John P. O'NeillCritiques

Catalog for an ambitious exhibition that was shown successively in Paris, New York and Toronto in 1999 and 2000. It was a real public success and that is not surprising: the art of Ancient Egypt appeals to the imagination. This book (and the exhibition) is limited to the art of the Old Kingdom, roughly the period 2600-2200 BCE, and focuses not only on the pyramids and tombs, but especially on sculptures and reliefs. And the Ancient Egyptians appear to have already achieved astonishing mastery in this. Not only does the book offer excellent introductory articles, but the catalog itself is - apart from the enormous number of works of art - also worthwhile because of the analysis offered of each work of art itself. This may be a bit too detailed for the layman, but for the enthusiast it is a delight!
A critical side note in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6184034831½

GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR LOUISE BOCK

An excellent photographic guide to the once-in-a-lifetime exhibit of Old Kingdom Egyptian art, this book contains introductory essays on the Old Kingdom and beautiful photos of the objects in the exhibit. There are multiple views of the most important pieces.

This was the book that got me started on appreciating and studying ancient Chinese bronzes and their inscriptions. It has some beautiful photographs and good descritions on each of the items.

A few months ago, while perusing The Victoria and Albert Museum : a bibliography and exhibition chronology, 1852-1996, I commented to a co-worker that the Met needed to do something similar. There were certainly enough publications to warrant it. What a pleasant surprise when I learned that it was already in the works! And now, here it is.

This is simply, a list of everything published by the MMA since 1964. Organized first by fiscal year (July - June), then by title and finally by author. The more recent years also include CD-ROMs, videos and online features. The only drawbacks are that the title and author lists don't include the publication year, and that there's no digitized and searchable version (yet). All in all however, this little bibliography offers quite a bit for a mere $5.00.

(I was also pleasantly surprised to learn there is a version covering publications since the Museum's founding in 1870 through 1964. Now to find it...)½