J Prime

Review of Barnes Foundation

I hate to give them 5 stars because of how the mus...

I hate to give them 5 stars because of how the museum ended up in the city (watch, "The Art of the Steal" to see how they have gone against everything Albert Barnes ever wanted and specifically what he wrote in his will)...

BUT...

This is still the greatest collection of Modern Art on the planet!!! Largest collection of Renoir's in the world. More Matisse than you will see anywhere. Pound for pound more Picasso than Paris... in fact, between the Barnes and the Philadelphia Art Museum up the street, you can see more Cezanne's than you will find in all of France!! And if you are walking from one to the other, you might as well stop at the Rodin museum that is right inbetween them.

The one nice thing I will say about the art theives, is that, with one exception, they hung the paintings exactly as Barnes had them up. They recreated the rooms from the Merion house, albeit in a larger, less chaotic environment.
You will still get a headache the first time you go, it's too much to process in one visit. I grew up going to the real Barnes regularly with my dad on Sunday mornings when most people had never heard of The Barnes Foundation and knew nothing about the utterly amazing Art collection that the man put together.
Oh, and that one exception... Matisse's Joy of Life is no longer hanging in a stairwell! You can actually see this whole masterpiece at one time! (When you are walking up to it, imagine it being on the wall of the first landing in the stairwell. That's pretty much how it was hung in the old place!)

It will take you 3 hours to fly through the museum. Leave yourself more time if you're going to sit and really look at anything. Not to mention time for breaks. There are a lot of quiet contemplative areas in the new place, they're no arboretum but they do serve the same purpose. People don't usually get overwhelmed at art museums, it happens regularly at The Barnes. Once you go, you'll want to go back.