ABSTRACT 
Title of d~rtation: DEFINING TASTE: ALBERT BARNES AND THE 
PROMOTION OF AFRICAN ART IN THE UNITED 
STATES DURING THE 1920s 
Christa J. Clarke, Doctor of Philosophy, 1998 
Dissertation directed by: Professor Ekpo Eyo 
Department of Art History and Archaeology 
Dr. Albert C. Barnes, though best known as a daring collector of modern art, 
was also an important and influential advocate of African art during the 1920s. In an 
era in which many Westerners perceived objects from sub-Saharan Africa as 
ethnographic curiosities or ritual artifacts, Barnes was one of the first American 
collectors to selectively acquire and actively promote a "comprehensive" collection of 
African sculpture. In 1922, Barnes began purchasing African art through Parisian 
dealer Paul Guillaume. The resulting collection of over 100 masks and figural 
sculptures was carefully arranged by Barnes in the galleries of the Barnes Foundation, 
his educational institution in Merion, Pennsylvania that opened in 1925. Barnes used 
the collection to advance his educational aesthetic philosophy and championed the 
merits of African art in gallery lectures, public addresses, and published writings. 
Through numerous contemporary publications and photographic reproductions, the 
Barnes Foundation collection of African sculpture gained international recognition, 
contributing to the establishment of a canon of African art that is, in many ways, still 
accepted today. 
My dissertation critically examines Barnes's collecting and promotion of 
African sculpture as a defining moment in the history of Western taste in non-Western 
art. My objective in this study is twofold. First, I evaluate the aesthetic positions 
endorsed by Barnes and the conceptual strategies he adopted in promoting an 
appreciation of African artistry within a Western aesthetic framework. Second, I 
consider the broader parameters ofBarnes's influence in defining "African art" and his 
role in fostering an interest in it, particularly among key figures of the ~arlem 
Renaissance, or "New Negro" movement. As a vital and specific case study, my 
analysis challenges, as it engages, discourse about modernist "primitivism" as it relates 
to Western perceptions and constructions of African art. 
DEFINING TASTE: ALBERT BARNES AND THE PROMOTION 
OF AFRICAN ART IN THE UNITED STATES DURING THE 1920s 
by 
Christa J. Clarke 
Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the 
University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment 
of the requirements for the degree of 
Doctor of Philosophy 
1998 
I 
f'I\ 
Iv{ l , , ~ 
A.i y-
Advisory Committee: 
M.tr.A1c~d 
Professor Ekpo Eyo, Chair/ Advisor 
Professor David Driskell L{) \\ 
Professor Carla Peterson 
Professor Josephine Withers 323/ 
Associate Professor Sally Promey .N\ 10J 
C\6llli J 
t.J, 
@Copyright by 
Christa J. Clarke 
1998 
DEDICATION 
To Brendan and Carson 
11 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
Professor Ekpo Eyo, my advisor and chair of my dissertation committee, 
inspired me years ago to specialize in African art history on a trip to southeastern 
Nigeria. My fieldwork there, supervised by Professor Eyo in 1990, was a highlight of 
my graduate education, and I have benefited enormously from his wisdom throughout 
the years. Other members of my committee have also provided support and g~dance 
during my doctoral work. Professor David Driskell, in particular, has been an 
important resource and invaluable advisor. For their critical insights and careful 
reading of this dissertation, I would aJso like to thank Professors Sally Promey, 
Josephine Withers and Carla Peterson. 
I owe the existence of this dissertation to Roy Sieber, Emeritus Professor of 
Art at Indiana University and former Associate Director of the National Museum of 
African Art in Washington, D.C. In 1993, I approached Professor Sieber about 
researching the subject of Western taste in African art, a long-standing interest of his. 
Professor Sieber not only enthusiastically supported my work on the topic, but also 
provided me with notes and material he accumulated over many years. Guided by 
Professor Sieber and the late Sylvia Williams, former Director of the National 
Museum of African Art, during a 1993-94 fellowship at the museum, I decided to 
examine the role of collectors/critics of African art in the United States during the 
1920's and 1930's, focusing on Albert Barnes, Alain Locke and John Graham. 
My research on collectors of African art initially led me in May 1994 to Paris, 
iii 
where many early American collections were fonned. A number of individuals 
facilitated my work while there. At the Musee de l'Homme, Fran9ine N'Diaye and 
Josette Rivallain provided access and accommodated my needs while researching the 
collection. Colette Giraudon, at the Musee de l'Orangerie, generously shared her 
research on Paul Guillaume and directed me to important sources. Raoul Lehuard 
provided helpful suggestions and insightful comments on my topic. Phyllis Magrab 
and Kimberly Jones made my stay in Paris particularly enjoyable and memorable. 
In the United States, other individuals and institutions have contributed to the 
development of this project. In addition to Roy Sieber and Sylvia Williams, a number 
of scholars at the National Museum of African Art supported my research throughout 
the years. Roslyn Walker has been a long-time advisor and friend. I benefited from 
challenging conversations with the late Philip Ravenhill and from Bryna Freyer's 
knowledge of collection history. Christraud Geary has also been an important 
mentor, supporter, and model of scholarship in the field. 
At the Archives of American Art, Liza Kirwin and Judy Throm directed me to 
relevant sources, while Richard J. Wattenmaker offered interesting insights about the 
Barnes Foundation. At the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New 
York, Diana Lachatanere, Curator of the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books 
Division, and Laurel Duplaissis, guided my research on Alain Locke. At the 
Brooklyn Museum, I am very grateful for the assistance of Bill Siegmann, Curator of 
African Art, Terri O'Hara, Associate Registrar, and Deborah Wythe, Archivist and 
iv 
Manager of Special Library Collections. James Ross generously provided access to 
his extraordinary collection. 
In the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Virginia-Lee Webb, Archivist for Photo Collection, 
was an invaluable resource. She not only provided me with photographic 
documentation crucial to my dissertation but offered many helpful suggestions during 
the course of my research. Barbara Mathe and Ross Day in Robert Go~dwater 
Library also assisted in my work. Kate Ezra, former Curator of African Art, has been 
an important mentor to me since 1991, when I had the good fortune to work for her 
on an exhibition of art from Benin, Nigeria. While her rigorous scholarship has set an 
example for me, her interest in and research on the formation of the Museum of 
Primitive Art have also been invaluable in my work. 
My initial research at the Barnes Foundation in March 1995 was a major 
turning point in my work and led to a shift in subject to focus exclusively on Barnes 
as a collector of African art. Anne d'Hamoncourt, Director of the Philadelphia 
Museum of Art, was instrumental in affording me access to the Barnes Foundation 
archives, and I am truly indebted to her for the direction that this project has taken; 
The Barnes Foundation granted me official permission to use their archival 
material for my dissertation in May 1995. I am enonnously grateful to Richard 
Glanton, then Director, and Nicolas King, Archivist at the Barnes Foundation, for 
supporting my research and affording me this unprecedented access. During my 
month-long residence at the Foundation in August 1995, I was assisted by a number 
V 
of individuals. I benefited from Nicolas King's extensive knowledge of the archival 
resources there and from his insightful observations based on many years at the 
Foundation. Ami Diallo and Laura Linton offered assistance in numerous ways and, 
along with Nicolas, made my stay enjoyable. 
I am indebted to Lloyd Morgan for affording me access to the privately held 
Morgan Foundation Archives in Dobbs Ferry, New York. He provided me with 
important information on the photography of his parents, Willard and Barbara 
Morgan, and insights into their work at the Barnes Foundation. 
Early on in my research, I also had the good fortune of meeting Megan 
Granda Bahr, doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, through our 
mutual interest in Barnes. While her work and ideas have been invaluable resources 
for me, equally important has been her friendship, one of the unexpected pleasurable 
bonuses of my embarking on this topic. 
This project was supported by the following fellowships and grants: 
Department of Art History and Archaeology Museum Fellowship, University of 
Maryland (1993-94 and 1995-96); Africa and Africa in the Americas Committee 
Travel Grant, University of Maryland (May 1994); and a Samuel H. Kress Foundation 
Dissertation Fellowship (1996-97). I am grate:fuJ to these institutions for their 
confidence in this research, as expressed by their generous support. 
Friends and family have given me the constant support and encouragement 
needed to see this project through completion. For their interest, patience and 
assistance, I happily extend my gratitude to Renee Ater, Miriam Gonz.a1es, Wendy 
vi 
Grossman, Courtney Jung, and Alisa LaGamma. I especially thank Jhona del Prado 
for her loving care of my son, which allowed me to return to writing. My parents, 
Jack and Dolores Clarke and Phyllis Magrab and Grant Peters, have helped in 
countless and varied ways throughout my graduate education, and I thank them for 
their love and understanding through this difficult process. I owe my deepest 
gratitude to Brendan Magrab, who never gave up on me and, more importantly, never 
let me give up. Without his love, encouragement and infinite patience, thi~ work 
would not be possible. 
vii 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
Dedication n 
Acknowledgments m 
Table of Contents vm 
List of Figures x 
Introduction: Defining Taste: Albert Barnes and the Promotion of 
African Art in the United States during the 1920s 1 
Contribution to Literature 3 
Order of Chapters l l 
Notes 15 
Chapter One: Paris and New York: Paul Guillaume and the Emergence 
of a Market for African Art 19 
The Origin of a Dealer 21 
Paris and New York: Seeking New Markets for African Art 27 
From Dealer to Promoter: A Voice for /'Art Negre 33 
Notes 41 
Chapter Two: Albert Barnes, Paul Guillaume and the Formation of a 
Collection 4 7 
The Evolution of a Collector 48 
The Development ofBarnes's Interest in African Art 52 
"The Best Private Collection of Negro Sculpture" 56 
The Barnes Aesthetic 60 
Promoting the Collection 69 
~~ ~ 
Chapter Three: Defining African Art 82 
The Origins of"Primitive Negro Sculpture" 83 
"Primitive Negro Sculpture" in Context 85 
Applying the Barnes Method of Objective Analysis to African Art 90 
Defining African Art 93 
Antiquity, Authenticity and "Pure" African Art 94 
The Aesthetics of African Sculpture 97 
Stylistic Characteristics of Regional Traditions l 02 
Notes 109 
viii 
Chapter Four: The Triumph of I 'Art Negre: African Art at the Barnes 
Foundation 118 
Art and Education: The Origins of the Barnes Foundation 120 
Building the Foundation: "The Triumph of l'Art Negre" 122 
Inside the Foundation: African Art and Bames's "Wall Ensembles" 127 
African Art and the Barnes Foundation's Educational Programs 132 
Re-presenting Form: Photographing the Collection 137 
Notes 144 
Chapter Five: Albert Barnes, African Art, and the "New Negro" 152 
Barnes and Locke: Conflicting Perspectives on African Art 153 
Barnes and Charles Johnson: Advancing the Cause 164 
The Barnes Foundation: A Visual Legacy? 171 
Notes 174 
Conclusion: The Legacy of a Collector 182 
Notes 190 
Illustrations 192 
Appendix: Inventory of Barnes Foundation Collection of African Art 291 
Bibliography 307 
ix 
LIST OF FIGURES 
Figure I : Paul Guillaume at age 20, 1911. 
(Giraudon, Paul Guillaume et les Peintres du XX:e Siecle, 1993) 192 
Figure 2: Guillaume Apollinaire at Paul Guillaume's, 16, avenue de Villiers, 
1916. (Giraudon, Paul Guillaume et les Peintres du XX:e Siecle, 1993) 193 
Figure 3: Max Weber, Congo Statuette, 1910. 194 
Figure 4: African objects from the collection of Patrick Henry Bruce. 
(Agee and Rose, Patrick Herny Bruce) 195 
Figure 5: Reliquary guardian figure, Gabon (Fang), formerly in collection of 
Frank Burty Haviland. Published in Carl Einstein, Negemlastik (1915). 196 
Figure 6: Paul Guillaume at his first gallery, 6, rue de Miromesnil, 1914. 
(Giraudon, Paul Guillaume et les Peintres du XX:e Siecle) 197 
Figure 7: Marius de Zayas, photographed by Alfred Stieglitz,1915. 
(National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) 198 
Figure 8: African Hall, American Museum of Natural History, New York, ca. 
1910. (Vogel, Art/Artifact) 199 
Figure 9: Installation view, "Statuary in Wood by African Savages," Little 
Galleries of the Photo-Secession, 291 Fifth Avenue, New York, 1914. 
(Vogel, Art/Artifact) 200 
Figure 10: Four-sided mask, Gabon (Fang), published in Apollinaire and 
Guillaume, Sculptures negres, 1917. 20 I 
Figure 11: Reliquary guardian figure, Gabon (Fang) with caption, "Art negre -
Divinite Dzembe. Collection Paul Guillaume." Published in Les Arts a Paris 
2 (July 15, 1918). 202 
Figure 12: Albert Barnes with his friend and advisor, the artist William Glackens, 
ca. 1920. (Wattenmaker et al., Great French Paintings) 203 
Figure 13: Male Figure, Cote d'Ivoire (Baule). Wood. The Barnes Foundation 
collection, inventory no. Al 91. (Philadelphia Museum of Art) 204 
X 
Figure 14: Mask, Cote d'Ivoire (Senufo or Kulango). Wood with pigment. 
The Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A156. 
(Opportunity, May 1924) 205 
Figure 15: Staff top with two figures, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Kongo). Wood. 
The Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. Al 79. Photograph by Charles 
Sheeler, 1918. (Sheeler and De Zayas, African Negro Sculpture) 206 
Figure 16: Reliquary guardian figure, Gabon (Fang). Wood. The Barnes 
Foundation collection, inventory no. Al 44. (Philadelphia Museum of Art) 207 
Figure 17: Mask, Cote d'Ivoire (Dan). Wood, raffia, beads and cowrie shells. 
The Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A271. 
(Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 208 
Figure 18: Figures, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Bembe). Wood. 1he Barnes 
Foundation collection. (Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 209 
Figure 19: Heddie pulley, Cote d'Ivoire (Guro). Wood. The Barnes 
Foundation collection, inventory no. A269. Photograph by Barbara and 
Willard Morgan, 1933. (Morgan Foundation Archives) 210 
Figure 20: Goldweights, Cote d'Ivoire (Lobi). Bronze. Fonner collection 
of Laura Barnes. Published in Les Arts a Paris 11 (October 1925) 211 
Figure 21: Figure, Republic Of Benin (Fon). Iron. The Barnes Foundation 
collection, inventory no. A148. (Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro 
Sculpture) 212 -
Figure 22: Carved relief door, Cote d'Ivoire (Baule). Wood, pigment. The 
Barnes Foundation collection. (Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro 
Sculpture) 213 
Figure 23: Mask, Cote d'Ivoire (Baule). Wood. The Barnes Foundation 
collection, inventory no. A192. (Philadelphia Museum of Art) 214 
Figure 24: Female figure with child, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Bembe). Wood. 
Collection ofVolkerkundemuseum der Universitat Zurich, inv. no. 10104. 
