Some Press Coverage of the Arab American National Museum exhibit

The local newspaper in Mt. Pleasant, MI where Sari Khoury taught at Central Michigan University has a short article on the upcoming exhibit and the legacy of his work. 

Legacy of Art

Professor's work gets new audience

By Lisa Satayut
Sun Staff Writer

Sue Khoury unrolls one of her husband Sari Khoury's works that she found in his studio after he died. Sue Khoury has been working on getting exposure and appreciation for the large body of work her husband left behind. "He never stopped producing," Khoury said. Sun Photograph by RYAN EVON
When world renowned Palestinian artist and Central Michigan University art professor Sari Khoury died of brain cancer 10 years ago, his wife made one promise to him.

That promise was to keep his legacy alive. And that's exactly what she has been doing for the past decade.

Starting next Thursday, Khoury's work will be on display at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn. The exhibit, "Fragmentation & Unity: The Art of Sari Khoury," will run through April 27.

"My sons and I promised him we would continue to show his art as often and as much as possible," his widow Sue Khoury said.

Khoury had just turned 56 when he died in June of 1997.

Not only was Khoury an art professor at Central Michigan University for more than 30 years, he was also a writer, a philosopher and a man who loved his family. Khoury was just as dedicated to his students as he was to his work, Sue said.

"He challenged them to explore and push the boundaries of their art," She said. "He was very dedicated to his students. It was a major part of his career."

Khoury was born in Jerusalem as the youngest son of an educator.

"He knew early on that he wanted to become an artist," Sue said.

When he was very young he would wander the streets of Jerusalem and draw faces, she said. His training began when he was growing up in the Holy City drawing scenery and the images of everyday life, she said.

Khoury left Jerusalem when he was 17 to create a new and simpler life in the United States.

The AANM exhibit will feature 25 pieces of Khoury's artwork, including a triptych piece that has never been seen by the public before. Khoury often used written words as well as images to express himself. Each piece at the exhibit will also feature a few of his own words.

"In his art and in his words, Sari Khoury often explored what he called the ‘non-tangible allegories' of fragmentation and unity," AANM spokesman Steve Williams said.

Khoury has had his large abstracts and drawings on display in Germany, Sweden and Tokyo.

Years after his passing, Sue remembers how she would find pieces of his work hidden around the house. Pieces she never even knew existed.

"I found this one up here," she said as she pointed to the rafters in the basement where his studio was, and still is.

Sue remembers one of her husband's art pieces that stood nearly 24 feet tall. This poses a problem when they have to be wrapped up and toted around to different museums.

"I got him to work smaller," Sue said laughing. "They are tricky to move." A seven-foot by seven-foot easel still stands in his studio. This easel was designed so that both sides are usable.

"He would work on both sides. He would switch from one piece to the other," Sue said.

Khoury often produced work that would tell the story of the turmoil that was, and still is going on in the Middle East.

"His commitment to an equitable political solution in Palestine led to his participation in an exhibit titled "It is Possible" in 1988," Sue said. He was invited along with 24 other Palestinian and Israeli artists for peace, she said.

For more information about the exhibit please call 313-582-2266. For more information on the life of Sari Khoury and to view his work please visit www.arabamericanmuseum.org.or go to www.khouryart.org.

A second article appeared in the Detroit News on January 22nd, 2008: 

Arab American National Museum

Where: 13624 Michigan Ave., Dearborn

Information: (313) 582-2266 or www.arabamericanmuseum.org.

Sari Khoury, a Palestinian painter who taught for 30 years at Central Michigan University before his death in the late 1990s, is the subject of the Arab American National Museum's major spring show, "Fragmentation & Unity," opening Jan. 31 (through April 27).

Khoury arrived in the United States from Jerusalem as a teenager, ultimately graduating from the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Like many immigrants, says museum spokesman Kim Silarski, a sense of cultural dislocation and discovery -- or fragmentation and unity -- "are issues he struggled with and tried to reconcile in his art."

The results are colorful works that are movement-filled and fluid, and call to mind some of the earliest European and American 20th-century abstractionists.