On Saturday night I saw
"The Art of the Steal."
Originally released in February 2010,
this film provides a fascinating albeit biased account of
Dr. Albert C. Barnes' private,
multi-billion dollar art collection
near Philadelphia.
It is slated to be moved
five miles down the road
to Philadelphia's city center by 2012.
Dr. Albert C. Barnes photographed inside his Foundation,
before Georges Seurat's Models and Paul Cézanne's Card Players.
"The documentary is a fascinating look into the world of art vs. the commodity of art.
It explores the cozy relationship of politicians and 'non-profit' billion-dollar
charitable foundations.
There are issues of race, money, power, law and politics all dancing on the grave
of Albert Barnes."
- Lucindaville Blog
The Barnes Foundation, exterior
In short, ALBERT BARNES (1872-1951) came from a low-income
Philadelphia, PA neighborhood. He became a multi-millionaire through his own pharmaceutical firm's inventions and sales.
Barnes' passion was collecting Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Early Modernist art;
his collection has been called
"the best in the world of its kind."
The Music Lesson, 1917 by Henri Matisse
In 1922, Albert Barnes created the Barnes Foundation where he presented his collection as an educational institution for the public. Barnes wrote several books about art appreciation; his own in particular. His own intricate system for displaying artwork for didactic purposes has been highly criticized as an eccentric and obsolete means of display.
Barnes developed specific systems for displaying his collection
of some 8,000 art works:
"Appreciation of works of art requires organized effort and systematic study. Art appreciation can no more be absorbed by aimless wandering in galleries than can surgery be learned by casual visits to a hospital." -Albert Barnes
The Barnes Foundation, interior
"Barnes had no qualms about mixing media and intermingling traditions - East and West, tribal grouping and haute epoque...His dynamic groupings of old and new masters, juxtapositions that challenge students to see connections and draw relationships among often seemingly disparate traditions."
- Great French Paintings from the Barnes Foundation, Knopf-Lincoln 1993.
M. Loulou, 1890 by Paul Gauguin
Barnes' paintings alone are
estimated at $25 billion
and include an astounding
181 works by Pierre-Auguste RENOIR,
69 by Paul CEZANNE,
59 by Henri MATISSE, and
46 by Pablo PICASSO.
Joseph Etienne Roulin, 1889 by Vincent Van Gogh
Barnes' will clearly stipulated
that his collection
"n e v e r b e s o l d,
l o a n e d, o r m o v e d."
The Barnes Foundation, exterior: African detail at Building Entrance.
"Barnes wasn't the first American to acquire African art,
he was the first to develop a comprehensive collection of it."
-Christa Clarke, curatorial consultant for the Barnes Foundation.
By the 1990's, The Barnes Foundation was running out of funds.
The Board of Trustees decided to go against Barnes' wishes - that the collection never be moved - in order to raise funds for its endowment. A collection of 72 pieces made an "around the world tour" which earned $10 million for the Barnes Foundation. In a few years' time, however, the endowment was almost depleted.
It would seem that
Albert Barnes' crucial mistake
was failing to establish
a Board of Trustees
FIT to carry out HIS wishes.
As the Foundation became vulnerable yet again,
"help" was offered.
THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS,
THE ANNENBERG FOUNDATION and PA GOVERNER EDWARD G. RENDELL
would raise $100 million to support
the Barnes Foundation...
ON ONE CONDITION:
The Barnes Foundation Collection
m u s t b e m o v e d -- permanently.
Its new location would be amongst Philadelphia's art museums,
five miles up the road.
Chrysanthymums, c. 1900 by Paul Cézanne
describes the move as a takeover:
'Foundations are nonprofit corporations.
We're used to hearing about corporate
takeovers with for-profit corporations.
But this was a nonprofit corporate takeover.' "
Woman Walking in an Exotic Forest, 1905 by Henri Rousseau
Why not sell of one or two paintings (literally) to raise the $100 million so the Foundation might remain in place as Dr. Barnes' will so clearly stipulates? If the Foundation's trust must be broken, this seems a preferable alternative to uprooting the entire installation.
Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne Seated in Profile, 1918
by Amedeo Modigliani
A short film about the Barnes Foundation
begins with these phrases:
"When we pass on, our efforts and contributions in this world will last forever. Or so we hope. This may not be the case for Dr. Albert Barnes and his Foundation."
watch the video
The Boat Studio, 1876 by Claude Monet
The film continues: "The Barnes Foundation's trustees...have significantly altered Dr. Barnes Indenture and Bylaws of his art education institution....in order to move the collection...to the Philadelphia Parkway [and is] anticipated to attract twice as many tourists and visitors and create much needed revenue for the Foundation's Endowment...but will contradict almost every objective that Dr. Barnes established for his foundation."
watch video part 2
Jeanne Durand-Ruel, 1876 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
The filmmaker suggests
the Barnes Foundation remain as is:
"The art collection
has an important relationship
to the original building and site."
"Barnes intentionally created
strict bylaws in order to
protect his collection
and secure its future."
"The Foundation is still
as Dr. Barnes envisioned it
and his presence
is felt in the galleries.
The facility allows for
a unique art experience that
visitors will not be able to replicate
in a new public museum on the Parkway."
The Joy of Life, 1905-1906 by Henri Matisse
Peter Schjeldahl, Head Art Critic
for The New Yorker, suggests that
"Altering so much as a molecule of one of the greatest art installations I have ever seen would be an aesthetic crime. It would also give hosts of my fellow art lovers access to treasures that they might otherwise never see. And it’s not as if aesthetic crimes don’t happen all the time. Life goes on. But something extraordinary would be lost in the event." (continued here)
The Arboretum, the Barnes Foundation grounds
"There’s just one small problem:
I don’t own the Barnes collection.
Neither do you.
Neither do the well-intentioned civic stalwarts who covet its paintings. All these works belong to a foundation that was specifically chartered as a school rather than a museum." (continued here)
from "The Devil and Albert Barnes" by Dan Rottenberg
inside the Barnes Foundation, art includes "The Dance" by Henri Matisse
Similar, privately-owned collections
have not only survived
but flourished as originally intended.
These include
the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston,
The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC,
and the Frick Collection in New York City.
Art historians, critics, architects and artists seem unanimously opposed to
the plans to move Barnes' collection.
I suppose Isabella Stewart Gardner was far-sighted in building her museum
across the street from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.
