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Exploring Philadelphia's Barnes Foundation  with Dr. Jennie Hirsh

Exploring Philadelphia's Barnes Foundation with Dr. Jennie Hirsh


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Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after the seminar.

Explore the world-famous Barnes Foundation, tracing the history of the collection from its inception in Merion, PA to its current home on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in downtown Philadelphia.
This seminar provides an introduction to this unique museum of art and artifacts known as the Barnes Foundation. In exploring different aspects of this collection’s history, we will discuss how Dr. Barnes acquired works as well as the trademark display practices associated with him. Through object-based case studies as well as key historical moments in the fate of the Barnes, we will examine how Barnes’ eclectic vision combined some of the best examples of the European avant-garde and modernist art with a wide range of artifacts from across the world. Our conversation will weigh how this enigmatic museum stages cross-cultural conversations and represents a global approach to art collecting at once reflective of primitivism and colonialism as well as their critique.
Led by an expert on modern and contemporary art, Jennie Hirsh, this interactive seminar will illustrate not only key works by artists such as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Amadeo Modigliani, and Giorgio de Chiricio but also the legacy of a highly specialized curatorial vision within the history of art and education.

This seminar has been designed to be enjoyed as a standalone experience or as part of Dr. Hirsh's extended series spotlighting world-class museum collections in turn. For more details, click here.

Jennie Hirsh (Ph.D., Bryn Mawr College) is a Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has held postdoctoral fellowships at Princeton and Columbia Universities, as well as pre-doctoral fellowships from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, the U.S. Fulbright Commission, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the Wolfsonian FIU. Hirsh has authored essays on artists including Giorgio de Chirico, Giorgio Morandi, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Yinka Shonibare, and Regina Silveira, and is co-editor, with Isabelle Wallace, of Contemporary Art and Classical Myth (Ashgate 2011).

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 25 reviews
96%
(24)
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4%
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Suzanne Hannay (Heath, US)
Now We HAVE to go to Philadelphia

Jennie Hirsh’s introduction to the Barnes Collection was excellent: both academically instructive and delightfully inviting. Her enthusiasm was obvious and potent enough to get us thinking seriously about a journey to Philadelphia.

S
Sheri Nagel (Pomona, US)
Barnes without the Moo

What a great talk about this exceptional museum! Dr. Hirsh is knowledgeable and enthusiastic about this topic!! So enjoyed revisiting this museum with Dr. Hirsh. Will definitely be looking for further museum visits with her!!

B
B.S. (New York, US)
Philadelphia Barnes Foundstion

Great lecture!! I visited the Barnes for the first time abt 5 yrs ago and loved it!! Very informative!!

B
Barbara Kyse (San Antonio, US)
very enlightening

In the past, I visited the original Barnes Museum, and always enjoy learning more about the collection and discovering the new museum.

J
J.R. (Bedford, US)

Guest did not leave comment

Customer Reviews

Based on 25 reviews
96%
(24)
0%
(0)
4%
(1)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
S
Suzanne Hannay (Heath, US)
Now We HAVE to go to Philadelphia

Jennie Hirsh’s introduction to the Barnes Collection was excellent: both academically instructive and delightfully inviting. Her enthusiasm was obvious and potent enough to get us thinking seriously about a journey to Philadelphia.

S
Sheri Nagel (Pomona, US)
Barnes without the Moo

What a great talk about this exceptional museum! Dr. Hirsh is knowledgeable and enthusiastic about this topic!! So enjoyed revisiting this museum with Dr. Hirsh. Will definitely be looking for further museum visits with her!!

B
B.S. (New York, US)
Philadelphia Barnes Foundstion

Great lecture!! I visited the Barnes for the first time abt 5 yrs ago and loved it!! Very informative!!

B
Barbara Kyse (San Antonio, US)
very enlightening

In the past, I visited the original Barnes Museum, and always enjoy learning more about the collection and discovering the new museum.

J
J.R. (Bedford, US)

Guest did not leave comment