Barnes Foundation.

No Photography

I was blown away walking in. I hadn't been there since 1972 when a bunch of us students having been up all night decided to drive down from NYC.

Big Cezannes, Seurats, Matisse, seeming masterpieces everywhere-- then I realized something strange well but not as good as that Cezanne at the Met or the Matisse seems a bit under par-- maybe the gallery was dark? a bit of wear? Frames dirty.



The Met's refined version?

Well I got a kick from my friend for complaining and so yes I shut up.

There are so many paintings hung every which way salon style I reflected upon the statement, that a painting "essentially a flat surface covered by colours in a certain order" wondering what made anything stand out?

There are a number of Van Gogh's one of a brothell I think Picasso copied and even seems the source of Picasso's strenght in the strong intense line.

Matisse stands out in this collection there are 20 little nudes from the south of France. Any one isolated on an elegant wall would be a priceless jewel. Here there is one after another.



The small size of alot of paintings-- either a collectors souvenir or a interesting oddity?

Well again alot looks like a job lot-- of Renoir, not the best. Although Renoir has many great poses probably Mattise drew from.

Matisse great Joy of Life painting hangs in a stairway-- like at the Modern?



I was not so impressed as we finished the downstars . We were already exhausted-- but took a lunch break and to come back and realize there was as much upstairs.

The sheer numbers make a certain impression. Two high quality Gaugins. Im not sure if any of the Cezannes were great. All the little Bathers my favorite.

So Cezanne, Matisse, Van Gogh, the post man is here, and Gauguin. Have trouble with the Renoir. The Mural is great but like his sketches for it better.

It's an amazing eccentric place.


It reminds me a bit of the L'Orangerie in Paris. I remember Manet's Olympia on a wood polished wall. I thought it would always be there. Then on one trip it appeared instead on the mall like walls of the Dorsey Museum, with removable peg holes--


The L'Orangerie now is newly done and the archtecture I guess one would say is modern--ley beautiful if not brutal in
presenting the Impressionist master works of Monet, Cezanne, similar work as the Barnes, but which one gets an entiriely different feel for there.