The Barnes Foundation: Pioneer Patron of Black Artists

Abstract

Few students or teachers of the fine arts today have not heard of Dr. Albert C. Barnes of Merion, Pennsylvania. Although Dr. Barnes's death in 1951 tempered the flow of press reportage about the legendary millionaire, art historians and painters still consult his definitive works Renoir, Matisse, and Cezanne-all researched and written in collaboration with Violette de Maziaand consider a visit to the Barnes Foundation galleries in Merion (a close suburb of Philadelphia) a necessary journey in the educational experience. The Barnes Foundation's vast assemblage of paintings, master drawings, African and Western sculpture, and antique furniture has also been a strong attraction for many journalists whose search for a rousing story was considerably aided by Dr. Barnes's zealous and outspoken campaign, during the 1930s and '40s, to revitalize and reform the conventional methods of art instruction entrenched in Philadelphia's schools and universities. Barnes's clashes with resistant school boards, university trustees, and museum directors made minor headlines in Philadelphia during his heyday of criticism. But his most progressive crusade was conducted entirely unnoticed by the city's pressand that was the special patronage and instructional support Barnes extended, through the resources of The Barnes Foundation, to Afro-American artists and teachers of art. Apparently, only a few writers Afro-American art have been aware of Barnes's choice to support Black painters. Alain Locke noted that Aaron Douglas, the well-known muralist and illustrator who taught at Fisk University for twenty-seven years, had benefitted in early days from a period of study in Paris on a Barnes Foundation fellowship.'