The Barnes Foundation Essay

Media. The main means of mass communication regarded collectively. It comes in the form of t.v., radio, newspapers, magazines etc. The media has a way of portraying a story in a way that they want it to be seen by audiences. In other words, the media only tells us only what they want us to hear; which, may or may not be the truth or include the entire story. The media is always looking for the next best story and the competition to be the first one on the scene can be intense. A documentary by 9.14 Productions tells the story of a man and his art collection; The Barnes Foundation.

Albert Barnes was born to working class parents in Philadelphia. Barnes grew up working and boxing to pay his own way through Pennsylvania University. After getting

his degree he attended medical school where he took an interest in chemistry. Barnes developed a mild silver nitrate antiseptic solution that helped prevent gonorrheal blindness in infants. Barnes was a millionaire by the age of 35. Albert Barnes soon after delved into the world of art where he began his famous collection. Some of the artists he collected were Van Gogh, Matisse, Renoir, and many other now historic and famous post-impressionist painters. Barnes was extremely proud of his collection and decided to open it to the public. The response he got was devastating. The media reported that the painting were barbaric, and childish. After this response Barnes decided to close his works to the public and open a place for education. Henri Matisse himself even stated “One of the most striking things in America is the Barnes collection, which is exhibited in a spirit very beneficial for the formation of American artists. There the old master paintings are put beside the modern ones … and this bringing together helps students understand a lot of things that academics don’t teach”.

With his school operating and the public only allowed in certain times and days, the politicians of Philadelphia ached to gain control of his art collection.

Barnes held such a hatred for these politicians and socialites that he hired lawyers to make it extremely clear in his Will that no paintings would be loaned, sold or otherwise disposed of. He referred to the city of Philadelphia as a slum and never wanted any of his art work to contribute to its wealth. After a tragic car crash, Barnes’ worst fear started to come true; his precious collection began to be picked at and people with power attempted skirt around the law in order to gain this collection. The media at this time was reporting about the wealth the paintings could bring Philadelphia. They wanted the public to believe that the city needed to take the paintings from the original house and put them on display in a museum.

News articles began coming out reporting that the precious paintings were going to be ruined because the house was in disrepair with leaks and cracks in the foundation. Richard Glanton, who was caretaker of the collection for a short time took steps to go ahead and move the paintings and have the house repaired and made appropriate for the art collection to come back. Glanton took the art collection around the world to show and make money for the repairs of the Barnes Foundation building. After the repairs were made, the art collection came back home and it was never the

same.

After many meetings, debates, and lawsuits, Barnes’ personal art collection was laid in the hands of his worst enemy. The city of Philadelphia gained control of the collection. They began immediate plans to begin building a new museum to house the new collection. During this time, the media were printing stories that told of how the City was saving the paintings from a run-down decrepit house and moving them the city center in a brand new money making museum. The public was made to believe that the City was doing a good deed in moving the artwork, when in reality, the public had no idea that Albert Barnes did not wish for that to ever happen.

In the end, Philadelphia is now making millions on the art collection that was originally meant to be for learning. I feel that the main goal of the city was to await the death of Barnes in order to gain control and make money via his personal art collection. Only certain members of press were allowed to give reports on the building of a new museum, because those were the media stories that the politicians wanted to be printed. The effect of the media is that the public was lead to believe the city was doing the art collection a favor in moving it from the suburbs to the city. The objective reality is Albert Barnes had his own personal art collection that was sought after by greedy politicians. He only wanted his collection to be learned from and not made to make money.