Barnes Foundation: Farewell Merion Neighbor

Dr. AlfredBarnes' utopian vision of a contemplative and decidedly  non-commercial oasis for the study and  

The Barnes Experience in Merion.

appreciation of various aesthetics has been tumultuously evolving and devolving for decades. Is this  latest Chapter entitled  "Merion Exodus: Grand Opening May 19, 2012 on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway"  a good or bad development?



Lower Merion residents, as well as legal and academic scholars can and have put forth Persuasive arguments on both sides. A quick "barnes foundation" google search will turn up a fascinating batch of descriptions, account, opinions and arguments about Barnes, the man, the aesthete, the collection, and the legacy he established nearly a century ago in Merion.                                                 

 

Barnes Arboreteum: Integral Setting



Certainly, as so many 19066-area yard signs have decreed, The Barnes Belongs in Merion , but with art extensively expatriated from Europe and Africa, under the enduring posthumous decree of a collector and visionary dead for sixty years, on land once belonging to Lenni Lenape, the assertion that the Barnes belongs in Merion is both assailable and defensible. 

What is undeniable however, is extricating and exposing the paintings and sculptures in a startling new urban context, will completely transform the Barnes experience.





CC Barnes: Night Rendering

Yes, Dr. Barnes name will carry on at what will (at worst) be a delightfully modern destination on The Parkway, and  I look forward to visiting the new museum, grabbing some sandwiches at Whole Foods, and enjoying the grand boulevard view and promenade from William Penn's Pedestal to Rocky's steps... It will be different from the rainy Sunday morning in 1991 when we queued up on Latches Lane to gather a coveted weekend admission into Barnes' sanctum of art and arboretum.

Selective and contemplative viewing will bow to other virtues including convenience, accessibility and enhanced maintenance. The whole shift is fraught with an ambiguity that transcends yard-sign sentiment, gripping video polemics like Art of the Steal, and also the hegemony of  philanthropic, corporate and municipal entities who might likely benefit from the inevitable unraveling of Barnes' century-old, suburban fifedom.

This evolution/ devolution of the Barnes may be a good thing. It may be a bad thing. It may make a mockery of trusts, or it may be a practical and dynamic decision based on realities for which Barnes did not live to see and plan for. Barnes was a visionary, but did he see the internet coming and plan accordingly?

Like Van Gogh, Cezanne and the Lenni Lenape, Dr. Barnes is gone and its the living who do the beholding, and now it'll be done in an entirely different way.