(Szalay, Afrikanische Kunst aus der Sammlung Han Coray 1916-1928) 215 
Figure 25: Janus-faced mask, Nigeria (Igbo) Wood, pigment. Collection of 
Volkerkundemuseum der Universitat ZOrich, inv. no: 10078. (Szalay, 
Afrikanische Kunst aus der Sammlung Han Coray 1916-1928) 216 
xi 
Figure 26: African collection, Buffalo Museum of Science, c. 1902. 
(Vo gel, Art/ Artifact) 21 7 
Figure 27: African collection, University Museum of the University of 
Pennsylvania, 1913. (Wardwell, African Sculpture from the University 
Museum) 218 
Figure 28: Reliquary guardian head, Gabon (Fang) Collection of University 
Museum, Pennsylvania. (University Museum Bulletin, March 1945) 219 
Figure 29: View of the "Primitive Negro Art," Brooklyn Institute Museum, 
1923. (BrooklynMuseumArchives) 220 
Figure 30: View of the "Primitive Negro Art," Brooklyn Institute Museum, 
1923. (Brooklyn Museum Archives) 221 
Figure 31: Mortuary post, Madagascar (Sak:alava), formerly in the collection of 
Jacob Epstein. Five views published in Carl Einstein, Negernlastik (1915). 222 
Figure 32: Left: Head of figure, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Teke); Right: Seated 
female figure, Ivory Coast (Senufo ). Published in Einstein, Negernlastik 
(1915) 223 
Figure 33: "The Country ofNegro Art." Published in Guillaume and Munro, 
Primitive Negro Sculpture. 224 
Figure 34: "Carved Utensils." Published in Guillaume and Munro, Primitive 
Negro Sculpture. 225 -
Figure 35: Seated female figure, Ivory Coast (Senufo). Barnes Foundation 
collection, inventory no. Al 96. (Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro 
Sculpture) 226 
Figure 36: Mask, Ivory Coast (Dan). Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. A128. (Survey Graphic, March 1925) 227 
Figure 37: Mask, Ivory Coast (Dan). Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. A277. (Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 228 
Figure 38: Mask, Ivory Coast (Senufo ). Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. A284. 229 
Figure 39: Mask, Ivory Coast (Dan). Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. A271. (Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 230 
xii 
Figure 40: Female figure, Ivory Coast (Artie). Barnes Foundation 
collection, inventory no. Al27. (Sheeler and de Zayas, African Negro 
Sculpture) 231 
Figure 41: Female figure, Ivory Coast (Lagoon area). Barnes Foundation 
collection, inventory no. Al 58. (Sheeler and de Zayas, African Negro 
Sculpture) 232 
Figure 42: Mask (n 'tomo), Mali (Bamana). Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. A260. (Sheeler and de Zayas, African Negro Sculpture) 233 
Figure 43: Seated male and female, Mali (Dogon). Barnes Foundation 
collection. (Guillawne and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 234 
Figure 44: Female figure, Ivory Coast (Baule). Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. Al 99. (Sheeler and de Zayas, African Negro Sculpture) 235 
Figure 45: Bust of female, Ivory Coast (Baule). Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. Al35. (Guillawne and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 236 
Figure 46: Reliquary guardian figure, Gabon (Fang). Barnes Foundation 
collection, inventory no. Al 39. (Guillawne and Munro, Primitive Negro 
Sculpture) 23 7 
Figure 47: Reliquary guardian figure, Gabon (Kota). Barnes Foundation 
collection, inventory no. A263. (Morgan Foundation Archives) 238 
Figure 48: Cup, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Kuba). Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. A253. (Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 239 
Figure 49: Figuret Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Lulua). Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. A220. (Guillawne and Munrot Primitive Negro Sculpture) 240 
Figure 50: Head, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Teke). Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. Al38. (Sheeler and De Zayas, African Negro Sculpture) 241 
Figure 51: Messenger figure, Nigeria (Benin). Barnes Foundation collection. 
(Philadelphia Musewn of Art) 242 
Figure 52: Pendant mask, Nigeria (Benin). Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. A213. (Gui])aume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 243 
xiii 
Figure 53: Exterior of the Barnes Foundation. (Giraudon, Paul Guillaume 
et les Peintres) 244 
Figure 54: Floor plan of the Barnes Foundation. Published in The Philadelphia 
Inquirer, March 17, 1961. 245 
Figure 55: Front elevation of Barnes Foundation, drawing by Paul Cret 
(The Arts January 1923) 246 
Figure 56: Entrance vestibule ofBarnes Foundation. (Author, 1995) 247 
Figure 57: Entryway flanked by replicas of Senufo seated female figure from 
Barnes Foundation collection. (Author, 1995) 248 
Figure 58. Low relief tiles featuring African masks and goldweights at entrance 
to The Barnes Foundation. (Author, 1995) 249 
Figure 59: Baule granary door replicated in tile at entrance to Barnes 
Foundation. (Author, 1995) 250 
Figure 60: Bamana figure representing "Soudan," far left side of entrance. 
(Author, 1995) 251 
Figure 61: Female figure, Mali (Bamana). The Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. A123. (Guillaume and Apollinaire, Sculptures negres) 252 
Figure 62: Fang reliquary guardian figure representing "Gabon," left of 
doorway. (Author, 1995) 253 -
Figure 63: Reliquary guardian figure, Gabon (Fang) formerly collection Paul 
Guillaume. (Guillaume and Apollinaire, Sculptures Negres) 254 
Figure 64: Baule male figure representing "Ivory Coast," right of doorway. 
(Author, 1995) 255 
Figure 65: Male figure, Ivory Coast (Baule). The Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. A221. (Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 256 
Figure 66: Bembe female figure representing "Sibit~" far right of doorway. 
(Author, 1995) 257 
Figure 67: Figure, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Bembe). Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. Al 72. (Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 258 
xiv 
Figure 68: Metalwork on exterior of Barnes Foundation featuring a Senufo 
mask. (Author, 1995) 259 
Figure 69: Interior molding in central gallery with Kuba and Bembe patterns. 
(Wattenmak.er, Great French Paintings) 260 
Figure 70: Figure, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Eastern Bembe). The Barnes 
Foundation collection. (Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 261 
Figure 71: Exterior of Barnes Foundation showing relief plaque by Jacques 
Lipchitz. (Giraudon, Paul Guillaume et les Peintres) 262 
Figure 72: View of south wall of room 22, the Barnes Foundation. 
(Wattenmaker et al., Great French Paintings) 263 
Figure 73: Interior view of the apartment of Walter and Louise Arensberg, New 
York, c. 1918. (Watson, Strange Bedfellows) 264 
Figure 74: Mask, Mali (Bamana). The Barnes Foundation collection. (Morgan 
Foundation Archives) 265 
Figure 75: Amadeo Modigliani, Woman in White, 1919. (Wattenmaker, Great 
French Paintings) 266 
Figure 76: Pablo Picasso, study of a head, 1907. (Wattenmaker, Great French 
Paintings) 267 
Figure 77: View of Luba caryatid stool in Barnes Foundation collection, 
Morgan photo number 1012. (Morgan Foundation Archives) 268 
Figure 78: Side view ofLuba caryatid stool, Morgan photo number 1018. 
(Morgan Foundation Archives) 269 
Figure 79: Close-up of head of Luba caryatid stool, Morgan photo number 
1014. (Morgan Foundation Archives) 270 
Figure 80: Three views of Dogon male and female figure from Barnes 
Foundation collection, photographs by Barbara and Willard Morgan. Published in 
John Dewey, Art as Experience, 1934. 271 
Figure 81: Alain Locke. (Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America) 272 
Figure 82: Mask, Mali (Bamana). Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. 
A220. Published as "Soudan-Niger - 10th Century," Opportunity, May 1924. 273 
xv 
Figure 83: Heddle pulley, Ivory Coast (Guro). Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. A258 Published as "Zouenouia - 13th Century," Opportunity, 
May 1924. 274 
Figure 84: Mask, Ivory Coast (Baule). Barnes Foundation collection, inventory 
no. Al60. Published in Survey Graphic, March 1925. 275 
Figure 85: Winhold Reiss, Portrait of Charles S. Johnson, 1925. (Watson, 
The Harlem Renaissance) 276 
Figure 86: Cover of May 1926 Opportunity featuring Baule granary door from 
the Barnes Foundation collection. 277 
Figure 87: Ivory horn, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (probably Kongo). Barnes 
Foundation collection, inventory no. Al30. Published as ''Mossendjo-Bandjabis -
Before 10th Century," Opportunity. May 1926. 278 
Figure 88: Male figure, Ivory Coast (Baule). Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. A267. Published as "Baoule - 14th Century," Opportunity 
May 1926. 279 
Figure 89: Female figure, Ivory Coast (Senufo). Barnes Foundation collection, 
inventory no. A228. Published as "Soudan-Niger - 19th Century," Opportunity 
May 1926. 280 
Figure 90: Aaron Douglas. (Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America) 281 
Figure 91: Detail of face from Aaron Douglas, Noah's Ark, 1927. (Harlem 
Renaissance: Art of Black America) 282 
Figure 92: Mask, Ivory Coast (Guro). Barnes Foundation collection, inventory 
no. Al06. Published as "Bushongo," Survey Graphic, March 1925. 283 
Figure 93: Aaron Douglas, The Crucifixion (1927), oil on board, 48 x 36" 
Collection of Mr. And Mrs. William H. Cosby. (Harlem Renaissance: Art of 
Black America) 284 
Figure 94: Mask, Mali (Bamana), formerly in the collection of Earl Horter. 
(Philadelphia Museum of Art) 285 
Figure 95: Installation view of"African Negro Art," held at the Museum of 
Modem Art in New York in 1935. ? 286 
xvi 
Figure 96: Installation view of"Africa: The Art of the Continent," at the 
Guggenheim Museum in New York, I 996. (Art Journru, Spring I 997) 287 
Figure 97: Drawing by Rene d'Hamoncourt of Dogon male and female figure 
from the Barnes Foundation collection. Catalog and Desiderata, Collection of 
African Negro Art, Metropolitan Museum ofA rt. 288 
Figure 98: Drawing by Rene d'Hamoncourt ofa Fon iron figure in Barnes 
Foundation collection. Catalog and Desiderata, Collection ofA frican Negro 
Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art. 289 
Figure 99: Seated male and female figure, Mali (Dogon). Collection of the 
Metropolitan Museum ofA rt, formerly in the Museum ofP rimitive Art. 290 
xvii 
Introduction: 
DEFINING TASTE: ALBERT BARNES AND THE PROMOTION 
OF AFRICAN ART IN THE UNITED STATES DURING THE 1920s 
He - for it is usually a he - comes across something unappreciated, neglected, 
forgotten. Too much to caJJ this a discovery; call it a recognition. (with the 
force, the glee of a discovery.) He starts to collect it, or to write about it, or 
both. Because of these proselytizing efforts, what no one paid attention to or 
liked many find interesting or admirable. 1 
-- Susan Sontag 
Although objects :from suf>.Saharan Africa entered American museum collections 
as early as 1810, 2 it was not until the first decades of the twentieth centwy that African 
artifacts came to be valued for their formal qualities as sculpture. Initially stimulated by 
the interest of European and American artists, the appreciation of African art extended to 
private collectors during the period between the world wars. In contrast to the wide range 
of African material culture displayed in ethnographic museums of the time, early collectors 
were primarily interested in masks and statuary in wood and metal - the object types most 
easily assimilated into the established categories of fine arts in the West. Collectors and 
dealers designated regional and ethnic classifications, sometimes inaccurately, and placed 
value on authenticity, rarity, and antiquity. Afiican arti:fucts also acquired a range of 
associative qualities through the writings of these collectors. ''Classic" African art was 
compared to the art of ancient Greece or medieval Europe, though the African artist was 
seen as "primitive" and intuitive" by nature. 
Because collectors, rather than scholars and museum specialists, were the driving 
force behind the growing admiration for African art in the United States, an examination 
of those collectors is of critical importance to our understanding of African art 
connoisseurship. Despite the existence of natural history museums, private collections of 
African art provided the basis for contemporary exhibitions and were featured in early 
publications. The objects that collectors sought and displayed during this period 
subsequently became validated as "African art," their formal qualities emphasized over 
their roles as cultural artifucts. Exhibitions of African sculpture introduced objects ftom 
these private collections to a wider public. At the same time, accompanying publications 
and lectures by collectors promoted the appreciation of African sculpture as an art fonn, 
shaping the legacy of aesthetic criteria that has been applied to African art. Although this 
canon and its attendant theories are in many ways still accepted today, no study has 
critically examined the role of collectors and the underlying values, motivations, and 
aesthetic biases that led to the selection of certain object types. 
Of those collectors whose combined role as theoreticians makes them 
critically relevant to an analysis of Western taste in non-Western objects, Albert 
Barnes emerges as an important promoter of African art through his Barnes 
Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania. Barnes was one of the first American collectors 
to selectively acquire an extensive collection of objects from Africa and to actively 
promote an artistic appreciation of African sculpture through his educational 
foundation. Enthusiasm for the celebrated modem European paintings in the 
Foundation's holdings, however, has historically obscured the significance ofBames's 
collecting and advocacy of African art. Barnes began purchasing African sculpture in 
1922 through Parisian dealer Paul Guillaume, who became foreign secretary of the 
2 
Barnes Foundation one year later. The resulting collection of over 100 masks and 
figural sculptures was carefully arranged by Barnes in the galleries of his Foundation 
to reflect bis aesthetic approach to African art. This educational philosophy of art 
appreciation and its relevance to African sculpture was further advanced by Barnes in 
gallery lectures, public addresses, and published writings. Through numerous 
contemporary publications and photographic reproductions, the Barnes Foundation 
collection of African sculpture gained international recognition, contributing to the 
establishment ofa canon that is, in many ways, still accepted today. 
This dissertation critically examines Bames's collecting and promotion of 
African sculpture as a defining moment in the history of Western taste in non-Western 
art. My objective in this study is twofold. Fll'S4 I evaluate the aesthetic positions 
endorsed by Barnes and the conceptual strategies he adopted in promoting an 
appreciation of African artistry within a We stem aesthetic framework. Second, I 
consider the broader parameters of Barnes's influence in defining "African art" and 
his role in fostering an interest in it, particularly among key figures of the Harlem 
Renaissance, or "New Negro" movement. As a vital and specific case study, my 
analysis challenges, as it engages, discourse about modernist ''primitivism" as it 
relates to Western perceptions and constructions of African art. 
Contribution to Literature 
As Kristof Pomian bas observed, ''Identifying the taste of collectors, which can 
be gauged from their choice of objects, represents a different, and perhaps more 
3 
important, aspect of the study of collections. It is betrayed not only by the collections 
themselves but also by artists' commissions, by fayades, interior decor, [and] architectural 
3 
details. Yet, as described by Pomian, such studies on art collecting and taste rarely, if 
ever, consider Western appreciation of African art, suggesting a fruitful arena for art 
historical analysis. Historically-oriented analyses of taste typically focus on European or 
American art, though their approache; to the subject may equally be applied to non-
4 
Western art. Of these works, Francis Haskell's considerations of the cultural forces 
contnbuting to reversals in artistic values, as in the roles played by dealers, collectors and 
scholars, have proved most useful to this study. 5 Other scholars have considered selective 
aspects of collecting and taste, such as the psychology of collectors6 or the economics of 
taste.7 
Few studies focus directly on the collecting of African art in the United States. 
