Met Staff Essays Offer Fresh Perspectives on 100 Collection Objects

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has published 'Points of View: 100 Connections to Art,' a 488-page compendium of short essays by 29 staff members from across its professional departments. Edited by CEO and director Max Hollein, the book is the museum's first publication to foster dialogue among curators, producers, librarians, educators, and conservators. It focuses on 100 objects from the permanent collection, organized into five themes: Relationships, Self, Politics, Spirituality, and Environment. Contributors were encouraged to write outside their expertise, offering personal and interdisciplinary perspectives. For example, associate research curator Laura Corey connects Joan Mitchell's 'La Vie en Rose' (1979) to Fleetwood Mac's 'Silver Springs,' and digital managing director Christopher Alessandrini examines Leonora Carrington's 'Self-Portrait' (c. 1937–38). Andrea Myers Achi, curator of Byzantine art, writes about Tavares Strachan's funerary urn 'ENOCH' (2015–17) in relation to Ancient Egyptian sculpture. The book includes works ranging from the Temple of Dendur (10 BCE) to Isamu Noguchi's 'Radio Nurse' (1937) and contemporary pieces by Wendy Red Star. Published last month, the volume aims to present unexpected connections and new ways of understanding art across cultures and eras.