randuwa: The Barnes Foundation Museum

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

The Barnes Foundation Museum

1. The Back-story and the Building

For some time now there has been a great controversy in Philadelphia's art world over the Barnes Foundation Collection. Dr. Albert C. Barnes, 1872 - 1951, was a wealthy entrepreneur who parleyed his wealth into one the finest, deepest, secretly iconic art collections in the world.

A reflecting pool on the grounds with
the free library and city hall in the background.

In 1922, Barnes purchase a tract of land in Merion, Pennsylvania and commissioned architect, Paul Philippe Cret to design the original museum with galleries and administration space. Over the years, the administration of the collection and the space had fallen on hard times, and so in order to save the collection of obscurity and provide an enhanced venue the move of the collection to this new local was conceived and brought to fruition through an onslaught of public debate--passionate debate--and law suits.

I had the great privilege of seeing the collection in it's former digs which was wonderful, and a bit of an ordeal that made such a visit to such a treasured collection more of an ordeal than it ought to be. My vote in this controversy was to move it.

Today's visit confirmed the wisdom of that decision to me.

The new facility is a magnificent work of architecture. It recreates the original space with tremendous fidelity and an ungraded infrastructure that the original build could have never attained.

The location in the heart of the city is also much preferred to the Merion Campus. It's now an easy walk to the Rodin Sculpture Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

2. The Collection Conceptually

One of the keys to the collection is the way that's displayed in carefully contrived groupings. Assemblies that include paintings, metal craft items, and furniture among other items. Barnes was committed to stimulating understanding as well as fostering new ideas through connectivity. The collection is now rehung in the exact way that Dr. Barnes had it at the original sight in 1951 at the time of his death.

Barnes also love symmetry.

3. Specific Works

The museum is replete with Renoirs, Cezannes, Picassos in particular, so I have chosen 4 works that I enjoyed from none of these artists. Call me onery!