Ezio Bassani and Malcolm McLeod trace the history of African material culture in 
European collections during the 16th and 17th centuries. 8 Jean-Louis Paudrat provides the 
9 
most comprehensive chronology of African art collecting in the West to date. Although 
the "discovery'' of the artistic qualities of African objects was a widespread European 
phenomenon, Paudrat argues that Paris "became the point of convergence for the 
propagation of ideas and activities that bestowed on African art an essential role in the 
formation of Western sensibility."10 Thus, his study mostly focuses on developments in 
France at the expense of a fuller consideration of the American history of African art 
collecting. An overview of American contributions is provided by Warren Robbins, 
4 
although he outlines collecting and exhibition activity in the United States without 
critically evaluating its development. 
Recently, the subject of collecting itself and its attendant philosophies of 
display have come under increasing critical scrutiny. In 1995, for example, Art 
Bulletin published a two-part volume examination of ''The Problematics of Collecting 
and Display. "11 Scholarship ofp articu1ar relevance to this study addresses the cultural 
assumptions informing the formation and exlnoition of institutional collections of non-
Western art. Among the more important works are those by James Clifford, George 
Stocking, and Ivan Karp and Steven Lavine. 12 The distinction between art and 
artifact in Western perception has been explored by curator Susan Vogel in a 1988 
exhibition at the Center for African Art in New York in which various strategies for 
displaying African art were recreated and analyzed. 13 These studies, however, while 
providing important methodological approaches and models, do not directly address 
the role of private collectors of African art in shaping public perception of and taste in 
African art. One important analysis that does relate to Western taste in African art is 
Christopher Steiner's study of contemporary commodification and the influence of 
Ivoirian dealers on the Western market. 14 
Regarding the particular historical situation that underlies the acquisition of 
African art, it has been noted that ~'no collecting has ever been carried out outside an 
unequal power relation."15 The collecting of African artifacts and its subsequent 
classification ofa s an art object is undeniably and inextricably tied to the history of the 
slave trade and colonialism in Africa. V. Y. Mudimbe, therefore, eloquently refers to 
5 
"the process which, during the slave trade period, classified African artifacts 
according to the grid of Western thought and imagination, in which alterity is a 
negative category of the Same."16 While the scope of this case study does not permit 
a comprehensive examination of the political and cultural dynamics of colonialism, the 
overarching perceptions of racial difference that inform Barnes's collecting of African 
art will be addressed. 
The complex relationship between African art am the West has been _fi:mmd 
primarily by discourse concerning "primitivism" in Western art. Since the publication of 
Robert Goldwater's groundbreaking Primitivism in Modern Art in 1938, the topic has 
generated nruch interest. In the 1970s, aspects of ''primitivism" in Western art were 
considered by Lucy Lippard, Judith Zilczer, Jean Laude, and J.B. Donne. 17 The highly 
controversial Museum of Modern Art exhibition in 1984 and its attendant catalogue 
"Primitivism" in 20th Centwy Art: Affinity of the Tribal mi Modem. edited by William 
Rubin, spawned a host of rejoirders to what many saw as a Eurocentric approach to the 
subject. Of these, the most trenchant criticisms of the exlubition's premise come from 
Thomas McEvilley and Jmres Clifford, the latter of whom suggested that the show 
presented Modernism as a search for "informing principles" that transcend culture, politics 
and history. 18 
Literature considering ''primitivism" as a cuhural construct is clearly gennane to 
this topic. Historically grounded examinations that are info~ by this perspective 
include those by Annie Coombes and Frances Connelly.19 Other studies take a broader 
view of the phenomenon of''primitivism," as in the work of Sally Price and Susan Hiller's 
6 
edited volwne.20 Marianna Torgovnick also explores the complex and varied conceptions 
of the primitive as a modem, and later postmodern, obsessio1121 In contrast to these 
works, Patricia Leighten takes the unusual step of arguing that Picasso employed 
'1>rimitivism" as a critique ofE uropean coloniz.atio11 22 
Drawing from the more theoretically oriented discourse on "primitivism" and 
collecting in extant scholarship, this dissertation offers a specific case study of the 
promotion of African art by Albert Barnes during the 1920s. Barnes's interest in African 
art is an important aspect of the collector that has been largely ignored to date. 'The 
primary studies on Albert Barnes have, instead, emphasized biographical infonnation and 
issues of self-presentatio11 Of these, the earliest by William Schack is an unauthorized 
biography from birth to death, the product of extensive research by the author, including 
many personal interviews with people acquainted with Barnes.23 Schack, while 
providing some positive observations, paints an overall portrait of an irascible eccentric. 
Schack's characterizations appear to have set the tone fur later, more sensationalized 
studies of Barnes, such as those by Howard Greenfeld and Alain Boub 2li 4l  .
More sympathetic descriptions of Barnes and his educational foundation are found 
in works by Abraham Chanin, Gilbert Cantor, and Henry Hart. 25 In particular, Abraham 
Chanin's "Parnassas in Merion, Pa." is an important source of infonnation on the 
Foundation's programs. As a former student at the Foundation, Chanin provides "a 
typical case history of how one entered the Foundation as a student" and a description 
of the program.26 Gilbert Cantor's The Barnes Foundation, Reality vs. Myth also 
offers a mostly laudatory description of the Foundation and its program based on the 
7 
reminiscences of Cantor's wife who was a student at the Foundation. Indeed, the 
whole second half of the book is devoted to "debunking myths" and may be 
considered a rebuttal to the claims of Schack's earlier publication. 
Larger studies of collectors also offer chapters on Barnes, although most focus on 
his patronage of modernist painting.27 More recently, a number of authors provide more 
analytical accounts of Barnes as a collector. In John Rewald's work on the American 
reception of paintings by Cezanne, for example, a chapter is devoted to B_arnes's 
collecting of such works through Durand-Ruel 28 While Rewald's account is rather 
vitriolic, his analysis of the gradual reception of Cezanne's art in America overall 
offers a useful methodological model for this study. Kristian Romare compares the 
collecting activities of Barnes and those of Sergei Schuchkin, situating both on the 
peripheries of the art world.29 None of these studies, however, have had the 
cooperation of the Barnes Foundation or access to the rich archival sources there. 
Limited access was given the contributors to the exlubition catalogue Great French 
Paintings from the Barnes Foundation30 Of these, Wattenmaker's essay, in particular, 
provides some trenchant observations concerning Barnes's educational philosophy and his 
''wall ensembles," that are informed by both Wattenmaker's own education at the Barnes 
Foundation and the new archival information31 
Most of the works above, however, contain only passmg references to 
Barnes's interest in and collecting of African sculpture, if at all. Perhaps the only 
contemporary study to discuss Barnes's African art .collection at any length is by J. 
Newton Hill.32 Hill, a former student at the Foundation and later President of Lincoln 
8 
University, provides an illuminating instance of the articulation of Foundation tenets 
applied to African sculpture. Hill argues that African sculpture must be evaluated 
through a qualitative, objective approach and cites specific attributes to seek in such 
appreciation. He concludes with a lengthy visual analysis of two Barnes Foundation 
objects, the well-known Dogon couple from Mali and a Luba/Hemba stool from the 
Democratic Republic of the Congo. 
Colette Giraudon's important studies of the dealer Paul Guillaume also 
consider Barnes's collecting of African art, though not at any length.33 Giraudon's 
thorough research makes ample use of previously unpublished letters, photographs 
and other archival documents, some of which are from the Barnes Foundation. Yet 
her discussion is limited due to the absence of Guillaume's collected papers. This 
noticeable lacuna in archival information on Guillaume has historically hindered work 
on this important dealer. In fact, Jean Bouret's 1970 study of the relationship 
between Guillaume and the poet Guillaume Apollinaire is one of the few to derive 
from actual correspondence between the two men. 34 Giraudon's work on Guillaume 
was further hindered by her minimal access to the Guillaume-Barnes correspondence 
in the Barnes Foundation Archives in preparation for her chapter on Barnes and 
Guillaume.35 
While Bames's interest in African Ameriam culture is mted by a number of these 
authors, scholars oft he Harlem Renaissance, on the other hand, tend to disregard Barnes's 
contnbutions to the movement and only rarely mention his involveimlt. Nathan 
Huggin's critical study of 1971, The Harlem Renaissance, challenges its authenticity 
9 
as a black cultural movement, arguing that white patronage set the standards of the 
movement.36 While Huggins cites Locke's importance in urging African-American artists 
to look to African visual traditions, he makes no rrention of Barnes Foundation collection 
as an exemplar for these artists. Similarly, David Levering Lewis, who counterposes 
Huggin's work and supports the concept of bJack agency in shaping the movement, 
also does not discuss Barnes's role.37 Bruce Kellner dismisses Bames's publications 
in ''New Negro" texts as merely a way the leaders of the movement could placate the 
eccentric, yet wealthy, collector.38 Jeffrey Stewart also addresses the complex 
relationships between African American artists and their pa 3t 9r  ons during the I 920s. He 
maintains that Barnes, like with other white patrons of the Harlem Renaissance such as 
Carl Van Ve chten and Charlotte Mason, was primarily motivated by an interest in the 
''pri?litive," which he defines as ''the African and African American who were uncorrupted 
by European or European Alrerican civilization.',4o 11m "bias for cultmal primitivism," he 
notes, impaired the artistic production of African Arrericans, who chafed under the 
demands of white patronage. 
The view that all references to African themes must be judged within the context 
of ''primitivism" has been contested by Kathy Ogren in her discusmon of "African" 
strategies employed in the Harlem ~.41 Similarly, George Hutchinson argues 
for a restoration of the interracial dimensions of the Harlem Renaissance.42 He is, in met, 
one of the few authors to consider Bames's influence on the Harlem Renaissance, though 
he suggests this was mostly through Bames's friendship with John Dewey. Hutchinson 
maintains that many of the leaders of the ''New Negro" movement, such as Locke and 
IO 
Johnson, were strongly influenced by pragmatist philosophy, specifically the writings of 
James and Dewey. Amy Kirschk.e's monograph on Aaron Douglas also provides a 
consideration of Barnes in her discussion of Douglas's 1928-29 fellowship at the 
Barnes Foundation.43 
This study of Barnes's promotion of African art has been fortunate to have 
benefited from generous access to the Barnes Foundation archives. Of particular 
relevance is Barnes's prolific, almost daily, correspondence with Guillaume between 
1922 and 1934. While of obvious importance to an analysis of Barnes as a collector, 
this material also provides the only comprehensive documentation of Guillaume's role 
as dealer and critic in the absence of his collected papers. I have also consulted the 
privately held Morgan Archives, which contain photographic and archival records 
concerning the Morgan lantern slides of the Barnes Foundation collection. Other 
archival material that I have examined is accessible at public institutions, including the 
Archives of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum, 
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Moorland-Spingarn 
Archives at Howard University. 
Order of Chapters 
Chapter One sets the stage for Barnes's collecting of African art by examining 
the developing market for African art, first in Paris and then in New York. The 
advent of European modernism encouraged an appreciation of African sculptural 
form, which was transmitted to the United States during World War I via the 
11 
American expatriate community and the influx of French dealers. I focus on the role 
of Parisian dealer Paul Guillawne, considering his evolution, in less than a decade, 
from young employee at an automobile shop to preeminent connoisseur of African art 
by 1920. Of particular relevance is Guillaume's expansion of the market to the 
United States through his loan of works to the historic 1914 exhibition of African 
sculptures at the New York gallery ''291," organiz.ed by Alfred Stieglitz and Marius 
de Zayas. 
In Chapter Two, I introduce Barnes and examine his development as a 
collector, focusing on the formation of Barnes's collection of African art. After a 
brief biographical background, I consider the formative experiences leading to his 
later appreciation of African art, in particular his interest in African-American culture 
and his maturing aesthetic outlook. I then address the collaboration between Barnes 
and Guillaume in forming a collection of African art, detailing his purchasing trips to 
Paris beginning in 1922, and his selective acquisition of African art from Guillaume's 
gallery. Barnes's goals for the development of the collection, his strategies for buying 
and creating a market for African art, and his competition with other collectors are 
also examined. 
Chapter Three considers Primitive Negro Sculpture, published in 1926 by The 
Barnes Foundation, as a codification of the aesthetic criteria that Barnes applied to 
African sculpture. Although authorship of this book is credited to Paul Guillaume 
and Foundation teacher Thomas Munro, I maintain that Barnes was intensely involved 
in its production, and that his influence is reflected in the stylistic analyses and critical 
12 
evaluations of the text. Primitiv,e Negro Sculpture, featuring illustrations of objects 
from the Barnes Foundation, delineates various African "style regions" according to 
shared formal characteristics and defines great sculptural design as the repetition of 
lines, planes and masses, punctuated by contrast and variation. That the text reflects 
Barnes's beliefs is demonstrated by comparing its aesthetic criteria and doctrine to the 
specific content of the Barnes Foundation collection of African art. 
The presentation of the collection visually is the subject of Chapter F o_ur. At 
the Barnes Foundation, Barnes applied his didactic aesthetic philosophy to the 
arrangement of the African art collection, defining African artifacts as "fine art" 
within a Western aesthetic framework. Through strategies of display, Barnes 
disassociated African objects from an ethnographic context and arranged the 
sculpture visually to emphasize specific formal elements he valued. At the same time, 
Barnes paired the sculpture with modem European paintings in ''wall ensembles," 
situating African art within a continuum of form as a catalyst for modernism. The 
importance of African art to the Foundation educational mission was further 
emphasized by the incorporation of African motifs from the collection, designed by 
Barnes himself: into elements of architectural design in the central gallery, interior and 
exterior ironwork, and at the Foundation entrance. The chapter concludes by 
exploring how photographs of the Barnes Foundation's African art collection, 
produced and sold by Willard and Barbara Morgan in the 1930s, employ conventions 
that visually parallel Barnes' s aesthetic standards, highlighting the rhythmic forms and 
contrasting lines of the sculptures. 
13 
Chapter Five reevaluates Bames's role in the ''New Negro" movement, arguing 
for the importance of Barnes and his collection of African art to the development of the 
movement. I maintain that Barnes played a significant role both in introducing Aftican art 
to the African-American community and in his evaluation of Africa's contnbutions to 
artistic expresfilOn Central to my examination ofBames's impact on the ''New Negro" 
movement is a discussion of his relationships with two of the movement's leaders, Alain 
Locke and Charles Johnson, in light of new archival evidence from the Barnes Fo~dation. 
