of his tropical enclave in Hawaii, caught
American attention after appearing in Italian
features. Fans know him through a continu-
ing role on General Hospital and Calvin Klein
ad campaigns.
"During the series, I talk to my son and
the girls, and I try to see which of the girls is
real:'Yvonne says."Over the weeks, the audi-
ence will see how people change and how
personalities come out"
Yvonne Sabato, who derives her Jewish
heritage through her mother, describes a
childhood in which her family was stripped
of their possessions and turned into circus
performers to support the state. Although
assisting her dad through childhood, she
once was kept as a hostage for nine months
while her parents toured outside the country.
"We were sent out of the country more and
more','Sabato says."\ \Then I was a teenager,
we were in Italy for a long time, and I staved.
"Over the years, I had hints that my moth-
er was Jewish. I got most of the information
from the nanny I had when I was small and
who staved in contact. I never asked my
mother because it was a difficult subject."
After marrying a famous actor and mov-
ing to the United States in 1985, Sabato
learned through the American Red Cross
that her mother's family had been sent to
Auschwitz
during \tiorld
\ \Tar II.
"I've always
been drawn
to know-
Antonio Sabato Jr. and
ing about
his mom, Yvonne
Judaism," says
Sabato, who visited Auschwitz after the war.
"I took my kids to see Tereisenstadt."
Sabato gave up her career to devote her
time to family."I think people on reality-
shows need to be themselves," Sabato saws."'
think if people start trying to show just their
best, it's not a reality show" —
My Antonio premieres 10 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 16, on VH1.