Barnes Museum wows visitors at new location

CENTER CITY - June 10, 2012 (WPVI) -- The Barnes Museum has wowed visitors with its new location on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

From 1912 to 1951, Dr. Albert Barnes bought thousands of paintings, sculptures, pottery and furniture&.assembling one of the finest collections in the world of impressionist, post-impressionist and early modern paintings. A special exhibit tells his classic up from the bootstraps story.

The exhibit is a walk through the life of Dr. Barnes. Raised in working-class Kensington and a graduate of Central High School, he got his degree in medicine but it was the study of chemistry that would make him a wealthy man.

Blake Bradford, Dir. Of Education, Barnes Foundation said, "He formed a partnership with a German chemist named Herman Hilla. They invented a substance called argoryl. It was an antiseptic compound that they used to put in baby's eyes to prevent infections and that was just wildly popular.

In 1912, Dr. Barnes sent American painter and fellow Central High grad William Glackens on a shopping trip to Paris.

"And Glackens came back with 33 works, many of which are still in the collection, and pretty soon after that Barnes himself went and really just began buying in earnest. He was an aggressive collector, said Bradford.

The special exhibit includes paintings that aren't in the collection, photos of Barnes with his beloved dogs and personal letters.

Bradford adds, "Barnes had correspondence with everybody from Leopold Stokowski who was the director and conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra to people like Albert Einstein so there are these great artifacts that give you a fuller sense of who this person was."

"The special exhibit includes paintings that aren't in the collection, photos of Barnes with his beloved dogs and personal letters."

"Barnes had correspondence with everybody from Leopold Stokowski who was the director and conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra to people like Albert Einstein so there are these great artifacts that give you a fuller sense of who this person was."

Bradford continued, "I think Barnes was really a larger than life personality. I think what he accomplished in his life is so amazing and I think it's a quintessentially Philadelphia story.

You can go to Barnes Foundation for tickets.

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center city, lifestyle, 6abc loves the arts, karen rogers

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