My study of Barnes and his collecting and promotion of African art is one of 
the first to examine critically the underlying values, judgments and biases _that have 
shaped Western aesthetic criteria in relation to African art. It is sited at the 
convergence of modernist and Africanist art history, addressing important lacunae in 
both fields. Modernist scholars, for example, have typically focused on the influence 
of African art on Western artists, disregarding modernism's influence on the very 
perception of that art. Likewise, Africanist art historians have rarely questioned the 
foW1dations of African art connoisseurship and the forces that shaped its development 
in the West. Thus, my analysis of the influential collector and theoretician Albert 
Barnes will engage and remedy several significant omissions in Twentieth Century 
Western and Africanist art history, providing critical insight into perceptions of 
African art in the United States during the 1920s. 
14 
NOTES FOR INTRODUCTION: 
1 Susan Sontag, The Volcano Lover (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 71. 
2 Warren Robbins notes, ''The first objects of African art in an American public 
collection were recorded, circa 1810 to 1814, by the East India Marine Society in 
Salem, Massachusetts, now the Peabody Museum." Robbins, "Collecting and 
Exhibiting in America: A Brief Sketch," in African Art in American Collections, eds. 
Warren M. Robbins and Nancy Ingram Nooter (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian 
Institution Press, 1989), 29. 
3 Kristof Pomian, Collectors and Curiosities: Paris and Venice. 1500-1800, trans. 
Elizabeth Wiles-Portier (Cambridge: Polity Press. 1990). 4. 
4 For instance, neither William Pierce Randei The Evolution of American Taste (New 
York: Crown, 1978) nor Russell Lynes, The Tasternakers; The Shaping of American 
Popular Taste (New York: Dover, 1980) includes African art. Rene Brimo, in his 
L' Evolution du Gout aux Etats-Unis d'apres I'Histoire des Collections (Paris, 1938), briefly 
considers the "primitive" arts in general, as does Niels von Holst in his survey, Creators, 
Collectors and Connoisseurs: The Anatomy of Artistic Taste from Antiquity to the Present 
Day (London: Thames and Hudson, 1967). 
5 Francis Haskell has considered collecting and changes in taste in historical terms in 
Rediscoveries in Art: Some As,pects of Taste. Fashion and Collecting in England and 
France (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980) and in Past and Present in Art and Taste 
(New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987). 
6 One such study, written in a popular vein, is Werner Muensterberger, Collecting: An -
Unruly Passion (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994). Susan Stewart draws upon 
a variety of post-modern approaches, including feminism and Marxism, in her 
psychological study, On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature. the Gigantic, the Souvenir, 
the Collection (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1993). 
7 Economic aspects are considered by Gerard Reidinger, The Economics of Taste 
(London: Barrie and Rockcliff: 1961 ), while a Marxist approach is taken by Pierre 
Bourdieu in Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, trans. Richard Nice 
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984). 
8 Ezio Bassani and Malcolm McLeod," African Material in Early Collections," in The 
Origin of Museums: The Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenth- and Seventeeth-Century 
Europe, eds. Oliver Impey and Arthur MacGregor (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), 
245-250. . 
15 
9 
. Je~-Louis Paudrat, "[The Arrival of Tribal Object] From Africa," in ''Primitivism" 
Ill 20 Century Art, vol. 1, ed. William Rubin (New York: The Museum of Modern 
Art, 1984). 
10 
Paudrat, "From Africa," 125. 
II "Th~  Problematics of Collecting and Display, Part I," Art Bulletin 77, no. 1 (March 
l 995) Included essays by Janet Catherine Berlo and Ruth B. Phillips, Carol Duncan, 
Donal~ Preziosi, Danielle Rice, and Anne Rorimer. "The Problematics of Collecting 
and Display, Part 2" Art Bulletin 77, vol. 2 (June 1995) included essays by Richard R. 
Brettell, Vishakha N. Desa~ Franyoise Forster-Hahn, and Rosamond W. Purcell. 
12 
James Clifford, "Histories of the Tribal and Modern," Art in America 73 (April 
1985): 164-77, 215, and The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century 
Ethnography. Literature, and Art (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988); 
George Stocking, ed., Objects and Others: Essays on Museums and Material Culture 
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985); Ivan Karp and Steven Lavine, eds., 
Exhibiting Cultures (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991). 
13 
Susan Vogel, Art/Artifact (New York: Center for African Art, 1988). 
14 Christopher B. Steiner, African Art in Transit (Cambridge: Harvard University 
Press, 1994). 
15 
Louis Perrois, "Through the Eyes of the White Man: From 'Negro Art' to African 
Arts, Classifications and Methods," Third Text 6 (Spring 1989): 54. 
16V. Y. Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, -
1988), 12. 
17 Lucy Lippard, "Heroic Years from Humble Treasures: Notes on African and Modem 
Art," in Changing: Essays in Art Criticism (New York: E.F. Dutton, 1971); Judith 
Zilcur, "Primitivism and New York Dada," Arts Magazine (1977): 140-142; Jean 
Laude, La Peinttrre Francaise (1905-1914) et "L'Art Neg~t' (P~: Klin7ksieck, 1?78!; 
and J. Donne, "African Art and Paris Studios, 1905-1920, m Art m Society: Studies m 
filyle, Culture and Aesthetics (London, 1978). 
18 Thomas McEvilley, "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chie~" ~fo~ (Nov. !984): 5~-60 and 
James Clifford, "Histories of the Tnbal and the Modem,' Art m A.menca (April 1985): 
164-77, 215. 
19 Annie Coombes, Reinventing Africa (New Have~: Y;8'1e University Press, 1994) 
analyzes the representation of "Africa" in British scientific an~ popul~ kno~led~e 
from 1890 to 1918. Francis Connelly, The Sleep of Reason (Philadelphia: Uruversity 
16 
of Pennsylvania Press, 1995) examines the origins and development of "primitivism" 
in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European art and aesthetics. 
20 Sally Price, Primitive Art in Civilized Places (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 
1989) and Susan Hiller, ed., The Myth of Primitivism (London: Routledge, 1991 ). ' 
21 Marianna Torgovnick, Gone Primitive (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 
1990). 
22Patricia Leighten , "The White Peril and L'Art Negre: Picasso, Primitivism and 
Anticolonialism," Art Bulletin 72, no. 4 (December 1990): 609-30. 
23 William Schack, Art and Argyrol: The Life and Career of Dr. Albert C. Barnes 
(New York and London: Thomas Yoseloffi'Sagamore Press, 1960). 
24 Howard Greenfeld, The Devil and Dr. Barnes: Portrait of an American Art 
Collector (New York: Penguin Book, 1989) and Alain Boublil, L'Etrange Docteur 
Barnes (Paris: Editions Albin Michel, 1993). 
2$ Abraham Chanin, ''Parnassus in Merion, Pa," Art News 59, no. 10 (February 
1961): 44-46, 64-66; Gilbert Cantor, The Barnes Foundation, Reality vs. Myth 
(Philadelphia: Chilton Company and Toronto: Ambassador Books, 1963); and Henry 
Hart, Doctor Barnes of Merion, an Al;2preciation (New York: Farrar-Staus, 1963). 
26 Chanin, "Parnassus in Merion," 44. 
27 Pierre Cabanne focuses primarily on Barnes's collectiong of modem French art, 
though he does mention that Barnes bought a number of African scu]ptures from Paul -
Guillaume. See Cabanne, The Great Collectors (New York: Farrar, Straus, 1963). 
William George Constable's Art Collecting in the United States of America; An 
Outline of a History (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1964) also includes a 
short section devoted to discussion of Barnes. Georges Bernier considers Barnes and 
other American patrons in "L'A rt Vivant" in his L' Art et P Argent: Le Marche de 
l' Art au X:Xe Siecle (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1977), 101-144. 
28 John Rewald, Cezanne and America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989). 
29 Kristian Roma.re, "Collector Agents from the Peripheries," Third Text 35 (Summer 
1996): 79-87. 
30 Richard J. Wattenmaker, et al., Great French Paintings from the Barnes Foundation 
(New York: Alfred A Knopt 1993 ). ' ? 
31 Richard J. Wattenmak.er, ''Dr. Albert C. Barnes and The Barnes Foundation," in 
Wattenmak.er et al, Great French Paintings, 3-27. Wattenmaker, now Director of the 
17 
Archives of American Art, is a graduate of the Barnes Foundation's program in arts 
education. Unfortunately, in his essay Wattenmaker does not provide documentation 
for his quotations, including those from the Barnes Foundation Archives. 
32 J. Newton Hill, "A Look at African Sculpture," Journal of the Art Department of 
the Barnes Foundation 5, vol. 1 (Spring 1974): 43-52. 
33 Colette Giraudon, Paul Guillaume et les Peintres du XX:e Siecle (Paris: La 
Bibliotheque des Arts, 1993) and Les Arts a Paris chez Paul Guillaume, 1918-1935 
(Paris: Editions de la Reunion des Musees Nationaux, 1993). 
34 Jean Bouret was provided with about twenty letters between Guillaume and 
Apollinaire from Guillaume's widow for his analysis of their correspondence, "Une 
Amitie Esthetique au Debut du Siecle: Apollinaire et Paul Guillaume (1911-1918) 
d'apres une correspondance inedite," Gazette des Beaux-Arts (December 1970): 373-
399. 
35 Giraudon was allowed to view only a few letters, selected by Archivist Nicolas 
King, from the voluminous correspondence between Barnes and his dealer. 
36 Nathan Huggins, The Harlem Renaissance (New York: Oxford University Press, 
1971). 
37 David Levering Lewis, When Harlem was in Vogue (New York: Oxford University 
Press, 1979). 
38 Bruce Kellner, ed. The Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Dictionary for the Era 
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984). 
39 Jeffrey C. Stewart, "Black Modernism and White Patronage," International Review 
of African American Art 11, no. 3 (1993): 43-46. 
40 Stewart, "Black Modernism and White Patronage," 44. 
41 Kathy Ogren, "'What is Africa to Me?:' African Strategies m the Harlem 
Renaissance," Imagining Home: Class, Culture and Nationalism m the African 
Diaspora (London and New York: Verso, 1994). 
42 George Hutchinson, The Harlem Renaissance in Black and White (Cambridge: The 
Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1995). 
43 Amy Helene Kirschke, Aaron Douglas: Art, Race and the Harlem Renaissance 
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1995). 
18 
Chapter One: 
PARIS AND NEW YORK: PAUL GUILLAUME 
AND THE EMERGENCE OF A MARKET FOR AFRICAN ART 
It was my good fortune to be young enough, and venturesome enough, when the 
world of art first became conscious of these monuments of negro civilization, to 
tie my fate to that of the new movement. 1 
-- Paul Guillaume 
In his 1920 essay "Negro Sculpture," the critic Clive Bell recounts the beginnings 
of interest in African art among the European vanguard. Situating the decisive encounter 
between contemporary Western artists and objects from sub-Saharan Africa in Paris 
around 1905, he credits a number of painters, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, 
Andre Derain and Maurice de VJaminck, as being among the first to recognize the ''real 
merit" of African sculpture. Turning then to the market that subsequently developed for 
/ 'art negre, Bell emphasizes the role of only one person, the dealer Paul Guillaume: 
Thus a demand was created which M Paul Guillaume was there to meet and? 
stimulate. But, indeed, the part played by that enterprising dealer is highly 
commendable; for the Trocadero collections being, unlike the British, mediocre 
both in quantity and quality, it was he who put the most sensitive public in Europe 
- a little cosmopolitan group of artists, critics, and amateurs - in the way of seeing 
a number of first-rate things.2 
Written just one year before the Parisian dealer met the Philadelphia collector Albert C. 
Barnes, Bell's essay indicates that Paul Guillaume was already a well-established dealer of 
African art whose importance was widely recognized by his contemporaries. 
This chapter traces the evolution of Paul Guillaume's early career as an influential 
dealer and promoter of African art during the 191 Os and assesses his role in the emergence 
19 
of a market for African art between the wars. I have divided these formative years of 
Guillaume's career into three periods. The first, from around 1911 until the outbreak of 
World War I, marks the beginning of Guillaume's interest in African art, his early dealing 
in such objects, and his initiation into the Parisian avant-garde, aided by his friend, the poet 
Guillawne Apollinaire. During the war years, or second period, Guillaume expands his 
market to the United States while continuing to deal A:fric.an art in Paris, thus emerging, by 
1918, with a solid reputation on both sides of the A. tlantic as a purveyor of /'art.  negre. 
The third period begins in 1918 with two significant events that contnbuted to 
Guillaume's emerging from under the shadow of his mentor: the introduction of 
Guillaume's periodical, Les Arts a Paris, in May 1918 and the death of Apollinaire that 
November. 
My analysis of these critical years situates Guillaume's activities within the context 
of the rise in Western interest in African art and traces the aesthetic evolution that 
preceded Guillaume's relationship with Albert Barnes. Although the first decades of the 
twentieth century witnessed the gradual appreciation of the artistic properties of oijects 
from Africa, "African art" was characteriz.ed in a number of different, and often 
contradictory, ways through exhibitions and publications. The category of I 'art negre 
encompassed works from both Africa and Oceania and included figural statuary and 
masks, as well as textiles and other objects of a primarily utilitarian nature. Associative 
qualities acquired by African artimcts ranged from the "classic," an art comparable to that 
of ancient Greece, to the "savage," a product of fear and superstition. Despite Paul 
Guillaume's influential role in drawing Western attention to African objects during his 
20 
early years as a dealer, he did not, as will be demonstrated, adopt an authoritative voice in 
this debate over the artistic merits of African sculpture. I contend instead that Guillaume 
was primarily motivated by the market potential of African art. Only after his association 
with Albert Barnes, beginning around 1922, does Guillaume demonstrate a desire to 
establish a definitive canon of" classic" African art based on specific aesthetic criteria. 
The Origin of a Dealer 
Paul Guillaume (fig. 1) was a man whose rather modest beginnings hardly 
th 
foreshadow his future importance as one of the most influential art dealers of the 20
Century.3 Born in Paris in 1891, Guillaume early on sought to rise above his hwnble 
parentage as the son of a clerk and a homemak:er.4 He spent his youth on the peripheries 
of communities to which he was drawn, that of the avant-garde and the wealthy classes. 
In his early teens, he became intrigued by the artists of Montmartre and familiarized 
himself with their world by :frequenting the same cafes.5 Guillaume was also introduced, 
again indirectly, to the world of the French upper class as a young employee of an 
automobile supply shop in Paris that catered to wealthy clients. 
