There are usually a couple of good staples I like talking about at parties: politics, art, art history, and movies – with a sweet tooth for film noir types of movies dealing with great robberies and the like. Well, much to my delight, it looks like The Art of The Steal has them all wrapped up in one passionate film by director Don Argott.
The film deals with the highly controversial subject of the moving of the Barnes Foundation, a jewel-box of a place located in an area of Lower Merion in Pennsylvania, to a public museum in downtown Philadelphia. For those of you not familiar with the Barnes Foundation, it is, to put it in in simple terms, one of the largest single collections of post-impressionistic paintings – in the world! And, it’s not in a museum. Plus, it’s here – in the U.S. The Barnes (as it is called locally) houses 69 Cézannes, 181 Renoirs, 60 Matisses, 44 Picassos and seven Van Goghs (not to mention vast quantities of African and Native American art, plus boxes of Rembrandt etchings) just to name a few.
It is what the New Yorker magazine once called "the finest collection of modern paintings in the world." It was founded in 1922 by Albert C. Barnes, a physician who made his fortune in patent medicine. The Barnes also runs a school whose curriculum centers on art appreciation.
I first heard of the film when checking out some posters online (another fun topic I like talking about) when I stumbled upon the poster for The Art of the Steal. I was hooked. It was cool, retro, beautifully designed and intrigued me from minute one (isn’t that what good graphic design/art is supposed to do?). From there I went and checked out the film’s trailer. It looks brilliant!
I never heard of the Barnes Foundation or the controversy surrounding it until I went to art school and became friends with someone who grew up in the area. She told me that the Barnes is something to behold and said it was like going to Paris without leaving home. Hopefully one day I will be able to make it up to Lower Merion before 2012 (when the new foundation’s home is set to begin construction in "Museum Row" in downtown Philly) and see this amazing and impressive collection in its original setting. Until then, I think I will just have to settle for intrigue, suspense and The Art of the Steal.