Boston Book Festival

When Boston Globe art critic Sebastian Smee was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2011, the Pulitzer committee cited him for “his vivid and exuberant writing about art.” Join Smee in an enthusiastic presentation of The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art. Learn about the friendly and sometimes fraught relationships between Picasso and Matisse, Manet and Degas, Bacon and Freud, and Pollock and de Kooning in a revelatory talk with illustrative slides. In its starred review, Publishers Weekly notes: “This ambitious and impressive work is an utterly absorbing read about four important relationships in modern art.” Moderated by Sarah Lewis, assistant professor of art and architecture and African and African American studies at Harvard. Sponsored by Cynthia and John Reed.