Although Guillaume was only employed as a clerk, it was at the automobile shop 
that he made his first sale of African sculpture. Intrigued by an object from Central Africa, 
Guillaume placed the work in a vitrine in the shop's window, where it attracted the 
attention of Joseph Brwnmer, a Hungarian sculptor and dealer of art, who purchased the 
work for a mere 10 :francs.6 While the date of this fateful event is not securely established, 
it likely occurred around 1911.7 Guillaume's initial acquisition this work also remains 
21 
unclear. By his own account, Guillaume purchased his first African sculpture from his 
laundress, whose son had brought the object home from a military expedition in Africa.8 
The work sold to Brummer at the supply shop, however, was more likely obtained by 
Guillaume as part of a shipment of raw rubber, used for automobile tires, sent to the 
automobile company from Gabon9 
At the time of Guillaume's first sale, a market for African art was just beginning to 
emerge in Paris, fueled by the newfound interest in ['art negre on the part of E~pean 
vanguard artists. Seeking new forms of artistic expression, artists such as Pablo Picasso, 
Andre Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck began looking at and collecting African sculpture 
as early as 1905. The abstract fonnal properties ofc ertain types ofA frican art appealed to 
early modernists who desired to move beyond realism in representation in their own work 
Objects from Africa - along with those from Oceania and the Americas - inspired 
successive waves of Western art movements that are often collectively grouped under the 
term ''Primitivism." 
The encounter between Guillaume and Brummer was to be a :fateful one. 
Brwnmer had begun to sell sculptures :from Africa and Oceania as early as 1909 from his 
gallery on Boulevard Raspail and played a decisive roJe as dealer to the artistic vanguard in 
Paris. Jean-Louis Paudrat has emphasized Brurnmer's role, stating that: 
starting with a vast network of :friendships contracted in the :favorable climate 
before World War I, when young artists from the United States and from all over 
Europe were questioning each other about the foWldations of modem art, 
Brummer encouraged the confrontation with what constituted one of its essential 
sources.10 
22 
According to Paudrat, it was Brummer who encouraged the young Guillaume to continue 
to procure African objects and then bring them to Brummer's gallery.11 Through 
Brummer, Guillaume was also introduced to the poet and critic Guillaume Apollinaire, 
with whom he would form a long~ ftieoosbip. 
Apollinaire (fig. 2) was a central figure among the artistic vanguard. As editor of 
Les Soirees de Paps. Apollinaire was intimately connected with virtually all the influential 
avant-garde writers and artists in Pam. Like his artist fi:iends, Apollinaire was .a lso an 
early admirer of African art and had a small collection himself: one that was likely 
assembled prior to meeting Guillaume.12 Apollinaire saw in Guillaume an enterprising 
young man with similar interests in xmdemism and African art, and the two quickly 
formed a close friendship.13 This relationship was a determining factor in the early stages 
ofP aul Guillawne's career as an art dealer and, as their contemporary Adolphe Basler has 
suggested, a significant influence on the formation of Guillaume's aesthetic sermbilities 
during these critical years.14 Through Apollinaire, Guillaume soon became an accepted 
member oft his avant-garde conmunity to which he had long desired to belong. 
While still an employee of the automobile store, Guillaume made a number of 
subsequent sales of sculpture from Gabon and the Congo to both Brummer and to 
Apollinaire. Guillaume eventually left his job at the garage to make a living selling African 
art. He apparently maintained an inventory at his home, having bis suppliers in Gabon ship 
to his private address. Guillaume also actively solicited African works through 
advertisements in the colonial ~ beginning as early as 1912. 15 Guillaume gave an 
23 
account in 1926 of his earlier dealings that, while undoubtedly embellished, provides a 
glimpse of how his inventory was accumulated: 
Travelers, explorers, officials in African territories came to see me, wondered, then 
grew interested in my fixed idea. From the Niger to the banks of the Ogowe 
spread slowly the report of my researches. My name, my address, came to be 
known in these distant regions ... A legend was built up about me. People came 
to me, the descendants oft he great persecuted chiefs ...t o offer me aid.16 
Guillaume early on demonstrated an interest in transcending the typical role of the 
dealer by becoming more actively involved in the study of the art itself. In 1912, he 
founded the "Societe des melanophiles" under the pseudonym of Guy Romain. 17 The 
society, whose membership is uncertain, was apparently dedicated to the study and 
documentation of African art toward the development of a small museum devoted to the 
subject. 18 The museum never materialized, possibly because Guillaume feh, mistakenly, 
that there was insufficient documentation concerning African culture for the project to 
fulfill its goals. 19 Guillaume was later to express frustration at his inability to understand 
the "African mentality'' because of a perceived lack of cultural information which, he 
reasoned, forced him to rely solely on the aesthetic analysis of African sculpture.20 Still, 
the formation of the "Societe" suggests that Guillaume early on did not consider a cultural 
interest in African art as a hindrance to its aesthetic appreciation, a view he would later 
adopt after meeting Barnes. 
Though he might have been thwarted in his study of African artistic expression, 
Guillaume was able to capitalize on the growing interest in African art in Paris during the 
years leading to World War I. In addition to French collectors, there were a sizable 
nwnber of American expatriates who, like their European counterparts, began to acquire 
24 
African art as a facet oft heir commitment to modernism. American collectors were among 
the first to patroniz.e European modernist artists and were, in met, quite influential. One of 
the most vital gathering spots in Paris in the years before World War I was the salon of 
siblings Leo and Gertrude Stein, who had, along with their brother Michael and his wife 
Sarah, amassed significant collections of modem European art. In addition to visiting 
Americans, those frequenting the Stein salon included European critics such as Guillaume 
Apollinaire, Clive Bell and Roger Fry in addition to artists such as Picasso and Matisse. A 
lively exchange of ideas about modernism was thus fostered by such gatherings. 
Significantly, as Judith Zilc:zer has noted, the American expatriates "either by 
correspondence or upon their return to America transmitted modernist ideas to the 
receptive sector of the American art world.'.21 An important aspect of the modernist 
enterprise, the appreciation of African art, was thus fueled by American collectors living in 
and/or traveling to Paris. 
American expatriate interest in African art was gaining steadily around the time 
Guillaume decided to make a career as a purveyor of /'art negre. The painter Max Weber 
was one of the earliest American artists to collect African art. Weber spent most of the 
period :&om 1905 to 1908 in Paris, where he became nuniliar with the African collection at 
the Trocadero Museum.22 He also included African art in his paintings, as in his Congo 
Statuette (fig. 3) of 1910, which features a Yaka :figure from the Congo amidst other 
objects in a still life. 23 
Another American expatriate artist, Patrick ~enry Bruce (1881-1936), was also 
coilecting African sculpture by 1910. He eventually assembled a diverse group of African 
25 
objects that included mortars and pestles as well as a significant number of Akan gold 
weights (fig. 4).24 Bruce had been living in Paris since at least January 1904 and was an 
intimate of the Stein salon and a student of the artist Henri Matisse around 1907.25 It was 
likely through Matisse that Bruce became interested in African sculpture, which his 
venerable teacher employed in a sculpture class to demonstrate characteristics of 
volume.26 
Frank Burty Haviland was also a well-known American artist and collector of 
African art. He exhibited his work frequently in Paris and was favorably reviewed by 
noted critics, including Apollinaire.27 Haviland, accompanied by Adolphe Basler, a dealer 
in 28 modem art, was one of Guillaume's earliest visitors to the automobile shop. The 
artist's interest in African art was, in fuct, a long-standing one. Guillaume recounted that 
when he began to frequent the studios of artists in Paris, it was at Haviland's that he first 
saw a number of "sculptures negres.',29 Several of the African works collected by 
Haviland, including a Fang reliquary figure from Gabon (fig. 5), were prominent enough 
to be included in Carl Einstein's 1915 book, Negemlastik. It is difficult, however, to 
determine whether these pieces were actually in Haviland's possession at the time of 
pub lic at1?0 n. 30 
Weber, Bruce, and Haviland were among the American expatriates who acted as a 
conduit through which the vogue for /'art negre was transmitted from Paris to the United 
States. Through their associations with artists, critics and gallery owners, mainly in New 
York, a newfound interest was generated in the forms of African sculpture. Facilitating the 
26 
conveyance of this interest in African art to the United States was Paul Guilllaume who, at 
the beginning of 1914, began to seek new markets to peddle his wares. 
Paris and New York: Seeking New Markets for African Art 
By 1914, Guillaume had achieved enough success in selling African art in Paris 
that he was encouraged to open a gallery of his own. In February of that year, Galerie 
Paul Guillaume opened at 6, rue de Miromesnil (fig. 6), specializing in ''tableaux 
modernes," such as the work of Picabia and de Chirico, and also "sculptures Negres."
31 
Shortly thereafter, encouraged by recent legislation in France that dropped the taxation on 
art shipped abroad, Guillaume began to solicit business in the United States. The advent 
of World War I additionally fueled the market for African art by sending American 
expatriates home from Paris with a newfound taste for African sculpture. Like many 
European dealers during the war, Guillaume looked to the United States as both a safe 
haven and a growing market. 
Guillaume initially approached Marius de Zayas (fig. 7), a caricaturist and 
associate of the photographer Alfred Stieglitz.32 De Zayas was searching for African 
sculpture to feature in an exhibition at Stieglitz's New York gallery. De Zayas had 
envisioned mounting such an exhibition as early as 1911, when he first became inspired by 
African art while on a scouting trip in Paris for Stieglitz. 33 De Zayas met Guillaume in 
:May of 1914 and was sufficiently impressed with the young dealer that he wrote to 
Stieglitz about their meeting.34 Later, in a manuscript entitled "How, When and Why 
27 
Modem Art Came to New York" written in the late 1940s, de Zayas recounted the origins 
of Guillaume's participation in what was to be a momentous exhibition: 
Through Picabia I met Apollinaire and Max Jacob, and through Apollinaire I met 
Paul Guillaume, then a modest but ambitious art dealer and collector, or rather 
importer, ofNegro art. How he imported it will always remain a mystery, but the 
objects he had were always genuine. When the First World War was declared and 
desolation reigned among artists and dealers, Paul Guillaume was only too glad to 
let me have all the African sculpture I could put in a trunk and bring to New York. 
That was his first contnbution to exlubitions of modern art in New York; many 
others followed - if not with the same intention of making propaganda pure and 
simple, with the hope of opening a market for them, which was just as legi~imate. 35 
While still in Paris that June of 1914, de Zayas and Guillaume arranged for a number of 
African sculptures to be sent to Alfred Stieglitz's Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession at 
291 Fifth Avenue in New York for an exlubition. 36 
"Statuary in Wood by African Savages. The Roots of Modern Art," featuring 
eighteen works on loan from Guillaume's gallery, opened in November 1914 at Gallery 
291. The objects exlubited were primarily from the French colonies in Africa, particularly 
Cote d'Ivoire and the Congo. The works selected were masks and figural statuary, 
including two Baule "other-world" figures, a Baule mask and a Senufo mask, all of which 
were from Cote d'Ivoire, Kota and Fang reliquary guardian figures from Gabon and a 
Bamana female figure from Mali. 
The selection of works and their display in the gallery setting diverged sharply 
from the prevailing ethnographic installations in museums of the time, making this 
exhibition an historic one. In New York, for example, a quite different display of African 
material culture could be seen at The American Museum of Natural History. In this 
installation photo from 1910 (fig. 8), one sees a wide range of object types, including tools 
28 
and weaponry. The objects are arranged typologically with a number of similar works 
presented closely. 
The installation at ''291" offered a sharp contrast. Designed by Edward Steichen, 
a photographer and advocate of modernism, the installation emphasized the sculptural 
characteristics of a select number of the objects (fig. 9). The object types selected 
narrowed to masks and figural statuary, categories more in line with Western definitions of 
the fine arts. The singular presentation of these objects suggests that the w~rks are 
unique, rather than typical Echoing the exlnbition's title, the relation of African sculpture 
to modernism was made manifest visually. Steichen placed the works against rectangular 
panels of yellow, orange and black paper to emphasize.the planar elements of the African 
sculpture, a display technique clearly suggestive of Cubism 
Although presented. in relation to modernism through the exhibition title and 
installation, African sculpture was simultaneously, and contradictorily, advanced as an 
indication of a savage state. In an introductory note to the catalogue accompanying the 
exlnbition at 291, de Zayas maintained that: 
Negro art, product of the ''Land of Fright," created by a mentality full of fear, and 
completely devoid of the faculties of observation and analysis, is the pure 
expression of the emotion of a savage race - victims of nature - who see the outer 
world only under its most intensely expressive aspect and not under its natural 
one.37 
De Zayas was the principal advocate of an aesthetic theory based on racial 
distinctions that classified African artistic production as ''primitive" based on the 
supposedly inferior intellectual capacities of Africans, a perspective that he would develop 
38 
more fully in his 1916 publication, African Negro Art: Its Influence on Modem Art. 
29 
P1acin~ African sculpture on the lowest rung of an evolutionary scale, de .zayas denies 
agency to the African artist. Ahhough the 1914 exlubition ostensibly heralded the artistry 
of African sculpture, perceived associative qualities of African savagery and primal nature 
underlay the exlubition's premise, as articulated by de .zayas. This dualism was .further 
reflected in Steichen's Cubist-inspired installation, which simultaneously evoked, 
according to Camera Work, "a setting ofc rude and violent color.',3
9 
De .2ayas and Stieglitz were quick to cap~ on the interest in African art that 
had arisen in the United States. Both together and individually, they sponsored a number 
of exhibitions promoting this ''new' art form. At de .zayas's short-lived Modem Gallery 
(October 1915 -April 1918), African sculpture was featured in at least four exlubitions. 
Like Guillawne, De ,Zayas was keenly aware of the market potential for his new gallery. 
He directly addressed the issue in Camera Work, announcing the gallery's opening: "To 
foreign artists our plan comes as a timely opportunity. Their market in Europe has been " 
eliminated by the war. Their connections over here have not yet been established.',4o 
Ahhough most of the African art exhibited at de .zayas's Modem Gallery came 
from Guillaume, rarely was bis name mentioned in press reviews of these shows. Thus, 
while Guillaume's objects generated a considerable amount of attention and became well-
.known, the dealer himself did not assume a vocal presence among the artistic circles of 
New York. Guillaume seems to have been content to quietly build his reputation in the 
United States while maintaining his gallezy in Paris. In addition to soliciting the New York 
galleries, Guillaume also approached ethnographic m~urns in order to establish himself 
For example, he donated a weaving loom from Ivozy Coast and an Akan goldweight to 
30 
th
e American Musewn ofN atural History.41 Although the war years were profitable ones 
for Guillaume in the United States, as a dealer he remained very much behind-the-scenes. 
At home in Paris, however, Guillaume was becoming increasingly well-known as a 
dealer in African art through his sponsorship of a number of exhioitions. In 1916, he 
organized an exhibition at "Lyre et Palette," located at 6 rue Huyghens, held between 
November 19 and December 5, 1916. The exhibition included 35 works by Kisling, Henri 
Matisse, Amadeo Modigliani, Ortiz de .larate and Picasso and 25 African sculptures from 
Paul Guillaume's own coilectio.Q. 42 An accompanying catalogue included a brief pre.face 
on "Art Negre," written by Guillawne Apollinaire, which emphasiz.ed that the works were 
displayed for the first time in Paris for their artistry and not for ethnological interest. 43 
According to brief checklist in the catalogue, the exhibition included not only works from 
Africa (primarily from Guine.a, Ivory Coast, the Western Sudan, Gabon and the Congo), 
but also several Oceanic sculptures. The inclusion of both African and Oceanic works 
under the category of / 'art negre was typical, pointing to the indeterminate nature of 
"African art" at this time. 
