CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART MASTERPIECES FROM EAST AND WEST

Surveys the museum's collection of paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts, accumulated over its seventy-five-year history

Among general art museums, Cleveland is unique in being built largely by professionals, working with bequests of money more than of art. Blessed with two extraordinary long-term directors, William Milliken and Sherman Lee, who account for almost four-fifths of its 75 years of collecting, Cleveland has objects of astounding quality on the walls, very few duds, and very little in storage. The 150 illustrations (a few have printed badly) show strengths in every area, featuring such essential works as Poussin's Holy Family on the Steps or Church's Twilight in the Wilderness or Amorous Couple (Mithuna) . Strong examples of Chinese and Japanese art and a broad selection of decorative arts, both medieval and later, are well shown. The commentaries, written by museum curators, are brief and written for a general audience. Object for object perhaps the finest museum in the country, the Cleveland Museum of Art is well served by this visual introduction.
- Jack Perry Brown, Art Inst. of Chicago Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.