Ellen Harvey's Metal Painting Mural at Barnes Foundation
Ellen Harvey has created a site-specific mural installation titled "Metal Painting" at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, responding to founder Albert C. Barnes's idiosyncratic practice of displaying historic metalwork alongside paintings. The British-born, Brooklyn-based artist's work accompanies the exhibition "Strength and Splendor: Wrought Iron From The Musée Le Secq des Tournelles, Rouen," which features ornate French wrought iron pieces. Harvey's mural consists of painted silhouettes of each metal object in the Barnes collection, magnetized to a metal support with deliberate gaps. This flexible installation subtly critiques Barnes's legacy while honoring his taste. Both shows run through January 4, 2016.
Key facts
- Ellen Harvey created the site-specific mural 'Metal Painting' at the Barnes Foundation.
- The mural engages with Albert C. Barnes's placement of historic metalwork among paintings.
- Barnes once told Stuart Davis that anonymous metalwork makers were as authentic as Titian, Renoir, or Cézanne.
- The mural accompanies the exhibition 'Strength and Splendor: Wrought Iron From The Musée Le Secq des Tournelles, Rouen'.
- The French loans are more ornate than Barnes's typically humbler, modernist metalwork.
- Harvey painted silhouettes of each metal piece in the Barnes collection.
- The silhouettes are magnetized to a metal support with deliberate gaps.
- The installation is flexible, perhaps gently critiquing Barnes's legacy.
- Both exhibitions run through January 4, 2016.
Entities
Artists
- Ellen Harvey
- Albert C. Barnes
- Stuart Davis
- Titian
- Renoir
- Cézanne
Institutions
- Barnes Foundation
- Musée Le Secq des Tournelles
Locations
- Philadelphia
- Rouen
- France
- Brooklyn