Guillaume and Apollinaire collaborated again in 1917 on the publication of 
Sculptures Negres. The book was primarily designed as a photographic album and 
44 
featured twenty-two objects from both Africa and Oceania. Apollinaire contnbuted a 
short essay, "A Propos de l'art des noirs," one of the :first to treat the subject of African 
artistry at any length. In it, Apollinaire struggles with the lack of data concerning the 
production of African sculpture. Unlike the masterp~ of European art, most African 
works, he notes, cannot yet be classified by schools or artist. Apollinaire relies on the 
~ ... .. 
31 
Purported antiquity of African sculptme to validate it as an established art rorm, 
maintaining that while dates haven't been fixed, many African pieces are de.finitely ancient. 
He reasons that, in the absence ofa ny verifiable contextual infozmation, the works must be 
judged purely on aesthetic grounds. Referring to the artistic appreciation of African 
sculpture as an "audacity oft aste," Apollinaire proposes that the publication will open eyes 
to the grandeur, beauty and passion embodied in African artisny. He concludes: 
''C'est par une grande audace du goilt que l'on est venu a considerer ces idoles 
negres cornme de veritables oeuvres d'art. Le present album aidera a reconruu"tre 
que cette audace n'a pas depasse son but et qu'on se trouve ici en presence de 
realisations esthetiques aux-quelles Jeur anonymat n'enleve rien de leur an:leur, de 
Jeur grandeur, de leur veritable et simple beaute. ,,4s 
Yet although the book's primary emphasis, as artDJlated by Apollinaire, is a 
J>W'ely artistic appreciation of African sculpture, this ronnal approach is not consistently 
maintained nor is it the sole penpective infunning the text. In striving to present the 
objects as art, Apollinaire does advance certain aesthetic judgments concerning African 
sculpture, stating that the works strongest scuJpturaily derive from the "Abes" (possibly 
refening to the Yaure), the ''Tomas" (Barnana), the ''Baoules" (Senufo), ''Pahouins" 
(Fang) and ''Bakoutas,, (Kota), while works from Dahomey are aesthetically weak. 46 Yet 
he offers rew specifics for the stylistic elemmts characteristic oft he regional genres that be 
lauds in the text. Similarly, while an emp.lmis on the ronnal aspects ofA frican sculpture is 
promoted through full-page photographic reproductions that deh'berately decontextualize 
~ works, most of the accompanying captions provide contextual infunnation, such as 
ritual use, in addition to the geographic and ethnic ~venance of work. A Fang mask 
32 
from Gabon (:fig. 10), for example, is described as serving a secret society whose 
membership is comprised of the aristocratic segment oft he popuJation 47 
Guillaume's role in the production of this text also reveals the multiple interests 
infonning the presentation of African objects as "art." Despite the lofty intentions 
expressed by Apollinaire in the book, one cannot ignore the market implications of its 
publication Sculptures Negres was, in met, created to inaugurate the August 1917 
opening of Guillaume's new gallery in Faubourg Saint-Honore. And although ~ume 
remained in the background for the design and writing of the catalogue, 48 his collection 
was given a very prominent position Five of the works reproduced were expressly 
labeled "Collection Paul Guillaume.',49 
As expected. Guillaume's reputation as a dealer increased with the publication of 
Sculptures Negres. His new gallery, located in Faubourg Saint-Honore, clearly speaks 
well of Guillaume's success and upper-crust clientele. Jean-Louis Paudrat has stressed the 
importance of this, Guillaume's third gallery, as "one of the few active centers of Parisian 
artistic and literary life," maintaining connections between 5 0P  aris, New York and Zurich.
Solidly established now on both sides of the Atlantic, Guillaume at last seemed ready to 
adopt more active role in the promotion of African art. 
From Dealer to Promoter: A Voice for I 'Art Newe 
In 1918, Guillaume began to publish his own periodical devoted to avant-garde 
expression as well as ''l'art negre." Intended as a monthly review but published 
intermittently with only twenty-one issues from March 1918 until June 1935, Les Arts a 
33 
---===---~~E'~. --~ ---.-------
laris likely was intended to capture the same spirit as Apollinaire's review, Soirees de 
p ? 51 
_ans. Indeed, the first few issues seem to be heavily influenced by the poet, and again 
reflect little ofGnillaum.e's own opinions. Issues No. 1 (March 15, 1918) and No. 2 (July 
15, 1918), for example, are largely devoted to retracing gallery life and art market during 
the war, with an emphasis on the efforts of Apollinaire. The periodical also included 
COntnbutions by Apo.l.linmre himself; published under a variety ofp seudonyms. 52 
One of Apo.l.linmre's ~ssays, "A Propos d'Art Negre," written under~ name 
Paraceise, generally restates bis ~lier observations in Sc?Jptures Negres. The article 
again stre~s the antiquity of African art, noting that while exact dates have not been ij 
W?I?  
"I 
:fixed, the current research indicates that some work was created before the Christian era 
More .importantly, however, the essay hints at a broader purpose fur the nascent 
periodical: the establishment of Paul Guillawne as the premier dealer of Afiican art in /i. 
11i':: I 
I/'?,; 
Paris. Apollinaire concludes bis essay with an exaltation ofGuillawne's gallery, which he .',I:; I ? 
I?  I' ??I  
! ':? r:: 
deems to have ".la collection .la plus important, 1a plus riche et 1a plus belle des statues ',,:, 
Ilegres de toute sorte. ,.s3 
In subsequent ism.Jes, Les Arts a Paris clearly reveals Guillaume's keen sense of 
marketing himself and bis gallezy through the review. Colette Giraudon has observed that 
one of Guillaume's strategies was to present himself not only as a dealer, but as a collector 
as well 54 The caption ''Collection Paul Guillaume" would therefore be added to 
reproductions of African sculpture published in the review, with the intent of increasing 
the cachet of the object through its association with ~ preeminent dealer. For example, 
Issue No. 2 (July 15, 1918) includes a reproduction of a Fang reli1uary guardian figure 
34 
from Gabon, captioned "Art negre - divinite Dzembe. ColL P. Guillaume" (fig. 11) that 
was previously published in Sculptures Negres. 
At the same time, Guillaume did not demonstrate a particularly strong aesthetic 
sensibility in African art. In met, in a 1917 letter to Marius de Zayas, Guillaume states that 
he only wants to focus on works that sell fast and welL 55 His reluctance to become a 
voice for African art seems to have been jolted by the sudden death of his longtime friend 
and supporter Apollinaire. On November 9, 1918, Apollinaire died. a vicilin: of the 
"Spanish" flu pandemic. Guillaume openly mourned the loss of his :friend in an essay for 
Issue No. 3 of Les Arts a Paris, published December 15, 1918. In ''Guillaume Apollinaire 
Est Mort," Guillaume pays homage to the late poet and stresses Apollinaire's promotion 
of Western modem and African art. 
Guillaume, who had long been aided, if not guided, by Apollinaire in the 
promotion of African art, was now on his own. He remained focused on developing a 
market for African art, organizing in the spring of 1919, with the assistance of collector 
Andre Levei the ''Premiere Exposition d'A rt Negre et d' Art Oceanien." The exhibition 
was held from May 10 until May 31 at Galerie Devambez and featured 14 7 works, drawn 
primarily from the collections of the organizers, including 38 from Andre Level and 47 
from Paul Guillaume. Once again, although Guillaume's collection was prominently 
exlubited, his voice was lacking from the accompanying catalogue, which featured an 
essay by Henri Clouzot and Andre Level entitled, ''L'A rt Sauvage," as well as 
Apollinaire's "A Propos de l'Art des Noirs," reprinted from his 1917 book with Paul 
Guillaume. 56 
35 
As in earlier publications, the definition of "African art" was not very restrictive. 
The majority of works exhibited were figural statuary and rnasks,57 selected to 
demonstrate how the Western classical tradition of figural representation is transformed in 
Africa Yet there were also a sizable number of cups, utensils, and other more utilitarian 
objects that were included for their rich decoration.58 Similarly, African artifacts were 
presented from both formal and contextual perspectives. While the accompanying essays 
emphasize that the objects should be viewed from an artistic standpoint, this pers~tive is 
again not reflected in the exhibition checklist, which focuses on ritual description. Figural 
works are thus presented as ''Fetiche d'initiation d'une sorciere du Baoule," as in 
catalogue no. 2, or ''Divinite agraire du Soudan," referring to catalogue no. 25. There is 
no effort made to group works together stylistically and they are arranged rather 
haphazardly, with both African and Oceanic works mixed together. 
The Galerie Devambez exhibition was a focus of the fourth issue of Les Arts a 
Paris, published May 15, 1919 to coincide with the exhibition. Guillaume used the 
occasion of the Devambez exhibition to include his first published writings on the subject 
of African art, an essay entitled "Une Esthetique Nouvelle: l' Art Negre." Rather than 
being an aesthetic analysis of the formal characteristics of African sculpture, as suggested 
by the title, the essay recounts a history of Western interest in I 'art negre. In this history, 
Guillaume himself plays a key role. He claims to have first become interested in African art 
in 1904, when he would have been a mere? fifteen, when he saw a "Bobo-Dialousso" 
figure. Crediting Apollinaire as an early influence, Guillaume relates how he also saw 
African art while visiting the studios of artists, such as Haviland, Matisse, Vlarninck, and 
36 
Derain. He maintains that he began to study African culture at the Trocadero hbrary but 
then abandoned his research to focus on displaying works, founding the Societe 
d'archeologie negre. Most significant, however, in tenns of Guillaume's later development 
as a critic is his postscript to the essay in which he argues for the antiquity of African art 
and vows to publish a book on the subject someday. 
On the heels oft he Exposition that spring, Guillaume organiz.ed another event that 
reflected the current craze for things African and, not incidentally, also prom<:>ted his 
gallery. A "Fete Negre" was presented at the Comedie des Champs-Elysees on June 9, 
1919. Sponsored by Les Arts a Paris, the "Fete" featured African-inspired dance, music 
and poetry, with performers dressed in elaborate costumes and body decorations intended 
to be "tribal." In his introduction to the evening perfonnance, Guillaume emphasized the ? I 
'I 
I? t ? 
11, . 
exotic nature of the spectacle, assuring the audience: r I ' -
?~ 
Nous vous promenerons ce soir au pays des paletuviers et des fievres, parmi ce ..,.  
l I I 
monde etrange des sorciers, des grands chefs, des feticheurs, des guerisseurs, des .... . ~ 
N' gils, de toute cette magistrature mysterieuse dont nous avons degage le 
pittoresque essentiel Vous assisterez a des fetes prestigieuses, car cbez ces ? 
peuples purs, uniquement soucieux de phenomenes sumaturels, le temps se passe 
ac uhiver la sympathie des esprits redoutes. 59 
The following issue of Guillaume's periodical, no. 5 (November 1 1919) published 
selections from twelve reviews of the exhibition and seven reviews of the ''fete." Not 
surprisingly, these were largely laudatory. 
The 1919 exhibition and accompanying ''Fete Negre" would be the last major 
exhibition of African art in Paris until 1923, when the exhibition "Art Indigene des 
Colonies F~" was held at the Pavillon de M.arsan. African art, however, remained 
a topical subject in publications. In April of 1920, the Paris journal Action published 
37 
"Opinions sur l' Art Negre," which consisted of a number of responses solicited by the 
magazine. The commentary reflected the breadth of Western responses to African art at 
the time. Reactions ranged from dismissive, such as Jean Cocteau's statement that "le 
crise negre" had grown tiresome, to commendatory, as in Juan Gris's crediting of African 
sculpture for introducing anti-idealist art. As might be expected, Guillaume offered high 
praise for the subject, deeming African art to be the "sperme vivificateur du X:X:e siecle 
spirituel. ,,6o 
Although there was no consensus as to its value and worth, African art had been 
sufficiently well established in Paris by 1920 that critic Lucie Cousturier was moved to 
write a laudatory article on the merits of African art for Bulletin de la vie artistique.61 She 
emphasized the composition and seriousness of African sculpture, likening the curving line 
between nose and brow of a Baule mask to the arches of Roman windows. She 
I' 
concludes: "La beaute type, dans les arts, n'est qu'un ideal d'empailleurs; les dieux 
egyptiens, les moines de Giotto et des sculpteurs gothiques, les Baigneuses de Renoir ne 
comptent que par ce qui les apparente a l'art negre et non pas par ce qu'ils doivent aux 
canons. 2 ,,6 Thus, in a few short years, African artistic traditions had been transformed in 
Western eyes from products of a savage state to the aesthetic foundation upon which the 
work of subsequent generations of artists had been built. Guillaume, through exhibitions 
and publications, had clearly contributed toward the appreciation of such objects. 
In his own periodical, Guillaume continued to promote African art, but through 
reproductions instead of his own writings. Issue no. 6 of November 1920, for example, 
reproduced a "Tete d'Idole Pahouinne," which was not a new work but a close-up of the 
38 
full figure previously published in issue no. 2. The periodical ceased publication with this 
issue and did not resume until 1923, after Guillaume was associated with Barnes. 
Giraudon has suggested that Guillaume, like many galleries in Paris at the time, was 
suffering financial difficulties. 63 
Yet toward the end of 1920, Guillaume's most clearly expressed his views in 
Bulletin de la Vie Artistique. The periodical had approached twenty notables, including 
artists, ethnographers, dealers, critics and collectors, to comment on whether African, 
Oceanic and Native American art should be included in the Louvre. The responses, 
compiled and published under the heading "Enquete sur des arts lointains: Seront-ils admis 
au Louvre?," were in three successive issues oft he periodical: November 15, December 1, 
,, 
and December 15, 1920. The contributors, which included artists Kees Van Dongen and 
: :: J 
I ' 
Angel Zarraga, dealer Joseph Hessei collector Paul Rupalley, and curator Salomon ' : 'j 
I l .? ?~ 
Reinach, were each introduced by a brief editorial note. ;- 
?d 
Guillaume's contribution to the survey reveals a man ready fur change, no longer 
fully satisfied with his roles of dealer and connoisseur. An editorial note introducing 
Guillaume observes that while the dealer had edited the 1917 Sculptures Negres and 
published some notes in Les Arts a Paris, Guillaume's support for African art was manifest 
primarily through the displays in his gallery. In his published renmks, Guillaume vowed 
that that was to change, revealing that he planned to begin writing an important work on 
African art.64 He also advocated maintaining a hierarchy within art negre, arguing 
vigorously for the preeminence of African over Oceanic and Native American art. 
Guillaume's response demonstrates his desire to develop a stronger critical voice with 
39 
regard to African art. It also offers an indication of the larger, more significant role he 
would assume during the 1920s, in collaboration with Dr. Albert Barnes, as a major 
influence on Western taste in African art. 
