In 2004, a judge ruled that the Barnes Foundation, founded by Albert C. Barnes, could relocate from its present home in Merion, to a new location on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, causing furor in the art world with some arguing that the site's unique environment for art-viewing could never be matched elsewhere. Barnes stipulated in the foundation's charter and bylaws that the works must always be displayed just as he arranged them, and could not be sold or moved to another location.
Immediately following the death of Dr. Barnes in 1951, Nelle E. Mullen, secretary and treasurer, according to Howard Greenfeld in his 1987 unauthorized biography of Dr. Barnes, announced that "nothing would change" that the collection would remain intact at its present location, and the educational program would be the same as in the past.
The Foundation, however, arguing that it was becoming financially difficult to maintain the collection in its present location, petitioned a Montgomery County, Pa., court in 2002 for permission to amend the bylaws so that the collection could be moved to a new home on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, with a new building, arguing that the collection would attract more visitors and financing. On October 5, 2009, the Philadelphia Art Commission revealed the architectural plans of Williams and Tsien.
Expressing opposition to the proposed move is , among others,
The Friends of the Barnes Foundation, who describe themselves as "A citizens’ group dedicated to educating the public about the unique legacy and mission of the Barnes Foundation, and to supporting efforts to maintain the permanent collection and the educational programs in their original home a group of individuals who have opposed any tinkering of the state with the Barnes"
The "Friends of the Barnes Foundation" have opposed any "tinkering of the state with the Barnes" going back to the 1960's, when they opposed a court's demand that the Barnes be open to the public to comply with the foundation's charter as a tax-exempt corporation. Following several skirmishes with the courts, the gallery of the Barnes Foundation was opened to the public on March 18, 1961.
Howard Greenfeld wrote that the Friends of the Barnes "handed out broadsides expressing their strong opposition to the opening of the gallery. "the statement was headed: NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC: DESTORYING OUR EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES IS NOT BUILDING OUR CULTURE." (capital letters as they appear in the book)
Adding to the outcry, a new documentary film about the relocation of the Barnes "The Art of the Steal," that chronicles the long and dramatic struggle for control of the Barnes Foundation, is being readied for national release.
The Barnes Foundation is once again in the middle of a controversy.
In a speech delivered on November 19, 2009 during the groundbreaking ceremonies of the new building in Philadelphia,
Dr. Bernard C. Watson Ph.D., Chairman of the Board of Trustees, of the Barnes Foundation, noted that "None of the people raising their voices now in anger reached into their pockets to support us in any meaningful way in Merion."
He goes on to say "I informally approached the Pew, Lenfest and Annenberg Foundations, all distinguished Philadelphia area institutions, regarding a possible plan to move the Collection to Philadelphia."
Dr. Watson then supports his decision by citing "a relevant part" of section 11 of the Barnes Foundation's Indenture:
“should the said collection ever ... become impossible to administer the trust hereby created concerning said collection of pictures, then the property and funds ... shall be applied to an object as nearly within the scope herein indicated ... such application to be in connection with an existing and organized institution then in being and functioning in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, or its suburbs.”
Howard Greenfeld wrote in the Afterword of his book, that nearly seven months after the death of Dr. Barnes, in February 1952, the Philadelphia Inquirer and its publisher, Walter Annenberg, filed a lawsuit in the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County in the name of an editorial writer for the Inquirer, seeking to require the Barnes Foundation to adopt "reasonable rules and regulations " for admitting public to the gallery. The court dismissed the suit, with Annenberg and others, unsuccessfully appealing the ruling in June of the same year.
Listed as one of the top donors and supporters of the project to move the Barnes Foundation to Philadelphia is The Annenberg Foundation, described in its charter as "a private foundation established in 1989.. the successor corporation to the Annenberg School at Radnor, Pennsylvania founded in 1958 by Walter H. Annenberg."
The Barnes Collection is exceptionally notable for its Cezannes, Renoirs, Rousseus. It is chiefly confined to the modern French School, but it is not fully represented, being weak in the works of Andre Derain. The Master pieces are "The Card Players" of Cezanne and several of his best sill lifes and landscapes--and contains a large and fine collection of Renoirs, several dozen at best. There are several Utrillos, and finest Van Goghs, and almost disregards the Impressionists.
There is a large collection of Picasso sketches, it contains almost no American painters except Glackens, no English painters, except a Constable. Other nationalities are almost non existent, except a few Flemish and German painters, a few scattered Italian old masters, Tintoretto, Titian and Giorgione. There is a good sized collection of African sculpture. There is a large collection of Henri Rousseau Coubert, Degas, and Tolouse Lautrec.
"Cezanne ranks with the greatest painters of all ages because, by the use of means purely plastic and by a new use of the most difficult of those means--color--he realized a form of the highest conviction and power. In his elimination of everything not entirely necessary to design, he followed in the footsteps of Michel Angelo, Tintoretto, and El Greco, whose distortions he applied to new purposes. From Velasquez, through the intermediation of Manet, he learned to simplify. But in him the whole tradition of simplification and distortion was merged with the impressionistic technique and became something radically new in the history of painting."
Excerpt form "The Art in Painting" by Albert C. Barnes 1925,
pp. 346-47
--Artzineonline
