Last Thursday, the Rizzoli Bookstore in New York City hosted a conversation between Thomas Campbell, CEO and director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Kathryn Calley Galitz, a Met curator and educator and author of The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings (Skira Rizzoli), which highlights 500 historic paintings in the Met collection. In a wide-ranging, informative and often funny talk, the two discussed, among many other things, how the 500 works were chosen from the many thousands of possibilities; the "challenge," as Galitz put it, of writing only 250 words on each selection; the choice of the cover; and the fact that after Western art, Asian works were the second-most represented among the selections.
Noting that the Met is known for its very scholarly works and exhibition and collection catalogues, Campbell said that this "exquisite book" ought to appeal to "a broad audience."
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