Books by Philippe De Montebello
Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Metropolitan Museum of Art Series)
by Philippe De Montebello, Barbara Burn
Housing one of the finest and most comprehensive collections in the world, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a living encyclopedia of art. Cultures spanning the globe and dating from the ancient world to the present are represented in this beautifully illustrated book, which features over 250 masterpieces from the Museum’s collection.
The objects are arranged in chronological order by culture, beginning with ancient Egypt and ending with the twentieth century in Europe and America. Insightful text opens each section and provides historical and cultural background, while in-depth commentary accompanies each featured work.
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Rendez-vous with Art
by Philippe De Montebello, Martin Gayford
The fruits of a lifetime of experience by a cultural colossus, Philippe de Montebello, the longest-serving director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in its history, distilled in conversations with an acclaimed critic Beginning with a fragment of yellow jasper―all that is left of the face of an Egyptian woman who lived 3,500 years ago―this book confronts the elusive questions: how, and why, do we look at art?
Philippe de Montebello and Martin Gayford talked in art galleries or churches or their own homes, and this book is structured around their journeys. But whether they were in the Louvre or the Prado, the Mauritshuis of the Palazzo Pitti, they reveal the pleasures of truly looking.
De Montebello shares the sense of excitement recorded by Goethe in his autobiography―"akin to the emotion experienced on entering a House of God"―but also reflects on why these secular temples might nevertheless be the "worst possible places to look at art." But in the end both men convey, with subtlety and brilliance, the delights and significance of their subject matter and some of the intense creations of human beings throughout our long history. 75 illustrations
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Lucian Freud Monumental
by Philippe De Montebello, David Dawson
Intimate portraits from one of the most innovative figurative artists of the twentieth century and the master of painted flesh.
Curated by the artist's longtime studio assistant and friend, David Dawson, this important volume features twenty major and rarely seen paintings by Lucian Freud (1922-2011). The book begins with works from 1990, when Freud began painting the performance artist Leigh Bowery: these large-scale portraits of Bowery ushered in a new sense of monumentality in the artist's oeuvre. Inspired by Bowery's impressive physique, Freud began working on a larger scale, which emphasized the physical presence of his subjects. Despite their grand scale, Freud's subjects are still depicted with a sense of intimacy, penetrating honesty, and psychological depth.
The naked body is a subject that has special significance in Freud's oeuvre. Nakedness was a way for Freud to get a more truthful portrait. Freud's probing oils get fresh consideration in this monograph and Dawson provides insights and stories about Freud working on these portraits, giving an intriguing behind-the-scenes look at the life of a contemporary master of representational art.
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