Rendez-Vous with Art

Eclectic art museum treasures prompt critic Gayford (Man with a Blue Scarf) and de Montebello, emeritus director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to engage their future readers with pleasant, unapologetically scholarly, nostalgic conversation in a dialog format. Gayford's short narrative smoothly connects the visits. Topics shift with careful editing as the men stroll through museums across continents, over a two-year span, stopping to ponder some 70 pieces (alas, no women artists). Several pieces evoke controversial responses, as when de Montebello decries modern museums' promotion of their collections and "artist-stars" as a form of entertainment. He stands firm that art "demands an effort…if we are to be absorbed in its world." The tone of the Eastern antiquity section elicits the most effect on the complex issues of keeping "war booty" and other prickly aspects of acquisition and display. The authors are clearly passionate about their shared history of art in museums, the institutions' sense of place, and even their commiseration about "museum feet" (fatigue).