: ,,'  ''  
i'  '' " 
I ? j 
'J 
~ 
I i 
" ' ~ 
40 
NOTES FOR CHAPTER ONE: 
1 Paul Guillaume, "The Discovery and Appreciation of Primitive Negro Sculpture," 
Les Arts a Paris 12 (March 1926): 13. 
2 Clive Be:Ii ''Negro Sculpture," 1920, reprinted in Since Cezanne (London: Chatto 
and Windus, 1929), 113. Bell's essay was originally published in Living Age 
(September 25, 1920): 786-789. 
3 Guillaume's career as an influential art dealer is explored in depth by Colette 
Giraudon, Paul Guillaume et les Peintres du X:Xe Siecle. While Giraudon focuses 
primarily on Guillaume's dealings in 20th century European art, she does consider his 
involvement with African art as an aspect of modernist interest. 
4 Giraudon, Paul Guillaume et les Peintres du X:Xe Siecle, 12. 
5 Giraudon Paul Guillaume et les Peintres du XX:e Siecle, 13. 
6 Brummer recollects his meeting Guillaume in Laurie Eglington, ''Untimely Passing 
of Paul Guillaume Evokes Memories," Art News (27 October 1934): 1. An exact 
description and whereabouts of this African object are not known. 
. ' 
I 
7 While Guillaume dated this event to 1904, when he would have been a mere thirteen 
years old, a more realistic date, from a chronological perspective as well ~ 
considering Guillaume's later interest in African art, would be the 1911 date that 
dealer Josef Brummer recollects from their encounter. See Brummer in Eglington, 
"Untimely Passing of Paul Guillaume Evokes Memories," 1. 
8 Guillaume recounted his "discovery" of African art in a 1927 interview: "Marcoussis 
et moi nous avions la meme blanchisseuse, rue Caulaincourt. Marcoussis et moi nous 
avions vu sur sa cheminee une idole africaine. Marcoussis se contentait de la 
regarder, moi je l'ai achetee. Cette dame avait un fils, capitaine la-bas, qui lui 
envoyait en souvenir de petites sculptures des pays qu'il traversait." In E. Teriade, 
''Nos Enquetes: Entretien avec Paul Guillaume," Cahiers d'Art: Feuilles Volantes 1 
(1927): 1. 
9 Giraudon Paul Guillaume et les Peintres du XX:e Siecle, 13. 
10 Paudrat, ''From Africa," 143. 
11 Paudrat, "From Africa," 152-153. 
12 Apollinaire's interest in African art is reflected in his autobiographical poem, 
"Zone," first published in the December 1912 issue of Soirees de Paris: "Tu marches 
41 
vers Auteuil, tu veux aller chez toi a pied/Dormir parmi tes fetiches d'Oceanie et de 
Guinee/ Ils sont les Christs d'une autre forme et d'une autre croyance/ Ce sont les 
Christs inferieurs des obscures esperances" As quoted in Michel Decaudin, 
"Guillaume Apollinaire devant l' Art Negre," Presence A:fricaine 2 (1948): 317. 
Apollinaire developed a small African art collection of about 26 works, most of 
which came from the French colonies in Africa and were, according to J. B. Donne, 
mediocre quality at best. See J. B. Donne, "Guillaume Apollinaire's African 
Collection," Museum Ethnographer's Group Newsletter 14 (1983): 5. Apollinaire's 
art criticism is assembled in Guillaume Apollinaire, Chroniques d' Art (1902-1918) 
(Paris: Gallimard, 1960). 
13 This close :friendship is explored by Jean Bouret through an analysis of unpublished 
correspondance between the two men, in "Une Amitie Esthetique au Debut du? Siecle: 
Apollinaire et Paul Guillaume," 373-399. 
14 "C'est aupres du poete qu'il s'est forme le gout," claimed Basler in "M. Paul 
Guillaume et sa Collection de Tableaux," L'Amour de l' Art 7 (July 1929): 254. ,111 
15 Paudrat, "From Africa," 153. Unfortunately, Paudrat does not document his 
sources for this information. It would be valuable to know what criteria for African 
art, if any, Paul Guillaume proposed in his advertisements. 
16 Paul Guillaume, "The Triumph of Ancient Negro Art," Opportunity 4, no. 4 (May 
1926): 147. 
17 Giraudon, Paul Guillaume et les Peintres du XX:e Siecle, 18. 
18 This is likely the group referred to in a 1912 issue of La Vie which notes: 
"Quelques artistes se sont groupes pour etudier l'ame sauvage dans ses paci:fistes 
manifestations; leur but consiste a acquerir une connaissance approfondie de Tart 
negre.' , La societe d'art negre s'efforcera de rassembler une importante 
documentation. Elle recueillera, outre des fetiches et des bois sculptes, toutes sortes 
de curiousites historiques. Enfin, elle organisera des voyages aux colonies et creera 
un petit musee qui interessa au plus haut point les artistes et les erudits." "Echos, 
notes, inedits: L' Art Noir," La Vie (September 21, 1912): 393. 
19 There were, in fact, a number of ethnographic studies discussing African culture, 
such as the extensive writings of Emil Torday and J. A. Joyce on the Congo, 
published in the first decade of the 20th century. 
20 In a 1927 interview, Paul Guillaume stated, "J'ai essaye de penetrer d'abord la 
mentalite des peuplades etudiees, chose, croyez-moi, bien complexe. 11 m'a fallu 
ensuite delimiter celles des communautes africaines ou des sentiments artistiques se 
42 
sont fait jour et les types de leurs oeuvres. Ceci fa.it, j'ai du me renseigner sur les 
caracteristiques des oeuvres d'art negre et ce qui les di:fferenciait des sculptures 
d'autres pays." E. Teriade, "Nos Enquetes: Entretien avec Paul Guillaume," Cahiers 
d' Art - Feuilles Volantes 1 (1927): 1. 
21 Judith Katy Zilczer, ''The Aesthetic Struggle in America, 1913-1918: Abstract Art 
and Theory in the Stieglitz Circle" (Ph.D. diss., University of Delaware, 1975), 10. 
22 William Innes Homer, Alfred Stieglitz and the American Avant-Garde (Boston: 
New York Graphic Society, 1977), 74. 
23 This is likely the same object of which Weber wrote in Camera Work 31 (1910): "A 
Tanagra, Egyptian, or Congo statuette often gives the impression of a colossal statue, 
while a poor, mediocre piece of sculpture appears to be the size of a pinhead, for it is 
devoid of this boundless sense of space or grandeur." As quoted in Jonathan Green, i!lli 
ed., Camera Work: A Critical Anthology (N "'?e rfw   York: Aperture, 1973), 202. ?,,,1, ' ,?,I.t  
,''t 
24 I, 1'1 In 1938, the dealer Henri-Pierre Roche recalled that Bruce collected "Negro 
statuettes and instruments, including surprising stone pestles, for women's hands, that 
were directly erotic.'' As quoted in William C. Agee and Barbara Rose, Patrick 
Herny Bruce, American Modernist: A Catalogue Raisonne (New York: Museum of 
Modem Art, 1979), 223. Charles Ratton, an important dealer of African art in 1930s 
Paris, told Barbara Rose that "Bruce owned one of the finest bronze gold weights he 
had ever seen." Ibid., 46. A number of African objects owned by Bruce are now on 
loan to the University of Pennsylvania Art Museum. 
25 Agee and Rose, Patrick Herny Bruce,14, 15. 
26 Agee and Rose, Patrick Herny Bruce, 31. 
27 Haviland is mentioned :frequently, beginning around 1912, in Apollinaire's reviews 
of exhibitions. See Guillaume Apollinaire, Chroniques d'Art (1902-1918). 227,292, 
295-6, 302. 
28 "Je lui rendis un jour visite avec mon ami Frank Haviland, peintre aussi doue 
qu'arnateur eclaire, dans un garage d'automobiles ou ii stockait, dans un coin, des 
fetiches negres." Adolphe Basler, "M. Paul Guillaume et sa Collection de Tableaux," 
L'Amour de l' Art 7 (July 1929): 254. 
29 Guillaume writes, "Chez Frank Haviland d'abord, nature reveuse et tendre, bel 
artiste fier, aux timidites feminines devant sa peinture qui etonnera lorsqu'elle sera 
connue. II avait un veritable amour pour ses idoles et fut des premiers a souligner le 
caractere architectural des tiki d'Oceanie." In "Une Esthetique Nouvelle - I' Art 
43 
Negre," Les Arts a Paris 4 (May 15, 1919) 3. Here Guillaume, like others of the 
time, does not distinguish between African and Oceanic art, both of which are 
subsumed under the larger categorization of I 'art negre. 
30 Objects from Haviland's collection were illustrated in plates 5, 14, 15, 22-24, 36-
38, 88, 95, and 96 of Carl Einstein, Negerplastik (1915). Haviland's collection was 
sold at auction? in 1936. See "Collection de Monsieur F. B. H ... Arts Primitifs 
Afrique et Oceanie," sale catalogue (Hotel Drouot, Paris, June 22, 1936). 
31 Giraudon Paul Guillaume et les Peintres du XX:e Siecle, 22. 
32 Giraudon, Paul Guillaume et les Peintres du XX:e Siecle, 24. 
33 Francis M. Naumann, "Introduction," in Marius de Zayas, How. When and Why 
Modem Art Came to New York (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996), xi. 
34 de Zayas, How, When and Why Modern Art Came to New York, 170. 1''1/i t ;: '!h 
35 de Zayas, How, When, and Why Modem Art Came to New York, 55. 
36 Zilczer, "The Aesthetic Struggle in America," 138. 
37 de Zayas, How. When and Why Modern Art Came to New York, 59. 
38 Zilczer "The Aesthetic Struggle in America," 138. 
39 Homer, Alfred Stieglitz and the American Avant-Garde, 199. 
40 As quoted in Green, CameraW ork, 306. 
41 Giraudon, Paul Guillaume et les Peintres du XX:e Siecle, 28. 
42 Lyre et Palette, exhibition catalogue (1916), no pagination. The brief catalogue 
included only one reproduction, of a Kisling print. 
43 According to Jean Bouret, the essentials of this text are repeated in Apollinaire's 
''Melanophilie," Mercure de France April 1, 1917 and in "Opinion sur l' Art Negre," 
Action April 1920, under the name Louis Troeme. See Bouret, ''Une Amitie Esthetique," 
388. 
44 Most of the twenty-two works illustrated, however, are from Africa. Two of the works 
included in the book were later purchased by Barnes: the Bamana (Mali) mask in plate 21 
(inventory no. A260 in the Barnes Foundation collection) and plate 20, a Bamana (Mali) 
female figure from the collection ofVlaminck (inventory no. Al23). 
44 
An "explanation" for the inclusion of both African and Oceanic art in the book 
is offered in Apollinaire's essay. He proposes, inaccurately, that both may be 
considered art negre because there is a racial relation between the peoples of sub-
Saharan Africa and those of Oceania. 
45 Apollinaire, "A Propos de l'art des noirs," in Sculptures Negres, Guillaume 
Apollinaire and Paul Guillawne (Paris: 1917) np. 
46 Apollinaire names these ethnic groups in his text and refers to the accompanying 
reproductions for examples. I have based my interpretation of his classifications 
according to the provenance of the objects reproduced in the plates. 
47 Apollinaire and Guillawne, Sculptures Negres, pl. 23. 
48 See Bouret, "Une Amitie Esthetique," 389-91. 
49 These are: plates 14 and 15 "Divinite D.zembe" (a Fang reliquary guardian figure from 
Gabon); plate 17 "Statue Cynocephale" (a Fang reliquary guardian figure from Gabon, 
later used as prototype for the tilework on the Barnes Foundation entrance; see Chapter JI'' 
1?: 
Four); plate 18 "Idole Bambara" (a Baule "other-world" figure from Ivory Coast); plate ?" 
23 ''Masque a Quatre Faces" (a Fang mask from Gabon); and plate 24 ''Masque a Deux ''  ,, 
I ;'? 11 
Faces" (a mask, possibly Fang, Gabon). ', 'l 
Apollinaire, by contrast, involved himself in a detailed manner concerning the ' . ",,  
publication and layout of the catalogue. Significantly, although works from Apollinaire's ~ )I 
I "II  
collection were reproduced, the poet declined to include his name among the other I I :1 
collectors because he was writing the preface. See Bouret, ''Une Amitie Esthetique," 
390. Jean-Louis Paudrat suggests that Apollinaire wanted ''to preserve in the eyes of-
his colleagues an image of independence and integrity, which would risk being 
compromised by too conspicuous a presence in the dealer's enterprises." Paudrat, 
"From Africa," 156. 
50 Paudrat, "From Africa," 157. 
51 The evolution of the journal is traced by Colette Giraudon in Les Arts a Paris chez 
Paul Guillawne. 
52 Georges Bernier states that Apollinaire ''redigea des articles sous des pseudonymes: 
Paraclese, Docteur Pressement, celui consacre aux 'Sculptures d' Afrique et 
d'Oceanie' Guillet 1918) etait signe Louis Troine." See Bernier, L'Art et l'Argent: 
Le Marche de l' Art au XX:e Siecle, 108. 
53 Paracelse (Apollinaire), "A Propos de l' Art Negre," Les Arts a Paris 1 (15 March 
1918): 4. 
45 
54 Giraudon writes that Guillaume ''veut creer une nouvelle figure de marchand, celle du 
marchand collectionneur. Les legendes des reproductions photographiques de sa revue 
portent :frequement la mention 'Collection particuliere Paul Guillaume'." Les Arts a Paris 
chez Paul Guillaume. 25-26. 
55 Giraud on, Les Arts a Paris chez Paul Guillaume, 3 5. 
56 Galerie Devambez, Premiere Exposition d'Art Negre et d'Art Oceanien (May 10-
31, 1919). In addition to the two essays, the catalogue included reproductions of a 
Baule mask and a Fang figure, both from Guillaume's collection, as well as a checklist 
of works exhibited. 
57 I have based this observation upon the brief description of the works provided in 
the catalogue, interpreting words like "idole," ''fetiche" and "divinite" to refer to 
figural statuary. 
''?'In 
58 Galerie Devambez, Premiere Exposition, 2-3 :;?::;-
' ,, 
' 
59 As quoted in "L'Exposition d' Art Negre et la Fete Negre," Les Arts a Paris 5 ,,. 
(November 1, 1919): 4. 
60 Guillaume in "Opinions sur l' Art Negre," Action 1 (April 1920): 24. 
i 
61 Lucie Cousturier, "L'Art Negre," Bulletin de la Vie Artistique (October 1, 1920): )I 
" 
584. i :~,  
62 Cousturier, "L' Art Negre," 584. 
63 Giraudon, Les Arts a Paris chez Paul Guillaume, 38. 
64 "Suite de l'enquete sur des arts lointains: Iront-ils au Louvre?," Bulletin de la Vie 
Artistique (December 1, 1920): 693. 
