Barnes Foundation — Attraction in Lower Merion Township

This was such a broad city day. First of all I offered Esther for the tickets to be on me. Student tickets are 5 bucks. I had four dollars on my card. Embarrassing. Then as we were walking to the entrance we noticed this pigeon just standing there. His eyes were foggy white. He was shaking. He looked tweaked out. Tranked out? We told staff there and they said Oh that guy? Yeah he’s been there all day. Then Esther scanned out tickets on a robot that moves. That threw me off right off the bat. Then I accidentally told the truth, I did have a water bottle in my bag. We were told to go downstairs and put it in a locker. I did and then I convinced Esther to also put her bag in. Then we were free. Upon entrance to the first gallery, the first thing I noticed was holy shit it’s cramped and holy shit where are the labels. Oh we have to scan each piece with our phones?? Hell nah. That really pissed me off. How am I supposed to learn if I scan and all I get is a title. Or a blurb I don’t like. But hey! I get it. It’s a replica of the Barnes home collection. Met up with Robin and his Dad. Fantastic energies. Funny guys. But what are the metal pieces everywhere? If we’re gonna do the whole scanning thing there must be info for each piece displayed, but that wasn’t the case. But the vibes were still good. I’m sorry I’m a snob. We ended up chatting up one of the gallery guards. Now I have his Letterboxd. By then the museum was closing. We went outside after getting our things. Esther and Robin skipped stones in the pond where you’re not supposed to touch anything. Sorry! All this...

I really wanted to like this museum. We were drawn to it for its reportedly interesting and eclectic collection. The collection was indeed wonderful, but I could not get my head around the museum’s choice of lighting its collection. The “yellow-tinged” lighting in the galleries obscured the color of the paintings and made the various artists’ choice of colors look vaguely similar. We were told by a museum employee that the lighting was done for preservation of the art, but I haven’t seen this at any other museum in the world and, as my reviews can attest, I have been to many. This museum choice was made even more clear when we saw copies of some of the paintings in the museum store. For example, the colors of “The Postman” by Vincent Van Gogh in the museum store was brilliant and lively vs. the same painting in the gallery that looked drab...

The Barnes is a must see for anyone who even just likes art. The collection of 19th and 20th century art has to be one of the greatest left intact after the collector has past. An it is just not paintings, his collection of metal works that adorn the walls is enhances the experience. Barnes had his very rigid ideas about art and the displaying of art. To read or hear (if you get an audio guide, get on a tour or just eavesdrop on one) about his ideas on this and art in general is very interesting and add to the experience. Tickets are usually available for weekdays for most times of the day on the day you plan to visit. For the weekend or holidays you might want to check a week ahead to be sure the time(s) you can do are available and purchase them on line. You might be able to...