Xavier Salomon Said to Move from Dulwich to the Met
From ArtInfo (13 July 2010). . .
Eighteen months into his tenure as director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas P. Campbell is beginning to make significant hires at the museum. Earlier this month he stole American painting and sculpture curator Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser from the Wadsworth Atheneum, and now Artnet is reporting that the museum has snapped up Xavier Salomon, the chief curator of London’s Dulwich College Picture Gallery, to join the Met’s Italian painting department. . . .
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In a 30-minutes audio interview available at Yang-May Ooi’s Fusion View (and occasioned by the 2007 Canaletto exhibition at Dulwich), Salomon discusses
his own pan-European roots and about the fusion art of Canaletto, the great Venetian painter who came to London in 1746. Canaletto painted famous London scenes with his Italian eye, staying in this vibrant city for 10 years. Xavier talks about what London might have been like at that time and why Canaletto came here for his painting. He also talks about his personal experiences of European art and what it takes to become the curator of one of the most respected art galleries in the UK.
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A 2008 feature from the Dulwich website indicates a variety of Salomon’s preferences including bespoke suits, scallops, Palermo, Verdi, and Venetian velvet slippers. What’s not to like? Well . . . maybe the camel (though even at that, I’ve never been on one; so who knows? Perhaps taste depends on trust more than we might like to admit).
An Eighteenth-Century Synagogue from Suriname in Jerusalem
Press release (24 May 2010) from the Israel Museum:
Rare and Newly Restored 18th-Century Synagogue from Suriname to be Highlight of Israel Museum’s New Synagogue Route
Interior of the 18th-century Suriname Synagogue Zedek-ve-Shalom at the Israel Museum. Photo by Eli Posner. Courtesy of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
A newly restored 18th-century synagogue from Suriname – one of only two remaining examples – will be a highlight of the Israel Museum’s newly installed Mandel Wing for Jewish Art and Life, on view beginning July 26, 2010, when the Museum opens its expanded and renewed campus to the public. This rare and striking South American synagogue will stand alongside synagogue interiors from Italy, Germany, and India as part of the Museum’s new Synagogue Route, which will offer visitors the opportunity for a notably rich experience with Jewish ritual traditions from around the world. On display with its original furniture and decorations and a sand floor, the Tzedek ve-Shalom Synagogue will offer visitors a glimpse into Suriname’s once vibrant Jewish community.
Built in 1736 in the capital city of Paramaribo, Suriname, Tzedek ve-Shalom ceased to function as a place of worship in the 1990s. In order to rescue this important example of the Jewish life of this remote Jewish community, the Israel Museum approached its leaders with the aim of restoring and preserving the synagogue on its campus for the benefit of future generations of visitors from around the world. The synagogue’s interior and its original ceremonial objects and furnishings were transferred to the Museum in 1999, where it has now been meticulously refurbished. (more…)
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