Over Thanksgiving, we were in Philadelphia, which gave us an opportunity to visit the Barnes Collection in its new home in Philadelphia. This collection, established by the eccentric American art collector Albert Barnes, was for a long time in its specially built home in suburban Philadelphia, existing under the terms of Barnes's will, which specified that basically nothing could ever be changed, or lent, etc. After much legal wrangling, the collection was moved to a newly built museum, where the architects were charged with the task of recreating the original installation, a recipe for failure if there ever was one. Astonishingly, it is a great success; the highly eccentric arrangements of art and objects have been recreated in a beautifully lit reconstructions of the original rooms. The art includes about 70 Cezannes, a seemingly infinite number of Renoirs, and major works by Matisse, Seurat, and others.
What is still problematic is Barnes's penchant for symmetrical arrangements of paintings. While I like the juxtaposition of art from different periods, the idea of arranging paintings in symmetrical pairings seems to detract from the from the works themsleves and call attention to Barnes's ideas instead.
Some examples:
(Pictures not by me; forbidden)
Also note the various items of hardware interspersed between the paintings.
In some cases, like Seurat's "Models", the work is hung above another painting, so that is is barely visible. I don't think that because a person acquired great works of art in his lifetime he is able to dictate for posterity the way in which we are able to view them. Hopefully, at some point, the Barnes Collection will countenance a gradual rearrangement.
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