American Folk Art Museum’s Last Day on W. 53rd: My Narrated Slideshow (plus the Barnes Foundation’s closure)

Linda Dunne

AFAM's future Lincoln Square plans include curator Stacy Hollander's fall show, "Life: Real and Imagined---A Decade of Collecting," which will include portraits by 19th-century artists Ammi Phillips, Jacob Maentel, and the husband-and-wife team of Dr. Samuel and Ruth Shute, as well as contemporary artists such as James Castle, Henry Darger and Martín Ramírez.

I felt morbidly impelled to visit the moribund AFAM-on-53rd late last Friday, the last day it was open to the public. As you'll hear me say in my narrated slideshow, below, this was probably the saddest time I've ever spent at a museum.

I was even more saddened, though, by the NY Times' valuable documentary record (with good, but not synchronized, narration by Randy Kennedy) taking us through some of the rooms in the late, lamented home of the Barnes Foundation in Merion, PA. (Make sure you use your mouse to navigate up, down and sideways in this virtual walkthrough, or you'll miss many masterpieces, including the famed Matisse "La Danse" mural, up high in the main room.)

The Merion Barnes closed its doors to the public on July 3, in preparation for the opening, scheduled for late next spring, of its new Philadelphia digs. In a turnabout-is-fair-play turn of events, the Philly facility that is supplanting the beloved Merion home of the Barnes was designed by the same architects---Williams and Tsien---who may possibly soon experience the nightmare of seeing their recent New York creation gutted or bulldozed. Is the irascible Dr. Albert Barnes rising retributively from his grave?

I told you I was feeling morbid. Here's my narrated slideshow of the 53rd Street folk art museum in its death throes: