I just saw this tonight and am wondering if anyone else has seen it yet. It’s a look at the controversy over the Barnes Foundation.
Albert Barnes was a doctor living near Philadelphia who made a fortune by inventing a new type of antibiotic eye drop to treat babies born to women who might have VD. Then, in the 1920s, he spent much of it on impressionist and modern art, which he put in a building next to his home. Since American art critics in the 20s weren’t fans of impressionism and modernism, they panned him, and since Barnes was misanthropic and held a grudge, he decided “When I die, these bastards who call themselves ‘art critics’ aren’t going to get hold of my paintings”. So he set up a foundation to manage his collection after his death, with the conditions that the place be run as an art school, not open to the public except in restrictive circumstances, and that the paintings in the collection shouldn’t be sold, loaned out, or moved from their location.
The movie looks at the current controversy regarding the Barnes Foundation (which I won’t go into in this post, in case anyone wants to watch the film unspoiled by the ending). The film is clearly biased…it doesn’t even pretend to be objective, but it’s an extremely fun movie. When I went into it, I didn’t think I’d like it (we only saw it after the film we wanted to see was sold out), but in hindsight, I’m glad I saw it.
Haven’t seen it but want to particularly because I haven’t seen the Barnes collection but have wanted to for a long time and because Ebert gave it a great review.
IMHO, Barnes was pretty darn specific about what he wanted and it’s
We watched it On Demand last week and thought it was an interesting look at the world of the wealthy and greedy. The most disturbing aspect of the film for me was the fact that you don’t really own anything: if someone wants it badly enough and has the money or clout, your wishes really don’t matter at all.
I saw part of the Barnes collection at the Kimbell in Fort Worth when it went on tour several (15?) years ago. It was really great–probably my favorite special exhibit that I’ve seen there. I still have the promotional booklet somewhere in a keepsake box. I’ll have to check out the movie.
I saw the Barnes exhibit in Toronto in 1994. 83 out of 800 paintings. It was pretty interesting, but having grown up in Arlington VA. with acccess over the years to the National Gallery of Art, probably not as impressive as it could have been. I bought a hardbacked book of the exhibit. Now I’ll have to go dig it out.