Gail S. Myhre is a writer and historian specializing in Art History, and contributor to this website.
Experience:
An inveterate museumgoer known for entertaining friends with her keen observations, Ms. Myhre was urged some years ago to begin writing exhibition reviews for a greater audience. When particularly exceptional shows in her area of specialty are held away from her home base of New York City, she often travels to view them in person. Ms. Myhre also enjoys the occasional foray into the many "-isms" that Modern Art History affords. She has also worked as a correspondent for Art Museum Journal
A student of the mixed martial arts, Ms. Myhre currently holds a black belt in that discipline, and has won bronze and silver medals at regional and national level competitions in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Gail owns and operates Staten Island Mixed Martial Arts, a full contact martial arts school focusing on realistic fight training and self-defense.
Ms. Myhre was widowed on September 11, 2001. She has one son.
Education:
After graduating from Manhattan's academically rigorous Stuyvesant High School, Ms. Myhre studied at Wagner College and College of Staten Island. She then undertook over twelve years of independent study in the cultural and political history of the Roman Empire. Her specialty is the art of the late Republican and early Imperial periods, with a particular focus on the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
From Gail S. Myhre:
"The interpretation of Roman social and political organization has fascinated us since the fall of the Empire, and every expansionist society since that time has found in some aspect of Roman culture a mirror for its own attitudes and ambitions. Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in later adoptions of Classical arts and forms. Our approach to the Antique perspective can tell us as much about ourselves as it can about the ancients. This makes the study of the Classical idiom an appropriate and even necessary starting point for anyone wishing to understand contemporary Western thought on a wide range of subjects from politics to art. Ultimately, the legacy of Rome is a common cultural thread which weaves through the entire fabric of Western history."
See all of Gail S. Myhre's archived Special Exhibition reviews.
