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The Barnes Foundation, established by scientist, entrepreneur, and educator Dr. Albert C. Barnes in 1922, is home to a legendary art collection. Barnes assembled one of the world's largest and finest groups of post-impressionist and early modern paintings, with holdings by such luminaries as Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Rousseau, Modigliani, Soutine, Manet, Monet, Seurat, Degas, Van Gogh, and Gauguin.
The Foundation's collection also holds significant examples of American art, including works by Demuth, Glackens, and the Prendergasts; African sculpture; Native American ceramics, jewelry, and textiles; Asian paintings, prints, and sculptures; medieval manuscripts and sculptures; Old Master paintings by El Greco, Rubens, Titian, and others; ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art; and American and European decorative arts and metalwork.
The presentation of the collection reflects Barnes's educational and aesthetic approach: symmetrical "ensembles," or wall compositions, combine works of different periods, mediums, cultures, and styles for the purpose of comparison and study.
Texts by Judith F. Dolkart and Martha Lucy explore the Barnes Foundation's collection, educational mission, ensembles, and individual works. Large color plates, little-seen archival photographs, and numerous gatefolds illustrate 150 of the greatest hits of the collection and twenty gallery ensembles.
"The Barnes Foundation: Masterworks is the definitive guide to the Foundation, affordably priced to help make it accessible to the public. The cover pictures three objects—a Matisse painting, an African sculpture, and a key—suggesting the idiosyncratic nature of the collection, applied to a cloth cover that has the tactile quality of the galleries’ cloth-covered walls.” ~
Pentagram“If you can’t get to the Barnes Foundation in downtown Philadelphia to see all these wonderful works up close and personal, then the selected pieces profiled in
The Barnes Foundation: Masterworks will be more than adequate to whet your appetite and keep you sated until you can…” ~
Fashion Maniac
