New York's great art museums

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Imposing doors will open wide with this guide to 18 permanent collections in seven of New York's art museums, including the Cloisters, the Brooklyn Museum and the Frick Collection. Garrett highlights sculptures, paintings and artifacts and briefly explains the works' historic background and artistic merit as well as particulars of the creators' lives. One hundred black-and-white photographs and floor plans of the more complicated museums help orient visitors to the galleries. The Metropolitan's holdings are covered most extensively, as Garrett discourses on nine Met Collections, including Egyptian, Greek and Roman, and American art. Readers are offered a fuller appreciation of works by O'Keeffe, Hopper, Calder and others continually on display at the Whitney. The author's descriptions of famous favorites like van Gogh's Starry Night and more imposing masterpieces like Rodin's Monument to Balzac (both at MOMA) are free of pretension, academic clutter and overburdening facts. Garrett, who writes regularly on the arts for the Boston Globe, inspires with a warm, intelligent book that will make cultural pleasures more accessible. First serial to the Washington Post, Boston Globe and New York Daily News. (July)

Library Journal

Garrett, an arts writer for the Boston Globe , provides guided tours of an hour each through the major New York art museums: the Metropolitan, the Cloisters, the Museum of Modern Art, the Frick, the Brooklyn Museum, the Guggenheim, and the Whitney. Although he touches on most major masterpieces, his selection of art works is extremely personal, even quirky, and his admitted bias toward ancient and European art could prejudice the uninitiated museum-goer. The concept, however, is valid, with gallery maps provided for several museums. A good starting point for visitors new to these museums or with limited time. For general art/travel collections. Lynell A. Morr, John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art Lib., Sarasota, Fla.