George Ellis
George R. Ellis (born 1937 in Birmingham) was an author, art historian and director of the Honolulu Museum of Art from 1982 to 2003.
Ellis received a BA in art history from the University of Chicago in 1959 and a Master of Fine Arts in painting from the same institution in 1962. He began his career as a painter, but became assistant director of the Birmingham Museum of Art, and later associate director of the Museum of Cultural History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He also served as supervisor of art programs for Jefferson County Schools.
Highlights of his tenure at the Honolulu Museum of Art include establishment of the Academy Art Center at Linekona and construction of the Luce Pavilion. He served on the boards of directors of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, the East–West Center, the International Arts Society, the Japan-American Society, and the Manoa Heritage Society. In 2002, Ellis received the Alfred Preis Award from the Hawaii Alliance for Arts Education, and in 2003 the Honolulu Academy named a new gallery the "George and Nancy Ellis Gallery" in his honor.
Publications
- Casino, Eric S., George R. Ellis, Wilhelm G. Solheim II, Father Gabriel Casal and Regalado Trota Jose (1962) People and Art of the Philippines. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, UCLA
- Ellis, George R. and staff (1974) A Decade in Retrospect. Works from Asia, Europe, The Near East, Africa, North and South America, Indonesia and Oceania, drawn from Museum Collections. Los Angeles: UCLA
- Ellis, George R. (1981) Growing with the Museum of Cultural History. Los Angeles: UCLA
- Ellis, George R. (1996) Japanese Treasures from the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Honolulu, Hawai'i: Honolulu Academy of Arts
- Ellis, George R. and Marcia Morse (2000) A Hawaii Treasury, Masterpieces from the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun
- Ellis, George R. (2000) Hokusai and Hiroshige. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum of San Franisco ISBN 0295977663
- Norris, Ben, Margaret Norris Castrey and George R. Ellis (2009) Ben Norris, American Modernist, 1910-2006. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press
- Ellis, George R. (2009) Oceanic Art, a Celebration of Form. San Diego: San Diego Museum of Art ISBN 9780937108468
References
- Rath, Paula (December 2, 2005) “Hawai'i Arts Leader Bids Aloha”, Honolulu Advertiser
- "George R. Ellis" (September 26, 2012) Wikipedia - accessed April 23, 2013