Great French Paintings from the Barnes Foundation: Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Early Modern

I recall reading a major art critic write that only in last few years did he visit the Barnes Foundation for the first time. Only if you've been to the Barnes and seen the overwhelmingly great collection amassed there can you understand what a strange admission this was for someone to make. But, not exactly surprising because there has long been a prejudice in the big time art world against "vanity museums". These words don't truly fit the Barnes, though there seems to have been considerable intellectual vanity in Dr. Barnes's make-up. But even allowing for that it seems a shame that Barnes' prickly personality kept his collection from the same central place of influence that, say, the Phillips Collection has occupied in art history. I think that it is really too bad that there is a judgment against private museums, especially given the strange fate that collections suffer in major museums. Let me avoid flippancy here, yet still I must wonder what in the world curators in major museums do with their time. They certainly don't spend it re-hanging things to accomadate the bountiful wonders they have in their storage, The National Gallery in DC has the same things in their basement year after year. And while I knew one collector who gave such important things that paintings have remained part of that eternal parade, no doubt others with beautiful but not so blue-chip offerings would do well not to give to such museums. Meanwhile, Barnett Newman's Stations of the Cross has been up so long that they literally have mold spots growing on them. So I ask you, why isn't a vanity museum a good idea? I think there should be many more of them. This wonderful catalogue which is actually one of the few art books I look at regularly amongst the many I have bought, commemorates the spectacular appearence at the National Gallery. Many Washingtonians loved it, and I hope the new building for it in Philadelphia will be a success. For coincidentally I believe it was the same art critc mentioned above who wrote on seeing the the Tate Modern for the first time wrote that what inspired it was "hatred of art". Whatever one thinks of Dr. Barnes and his Deweyan approach to aesthetics, one thing is clear: he loved art. Paintings may be crammed together in the old Barnes building but that muchness says nothing against his devotion. That it is poor arrangement, and that everything looked better hung normally at the National Gallery I have found few to dispute. But it speaks to why Art Criticism as a discipline seems to have died, that critics are indistinguishable from style-gurus whose main function is to teach people how to de-clutter. No doubt a maven from the Home Channel or regular papers like the Post, would make-over the Barnes as they propose to do for collectors whose dedication they scarcely understand. A collection is a logic of sorts, not a decoration scheme. That the Barnes has been treated so shabbily over the years, show that the critical tendencies which ha

We discovered the Barnes Foundation while on vacation in Philadelphia. Dr. Barnes amassed an amazing art collection, in both depth and breadth from the 1920s-1950s. Our main interest were the Impressionists, and with over 100, we were impressed. We were also impressed by the number of French citizens that were visiting the Foundation to view the artworks. This book does a very good job of conveying the art that he brought together. We would recommend this book to anyone that wants to have a complete knowledge of French Impressionists. It will merely whet your appetite to visit the Foundation and see it for yourselves.