Art, Education, and African-American Culture: Albert Barnes and the Science of Philanthropy

by Mary Ann Meyers

Overview

A physician who applied his knowledge of chemistry to the manufacture of a widely used antiseptic, Albert Barnes is best remembered as one of the great American art collectors

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412805636
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	01/03/2006
Pages:	482
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mary Ann Meyers is secretary and director of the American Academy of Political and Social Science and senior fellow at the John Templeton Foundation. Her books include Art, Education and African-American Culture: Albert Barnes and the Science of Philanthropy and A New World Jerusalem: The Swedenborgian Experience in Community Construction.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Paperback Edition
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The Early Years
2. Experiments in Education and Living
3. The Collector and His Tutors
4 Mr. Dewey
5. "The Temple" in Merion
6. The Art in Painting
7. The Art of Polemics
8. A New Valuation of Black Art
9. Muse, Models, Museum
10. The Dance
11. Varieties of Aesthetic Experience
12. Students and Teachers
13. Penn Again
14. The Last Alliance
15. Postmortem
16. Lincoln
17. Neighbors
18. Epilogue
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

"This illumination of the character of Barnes, whose collection of Impressionist paintings is currently the focus of a lengthy legal struggle, helps us understand the significance of that outcome for all concerned about art's history. Recommended." —Choice "Meyers's compelling and cogent analysis of the back story of the Barnes Foundation shines a bright light on the long-running debate over the proper place for one of the world's most distinguished art collections..Well written and provocative, [it] is a must read for anyone who would understand the present controversy—a work of importance." —Elijah Anderson, Charles and William L. Day Distinguished Professor of Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania "Meyers' biography [is] the most complete, measured and scholarly portrait of Barnes to date." —The Pennsylvania Gazette "Mary Ann Meyers uses a journalist's eye, and a novelist's timing in skillfully weaving the sociological, artistic, political, societal and philosophical ingredients that comprise the saga of the Barnes Foundation. Dr. Meyers is exemplary in her scholarship and even-handedness in telling a story that relentlessly offers the temptation to take sides." —Frederick S. Osborne, President, Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts "The author combines a researcher's patience, a journalist's eye, and a novelist's timing in skillfully weaving the sociological, artistic, political, societal, and philosophical ingredients that comprise the story of the Barnes Foundation." —SchoolArts

From the Publisher

As the international art community eagerly awaits a court decision determining whether the world-renowned Barnes Foundation's collection of masterpieces can legally be relocated, yet another book has been published about the foundation's founder and his educational experiment. Meyers (secretary and director, American Academy of Political and Social Science) concentrates her study on the irascible, brilliant, and innovative Barnes (1872-1951) and his spirit of emergent liberalism, which spurred him to give the African American Lincoln University the honor and responsibility of nominating four of the five Barnes Foundation trustees. Extensively researched, end-noted, and archive-based, this book links Barnes's passion for art to his early life experiences in a poor section of Philadelphia, his inspiration by African American religious culture, his educational background in medicine, and his invention and production of a widely used antiseptic. It traces Barnes's repeatedly failed attempts at securing mutually beneficial, autonomous, and lasting liaisons with educational and cultural institutions in the Philadelphia area and elsewhere. This often entertaining, sometimes shocking, yet quite scholarly analysis is highly recommended for most academic libraries and those large public library collections that emphasize art, education, and African American culture.-Cheryl Ann Lajos, Free Lib. of Philadelphia Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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