Michael Rooks, the curator of European and American art at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, is a hands-on kind of curator. He gets his gloved hands dirty alongside the museum's installation experts hanging paintings, moving sculptures and choosing colors. In March he reinstalled the American Gallery, improving sightlines and giving some of the museum’s masterpieces, such as the ever lovely Portrait of Lady Meux by James MacNeill Whistler, the prime real estate they demand. But paintings aren’t all you get. Another change is the incorporation of 20th-century art and decorative arts into a space that was home chiefly to 18th- and 19th-century objects. Now the gallery is a three-part chamber, and you get to time travel from the 1700s to the 1950s, starting in a “salon-cum-antiques shop,” as Rooks calls it, going to a classic picture gallery and ending in a bright yellow room where pieces such as Eames’ iconic mid-century modern chair and Frederic Remington’s nostalgic sculpture Mountain Man redefine what it means to be American. If you haven’t been to the Academy lately, Rooks’ curatorial handywork is definitely worth a look. (Photo of Rooks with Dararu Nakane and Liberato Cabe by Shuzo Uemoto)
Honolulu Academy of Arts
900 S. Beretania St. between Victoria and Ward
532-8700

—LesaG, 04/13/08