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adayoshi “Sada” Omoto: In Memoriam

The following obituary was prepared by the deceased’s wife, Kathryn B. Omoto, and his son, Loren Omoto.

Sadayoshi Omoto

Sadayoshi “Sada” Omoto, an artist and art historian, died on March 4, 2013, after a lifetime of inspiring students, artists, and friends. He was 90 years old. Omoto’s path through life brought him challenges, opportunities, and triumphs. He was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, college professor, elected official, activist and, in later years, an artist. His indomitable spirit and easygoing personality made him a friend to and role model for many. His individuality and dogged determination emerged early and were defining characteristics throughout his life.

Omoto was born at Wing Point on Bainbridge Island, Washington. The island—a short ferry ride from Seattle—was an idyllic spot to grow up. As a young man he began classes at the University of Washington, but his life was changed forever on the day Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor. Soon after, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the United States military to relocate American citizens of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast. The first people subject to the evacuation order were Japanese Americans living on Bainbridge Island.

Omoto’s family and more than two hundred other island residents were given just six days to collect what possessions they could carry and make arrangements for their property. On March 30, 1942, US soldiers carrying rifles with bayonets rounded them up and put them on a ferry to Seattle. Ultimately the family became some of the first residents at Manzanar War Relocation Center, an internment camp located in a remote area of the Southern Californian desert. At Manzanar, Omoto lived in communal barracks with his brother and widowed mother, surrounded by barbed wire, dogs, and guard towers, while his two older brothers served in the US military. The experience instilled a keen awareness of social injustice. He later made his forced relocation a “teachable moment” for his children and for hundreds of others who heard him speak or who viewed his highly personal art on the subject.

Omoto left the camp to join the US Army, training as a linguist at the Military Intelligence Service Language School in Minnesota. He made his first journey to Asia while in the military. After the war, Omoto resumed his quest for a higher education—but this time in the Midwest. Omoto enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio and earned a bachelor’s degree. He also earned a master’s degree from Michigan State University and his PhD in art history from Ohio State University.

For the next forty years, Omoto taught American and Asian art history—first at Bradley College in Illinois, then at Wayne State University in Detroit, and finally at Michigan State, where he worked for thirty-three years. During his career, he served as department chair and as advisor to a minority student organization. His concern and attention to principles of justice were remembered by students long after their college careers.

Omoto was the author of numerous articles in professional journals, including “Thackeray and Architectural Taste” (1967) and “The Queen Anne Style and Architectural Criticism” (1964) in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians; “The Sketchbooks of Worthington Whittredge” in Art Journal (1965); and “Berkley and Whittredge at Newport” in Art Quarterly (1964). He also wrote book reviews and contributed articles to the Kresge Art Center Bulletin.

Under the auspices of the Bicentennial Inventory of American Paintings Executed before 1914, a program of the National Collection of Fine Arts (later renamed the Smithsonian American Art Museum), Omoto directed the inventory of early Michigan paintings. The collection of over one thousand works served as the basis for the Michigan Experience exhibition at Kresge Art Center Gallery at Michigan State in 1986, which traveled to venues throughout the state. He authored exhibition catalogues for The Michigan Experience (1986, with Eldon Van Liere) and Early Michigan Paintings (1976–77).

After retiring from Michigan State, Omoto returned to the northern Michigan community he had first visited as an art student during the 1950s. In Leland, he cultivated a new life focused on creativity and community service. He attended painting classes and helped to form a collective of local artists who drew inspiration from the local landscape and from each other. Omoto also helped to organize exercise classes for seniors and exhibitions of art from the past and present. With his wife Kathryn, he supported the work of the Leelanau Conservancy and other local historic-preservation efforts. Although slowed in recent years, Omoto remained a familiar sight at Leland community events, galleries, and coffee shops. His gentle humor and easy smile made him a beacon of friendliness during any season.

Omoto is survived by his wife, Kathryn Bishop Omoto; his children Allen Omoto (David Robinson) of Claremont, California, Katherine (Neal) Fortin of Okemos, Michigan, Loren (Susan) Omoto of Maitland, Florida; his granddaughter Helen Fortin of Okemos; and numerous nieces and nephews. Omoto was preceded in death by his parents Daikichi and Masa Omoto; his son Roger Omoto; his brothers Masakatsu, Setsuo, and Taketo Omoto; and his sister Kanee Omoto.

Alison Hilton is Wright Family Professor of Art History at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

Dmitrii V. Sarabianov, a Russian art historian and a specialist on nineteenth- and twentieth-century art, died in Moscow on July 19, 2013. He was 89 years old. Sarabianov was one of the great art historians of his generation, those who began their scholarly careers during and following World War II.

Born on October 10, 1923, into the family of a Marxist philosopher, Sarabianov showed an early interest in the arts, especially poetry and music, as well as camping and athletics. Soon after he began his undergraduate studies in 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. He joined the army to serve as a translator, was wounded twice, and received several medals for military merit. After the war Sarabianov completed his undergraduate work at Moscow State University and was admitted into the school’s graduate program in art history, earning his candidate’s degree in 1952.

In 1954 he began work at Moscow’s prestigious Institute of Art History, first as a senior researcher and later as deputy director. From 1966 to 1996 Sarabianov taught and served as the head of the Art History Department at Moscow State University. He earned his doctorate in 1971. (In Russia this signifies substantial scholarly achievement beyond the candidate’s degree; it is roughly equivalent to full professorship.) Sarabianov became a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1987 and was elected to the rank of academician five years later.

Sarabianov was an inspiring teacher and mentor whose influence guided the careers of many Russian academics and museum scholars for several generations. Even for those who did not encounter him directly, Sarabianov’s publications—numbering more than 360 books and articles—set a standard for scholarship recognized both in Russia and abroad. Subjects of his monographs, many of them translated, include important nineteenth-century artists, among them Pavel Fedotov, Orest Kiprenskii, Aleksei Venetsianov, Ilya Repin, and Valentin Serov, as well as key figures in early-twentieth-century art such as Vasilii Kandinsky, Pavel Kuznetsov, Robert Falk, Liubov Popova, and Kazimir Malevich. What distinguishes Sarabianov’s work is the scope and originality of his interpretations of Russian art movements. He was among the first to write about Russian nineteenth-century painting in relation to European art, and he published a path-breaking study of international Art Nouveau in 1989. His book Russian Art: From Neoclassicism to the Avant Garde 1800–1917 (1990) is considered the fundamental text on the subject.

Sarabianov always took his civic responsibility as an academic very seriously. He spoke up at meetings, defended intellectual freedom, and voted on policy questions. In 2005, he and colleagues in Moscow’s major museums and other art institutions created the National Organization of Art Experts (NOEXI) to monitor and cope with the unprecedented demands of the chaotic art market in Russia and to establish means of ensuring professional credibility and trust.

Regarded by his peers, his former students, and his readers as a scholar of absolute integrity, Dmitrii Sarabianov will be missed most for his immense charm and kindness. He is survived by his wife, Elena Borisovna Murina, and his sons, Andrei and Vladimir Sarabianov.