What’s On
This Week
The Barnes Collection
See art differently. Explore paintings by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, Van Gogh, and other artists beside African sculpture, metalwork, and decorative arts. Try our mobile guide!
Education & Empowerment: Scholarship Recipients at the Barnes Foundation, 1927–1949
Explore the experiences of four scholars whose research was supported by the Barnes Foundation—from art history to medicine.
Alexey Brodovitch: Astonish Me
Discover the influential figure who shaped the photography and graphic design of the 20th century.
Upcoming
Matisse & Renoir: New Encounters at the Barnes
Experience a fresh perspective on two important modern painters.
Mickalene Thomas:
All About Love
The first major international tour on Thomas’s pioneering work.
Past Exhibitions
Marie Laurencin: Sapphic Paris
Picturing a modern world of women among women.
Through My I: Art from SCI: Phoenix
Works created by artists at State Correctional Institute: Phoenix.
William Edmondson:
A Monumental Vision
Experience the enduring relevance of this self-taught American sculptor.
Sue Williamson & Lebohang Kganye: Tell Me What You Remember
A cross-generational dialogue featuring two of South Africa’s most acclaimed contemporary artists.
Modigliani Up Close
An in-depth exploration of how the iconic artist created his works over the course of his career.
Matisse, Dr. Barnes, and The Dance
Historic photographs and letters reveal the story behind the monumental mural.
Faces of Resilience
Works created by artists from Mural Arts’ Guild program and SCI: Phoenix.
Isaac Julien: Once Again . . . (Statues Never Die)
An immersive film installation exploring the relationship between Dr. Albert C. Barnes and famed philosopher and cultural critic Alain Locke.
Water, Wind, Breath: Southwest Native Art in Community
This major exhibition explores Pueblo and Navajo pottery, textiles, and jewelry as living traditions.
Suzanne Valadon: Model, Painter, Rebel
Groundbreaking paintings by the French artist.
Soutine / de Kooning
Conversations in Paint
A visual dialogue between the highly individual universes of two iconic artists.
The Art in Music
Archival materials reveal how African American spirituals and symphonic performances influenced Dr. Barnes's approach to education.
Elijah Pierce’s America
See life, faith, and politics through the eyes of a virtuoso woodcarver.
Marie Cuttoli:
The Modern Thread from Miró to Man Ray
How one visionary woman revived the art of tapestry weaving for the modern era.
30 Americans
Painting, sculpture, and photography by influential contemporary African American artists.
Breaking Barriers: Art as Social Justice
Works created by artists from Mural Arts’ Guild program and SCI: Phoenix.
Our Mission
Archival materials shed light on Dr. Barnes's arts-focused approach to education.
I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like: The Art of Bill Viola
A selection of genre-defying works by the renowned video artist.
From Today, Painting Is Dead: Early Photography in Britain and France
Featuring nearly 250 iconic pictures created between the 1840s and 1880s.
Pat Steir
Silent Secret Waterfalls:
The Barnes Series
An installation of 11 new paintings by the American artist.
Shadow on Her Sunshine: Albert Barnes and Georgia O’Keeffe
A look at the fascinating correspondence between Albert Barnes and Georgia O’Keeffe.
Berthe Morisot:
Woman Impressionist
The exceptional path of a woman who defied the social norms of her time to join the Parisian avant-garde.
Philadelphia Museum of Dance
A one-day exhibition of live dance at the Barnes Foundation
Let's Connect: Philly's Artists Take on the Barnes
More than 300 artists from Philadelphia submitted works inspired by pieces in the Barnes collection.
Renoir: Father and Son / Painting and Cinema
Exploring the works of acclaimed director Jean Renoir and the influence of his father, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, on his art and life.
Marks of Change
Kiefer Rodin
Works by renowned contemporary artist Anselm Kiefer, created in response to sculptures and drawings by Auguste Rodin.
Paul Cret and the Barnes Foundation
The original gallery building in Merion, PA, was designed by French architect Paul Philippe Cret—who also contributed to the plan for Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Mohamed Bourouissa: Urban Riders
Drawings, photos, costumes, sculptures, and more inspired by the artist’s collaboration with a community of North Philadelphia horsemen.
Mustard-Plaster and Flossie Lee: Dr. Barnes and His Hunters
Dr. and Mrs. Barnes enjoyed their newfound prosperity by building a country life, which included the purchase of thoroughbred hunting horses.
Person of the Crowd: The Contemporary Art of Flânerie
Artists take to the street to spy, scavenge, and make provocative spectacles of themselves to speak to issues as diverse as gender politics and homelessness.
Artist Project: Andrea Hornick: Unbounded Histories
Hornick’s sound intervention in the Collection Gallery comprises a string of poems responding to specific works at the Barnes.
Cher Matisse
Henri Matisse first visited the Barnes Foundation in the fall of 1930. Two months later, Dr. Barnes commissioned The Dance.
Live and Life Will Give You Pictures: Masterworks of French Photography, 1890–1950
In the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, photographers and painters traded aesthetic ideas.
Nari Ward: Sun Splashed
The Barnes Foundation presents Sun Splashed, a midcareer survey of the found-object assemblage art of Nari Ward.
Picasso: The Great War, Experimentation and Change
This exhibition looks at the dramatic fluctuations in Picasso’s style during the period surrounding the First World War, from 1912 to 1924.
In Search of Iron
Dr. Barnes traveled through Europe and North America to gather wrought iron for his collection.
Ellen Harvey: Metal Painting
A site-specific work engaging with the iconoclastic placement of the Foundation’s ironwork in the context of its holding of paintings.
Strength and Splendor: Wrought Iron from the Musée le Secq des Tournelles, Rouen
Exploring the fabrication, function, and intricate ornamentation of some 150 masterworks from the Musée Le Secq des Tournelles, Rouen.
Laura’s Library
A look at Laura Barnes’s books illuminates her horticultural interests and the relationships she cultivated with some of their authors.
Mark Dion, Judy Pfaff, Fred Wilson: The Order of Things
The Order of Things presented three large-scale installations by internationally renowned artists Mark Dion, Judy Pfaff, and Fred Wilson.
Cézanne Uncovered: Two Sketches Revealed Through Conservation
During a conservation treatment, the Barnes Foundation discovered two unfinished sketches—one graphite and one watercolor—on the reverse sides of two watercolors by Cézanne.
The Arboretum School of the Barnes Foundation
A detailed look at the history of the Barnes’s horticulture program.
Dr. Barnes and the Great War
During the years of the First World War, Dr. Barnes strengthened his relationship with philosopher John Dewey and collector and critic Leo Stein.
William J. Glackens: Artist and Friend
A look at the enduring friendship of Albert C. Barnes and William J. Glackens, who met in 1885 at Philadelphia’s Central High School.
William Glackens
The first comprehensive survey of William Glackens in nearly half a century, this exhibition included nearly 90 major paintings and works on paper.
The World Is an Apple: The Still Lifes of Paul Cézanne
A thematic and chronological exhibition of Cézanne’s still-life painting, showing how the “Master of Aix” recast the genre and set it on a new course.
Yinka Shonibare MBE: Magic Ladders
Ellsworth Kelly: Sculpture on the Wall
An exhibition demonstrating the artist’s interest in the intersection of art and architecture, color and form, figure and ground.
Ensemble: Albert C. Barnes and the Experiment in Education
Between 1912 and 1951, Dr. Albert C. Barnes assembled one of the world’s most important holdings of post-impressionist and early modernist art.
Great French Paintings from the Barnes Foundation: Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Early Modern
While the Merion galleries were under renovation in the 1990s, selected paintings from the Barnes collection went on an international tour.