​​SUZANNE ZUBER

The exhibition: “Sarah Bernhardt: the Art of High Drama”, The Jewish Museum, New York, December 2, 2005 – April 6, 2006. Sarah Bernhardt: The Art of High Drama was the first major museum show ever devoted to the great French actress (1844-1923). Over the course of her brilliantly orchestrated sixty-year career, “the Divine Sarah” established herself as the premier tragedienne in the West. Her importance even extended beyond the world of theater: she was an icon of French nationalism, an artist and a sculptor, an entrepreneur and trendsetter. Born five years after the invention of photography, Bernhardt pioneered the use of modern technologies to disseminate her image and was the first major stage actress to star in films. The exhibition presented over 250 rarely seen objects from the belle Époque, in all media – painting, sculpture, photography, costumes, stage designs, Art Nouveau theater posters and jewelry, consumer products bearing her image, her furniture and personal effects, as well as a recording of her voice and selected films in which she starred. Drawing on public and private collections in America and Europe, Sarah Bernhardt: The Art of High Drama explored celebrity, theatrical style, biography, politics, fashion, and taste.

 

As curatorial assistant, Suzanne Zuber coordinated various aspects of this prize-winning exhibition, curated by Carol Ockman, Kenneth Silver and Karen Levitov, and designed by Pentagram. Ms. Zuber worked on the placement of the objects and exhibition labels within the installation space, and served as a liaison between the curators, registrars, art handlers and outside lenders/couriers who accompanied the objects from museums worldwide. Ms. Zuber represented the Museum through a public lecture on Sarah Bernhardt and the making of the exhibition.

 

The book: Sarah Bernhardt: The Art of High Drama, by Carol Ockman and Kenneth Silver, with contributions by Janis Bergman-Carton, Karen Levitov, and Suzanne Schwarz Zuber.

This scholarly, lavishly illustrated publication examines the many sides and talents of Bernhardt, from her beginnings at the Comedie Francaise through her international stardom, highlighting her historical significance. Ms. Zuber’s chronology of Sarah Bernhardt’s life, included in this book, is the first to be published in the English language.

 

Press and Awards: This exhibition and its accompanying catalogue received major press coverage by the New York Times and others, and received an award for scholarly excellence from the Victorian Society of America.

 

For reviews, see: 

Edward Rothstein, "Celebrity so Extraordinaire She Rivaled the Eiffel Tower,”

in The New York Times, December 2, 2005

 

Leslie Camhi, "Dangerous Beauty,"  in The New York Times, February 26, 2006