46 
Chapter Two: 
ALBERT BARNES, PAUL GUILLAUME, 
AND TifE FORMATION OF A COLLECTION 
I strongly advise you to take seriously wbat I have told you about the great 
opportunity_ you have to make a lot of money on Negro art, merely by keeping 
Y~ur best pieces on exposition as your private collection in Paris. If co11ectors 
wish to buy those pieces you should sell them only at a vezy high price. When the 
Foundation opens Negro art will become one of the most important art values of 
the world. 1 
- Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume 
In .late 1921, Dr. Albert C. Barnes, already a widely respected coBector of 
modernist paintings, returned to Paris on his 1irst purchasing trip since befure World War :::: .,, 
,' ,,, ,'",  
I. It was during this trip that he likely met the Paris dealer, Paul Guillawne. By the next 
summer, Barnes began purchasing large quantities of African art from Guillai une, 
eventuany acquiring almost 100 worlcs of African sculpture in Jess than two year's time. 
Barnes purchased virtually his entire coliecti>n of Afiran art fiom CnriDamne's gallezy, 
and the frequent correspondence between the two men during these years provides an ? 
astonishingly comprehensive picture oft he developmmt ofh is coJlection. 
This chapter focuses on Barnes as a collector and explores the formation of the 
Barnes Foundation coilection of African art. I first examine Barnes's early coUecting 
J).r8ctices, considering the mctors and motivating 1orces that led to his later appreciation of 
African sculpture. Having thus grounded my study, the greater part of this chapter will 
ana}y7.e the collaboration between Barnes and Guillawne in funning 8 coBection ofA fiiam 
art. I present a detailed portrait of Bames's purchases, discuss the development of his 
aesthetic criteria, and place his conection within the context of other public and private 
41 
collections and the rise in interest in African art in the United States. I conclude by 
considering the promotion of the Bames's African art collection prior to the opening, in 
1925, of the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania. 
The Evolution of a Collector 
Born January 2, 1872, Albert Coombs Barnes (fig. 12) was the third son of Lydia 
A Schaffer and John J. Barnes. Like Paul Guillaume, Barnes was a self-made ~ who 
struggled to rise above his impoverished childhood in a rough section of Philadelphia 
,I,I, '; 
referred to as ''The Neck.',2 Barnes attended Central High School in Philadelphia, II I 1111 lt 
11 1 1 ,, 
!'\t h 
receiving a B.S. degree from there in 1889, and graduated from the University of ,I,,  :1 
,,,, .  
Pennsylvania medical school in 1892, at age twenty. Moving to Europe for a few years, he 
worked at the University of Berlin and, in 1900, studied pharmacology at Ruprecht-Karls-
Universitat in Heidelberg. 
,, ~ 5 
In 1902, Barnes established a pharmaceutical company with partner Herman Hille. 
Among the pharmaceuticals that they manufactured was the silver compound Argyroi 
used to fight infections in the eyes of newborns. The highly effective compound soon 
became a medical necessity and an immensely profitable enterprise for Barnes and his 
partner. Five years later, Barnes bought out Hille and, in 1908, established the A.C. 
Barnes Company with factories in Philadelphia, London and Australia. 
Though he became a millionaire through his production of Argyroi Barnes did not 
form his art collection as a visible manifestation ofh is newfound wealth. His interest in art 
actually dates from his early years in Europe, when he purchased a few landscape 
48 
paintings while in Germany. Barnes also attempted to become a painter himself but gave 
it up because he felt he lacked artistic talent. According to Pierre Cabanne, Barnes viewed 
the end of his nascent painting career in favor of collecting as merely a shift in his artistic 
energies. He reportedly stated, ''I believe I am capable of developing enough taste and 
discernment to devote myself to seeking out the talents of others. Collecting pictures, 
done in the right way, can become almost a creative activity.',3 
Sometime after 1905, Barnes began to visit galleries in New York, . buying 
paintings primarily by Barbizon School artists and their followers.4 Around 1910 or 1911, 
,.41,  :: 
Barnes apparently became more dedicated to developing an ?iJa I rt colle.ction, probably 1111 1: 
;:!? ,: 
enabled by his recent business success. He sought the advice ,!"' . of an old friend, the artist 
Wtlliam Glackens who had, along with fellow artist John Sloan, attended Philadelphia's 
Central High with Barnes.5 Glackens was sent to Paris by Barnes in 1912, where he 
,j 
)I 
purchased for Barnes twenty paintings, including works by Cezanne, van Gogh, Picasso, : 
tf ? 5 
and Renoir.6 
Barnes, initially skeptical ofGlacken's modem selections, soon became a convert. 
Barnes went to Paris himself in 1912 and educated himself in 7  art while there. He also met 
other influential collectors like the Steins, developing a particularly close relationship with 
Leo Stein. While he continued to confer with Glackens, Barnes assumed the reins in the 
formation of his collection of modernist paintings. He bought modernist works from a 
number of Paris galleries, including Ambroise Vollard, Durand-Ruei and Bernheim-Jeune, 
and his purchasing trips soon became legendary.8 Bames's intense and focused process of 
selection was descn'bed by dealer Ambroise Vollard: "Mr. Barnes comes to see you. He 
49 
gets you to show him twenty or thirty pictures. Unhesitatingly, as they pass before him, he 
picks out this one or that one. Then he goes away."9 
By 1913, Bames's collection of modernist paintings was sufficiently well-known 
that he was invited by Arthur Davies to participate in the New York's historic Armory 
Show by loaning works by Ce7.aru1e and Gauguin. Barnes declined this invitation, an act 
foreshadowing the policies later developed by Barnes for his foundation. Writing to 
Davies, Barnes stated: 
If you knew what those paintings meant to me, I am sure you would not put me in 
the position where I appear selfish or unsympathetic in refusing the loan. They are II !? 
with me not an incident or pieces of ? ": 1  fu I rniture - they are simply my daily life itself I 
and I could no more be without them for a month than I could go without food for '? ' I 
' I 
a like period. 10 . ' t 
t 
1, 
Barnes attended the Armory Show but only bought one painting by Vlaminck. 11 He did, 
however, recognize the importance of the event, writing to Leo Stein on March 30, 1913: ,'  .'..l ,   
?I 
', , l1 
"At New York [the Armory Show] was the sensation of the generation .. .A cademic art 
.  ' ua  
received a blow from which it will never entirely recover."12 
Around the time of the Armory Show, Barnes may have met a fellow collector of 
modernist art, New York attorney John Quinn, a man who would become Bames's 
lifelong foe. 13 Quinn had a significant role in the staging of the Armory show, serving as 
legal counsel, chieflender and primary purchaser for the exhibition. Quinn's patronage of 
modem art fostered amicable relations with other collectors of similar tastes, including 
Albert Gallatin and Lillie Bliss.14 Barnes, however, considered Quinn to be a fierce rival 
and the Philadelphia collector remained at arm's length from this select circle. As Kristian 
Romare has observed, in relation to the Jarger modernist art world in the United States, 
50 
Barnes "seems to have been at the same time respected by and in many ways isolated from 
its main acting agents."15 
Despite his competition with other collectors, Barnes clearly gained the respect of 
noted art critics. In 1914, Barnes's collection was impres.gve enough to merit the 
attention of critic Guy Pene du Bois. Writing in Arts and Decoration, du Bois criticized 
the essential conservativism that characterized contemporary taste in art and urged 
collectors to look beyond realism as a basis of artistic expression. Du Bois lamented that 
"among our collectors the brave men can be numbered on the finger of one man's hands 
and the wise brave ones, generously, on one band."16 Barnes, du Bois contended, was an 
.. ,. ' 
~., I 
exception to this unfurtunate norm. Descnbing Barnes's personal growth as a collector, ' .''   
du Bois noted that although Barnes had begun by purchasing "pictures by subdued 
Americans" ten years prior, he had transfonned into one of the most daring collectors of 
modern French paintings. Du Bois concluded that Barnes's assemblage was "probably the 
most consistently modem collection in America"17 
Barnes's increasing fumiliarity with art coupled with a growing confidence in his 
own taste led to his own attempt at art criticism in 1915. Barnes's ''How To Judge a 
Painting," published in Arts and Decoration, illuminates his early approach to artistic 
appreciation. Despite its title, the article does not offer a systematic method toward the 
appreciation of art; rather, it encourages the fledgling connoisseur to study paintings 
carefully. Barnes' s own method, as he descnbes it, is 
to buy a painting for what I think is in it, to have honest painters in my house and 
talk to them about my pictures, to lose no opportunity to look at paintings 
everywhere, to read books on art and not to be discouraged at how little they give 
to make an artist's work enjoyable and understandable.18 
51 
In essence, ''How to Judge a Painting" frames the structure for Bames's mature aesthetic 
outlook and "objective" method of art appreciation, developed during succeeding years 
and ultimately published in 1925 as The Art in Painting.19 
The Development of Barnes's Interest in African Art 
The now regular purchasing trips Barnes made to Paris were interrupted due to 
World War I and did not resume until 1921. Barnes's first visit to Paul Guillaume's 
gallery was likely shortly thereafter, although it is possible the two had met briefly before 
the war. According to Colette Giraudon, the poet Max Jacob notes that Barnes took . ? I 
shelter from the rain at Guillaume's gallery on rue Miromesnil.20 This would establish 
their possible meeting sometime between February 1914, when the gallery opened, and 
January 1916, by which time the gallery had closed. In any event, the sustained -~?  
relationship between Guillaume and Barnes did not begin until late 1921 or even 1922. 
While Barnes never discussed specifically what led him to collect African art after 
meeting Guillaume, there are a number of motivating factors that could clarify his sudden 
interest. Bames's long-standing fascination with African-American culture has been most 
frequently offered as an explanation. Barnes's introduction to African-American culture 
was a topic that he often discussed, declaring it a pivotal experience in his childhood. 
Perhaps his most oft-quoted reminiscence on the subject is a 1936 speech at his alma 
mater, Central High Schooi in Philadelphia, in which he spoke on "The Art of the 
American Negro." Barnes recalled: 
52 
My experience with the Negro began when I was eight years old. It was at a 
camp-meeting in Merchantsville, New Jersey, and the impression was so vivid and 
so deep that it has influenced my whole life .. .I became an addict ofNegro camp-
meetings, baptizings, revivals, and to seeking the company of individual Negroes, 
who, I soon discovered, carried out in their daily lives the poetry, music, dance 
and drama which, when exercised by a group, gave the camp meeting its colorful, 
rhythmic, vivid and compelling chann21 
While reflecting the often paternalistic attitude toward blacks typical of the era, Barnes's 
description of the religious revivals held by the African-American Methodist Church in 
Mercbantsville reveals an early passion. 
Such accounts of Bames's interest in African-American culture, however, have 
II ' 
been offered uncritically as an explanation ofBames's involvement in ''Negro" art. Pierre "" .,I   
" 
Cabanne, for example, discusses how Barnes was ''well-disposed to the negroes," having 
suffered similar segregation from society in his childhood poverty. Cabamte continues, 
noting that Barnes ''therefore gave them a privileged position in his Foundation. His 
interest in them was forttmately shared by Paul Guillaume, who was one of the first to 
make the general public fiuniliar with their art.',22 While Cabanne's references in this 
passage shift from American blacks to Africans, and more specifically African sculpture, 
all are subsumed wider the larger category of the ''negro". 
Certainly, Bames's early experiences of African-American culture are related to 
his Jater interests in promoting both African scu]pture and African-American artistic 
expression. Yet, I would argue, the connection is more sophisticated than these writers 
suggest, as will be demonstrated in Chapter Five. Barnes's interest in the lives of 
American blacks does not, of course, automatically suggest a later appreciation of African 
sculpture. Yet Barnes strongly believed in the existence of certain qualities that were 
53 
"characteristically Negro," a subject he later explored in his widely read essay ''Negro Art 
and America" of 1925.23 These qualities Barnes traced to the psychological make-up of 
the ''Negro" which resulted in ''his daily habits of thought, speech and movement [being] 
flavored with the picturesque, the rhythmic, the euphonious.',24 Barnes early on perceived 
these "essential'' characteristics in the religious revivals he attended as a young boy. He 
was especially struck by the intensity of song at these services, which featured the ''Negro 
spirituals" only recently made popular by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Barnes's interest in the 
spirituals remained with him throughout his lifetime, 25 and he would later develop a theory 
.1..1  .? , 
on their reJation to African sculpture, as will be discussed in .later chapters. II I I ' 
,,'  . 
While Barnes may have had a cultural interest in blacks as a race from an early . I ~ ; 
age, his visual appreciation oft he often-abstract forms of African culture was facilitated by 
. his developing aesthetic sensibilities. As a student in Europe in 1900, Barnes studied 
philosophy at the University of Heidelberg, analyzing works by Leibnitz., Fichte, Kant and 
Hegel under the tutelage of Professor Kum Fischer.26 When he began seriously collecting 
art, Barnes made an intense effort to educate himself in aesthetics. He was particularly 
drawn to the psychological studies of William James, the educational philosophy of John 
Dewey, and the aesthetic theories of George Santayana and Roger Fry. 
These influential writers offered a broad definition of the aesthetic experience. 
Santayana, for example, in his Sense of Beauty of 1896, explored moral and aesthetic 
judgments as phenomena of the mind and products of mental evolutio 27n  . He maintained 
that the fine arts "are by no means the only sphere in which men show their susceptibility 
to beauty. In all products ofhwnan industry we notice the keenness with which the eye is 
54 
attracted to the mere appearance of things.',28 Roger Fry, like Santayana, also sought to 
locate aesthetic fulfillment within the object of contemplation, that is, the work of art 
itsel?29 Fry, however, argued further that a work of art need not duplicate nature. 
Drawing from all these sources, Barnes published his own educational aesthetic 
philosophy in 1925 as The Art in Painting. Significantly, Barnes was developing the book 
during the same years that he actively collected African sculpture. Barnes's mature 
aesthetic outlook advocated a systematic method of fonnal analysis designed to trace the 
essential continuity of all great art traditions. According to Barnes, great art does not 
jJ ? ' 
imitate nature but interprets the experience of seeing nature through ''plastic means" - that j j I JJ ' I 
is, through color, line, light and space. Barnes's exclusive focus on ''plastic form" 
provided a critical :framework that encompassed all visual material, regardless of cultural 
origin or subject matter. Barnes's aesthetics studies eventually led him to consider African 
sculpture as the purest expression of three-dimensional form. I 
''!  ~ f 
, I 
While these factors may have paved the way conceptually fur Barnes to collect 
African art prior to meeting Guillaume in Paris, it is unclear whether or not he was actually 
familiar with the art before 1921. Barnes may have visited some of the New York 
galleries that exhibited African sculptures while looking for modernist paintings. It is 
likely, for example, that he visited the De Zayas Gallery, the descendant of Marius de 
30 
Zayas's Modern gallery, during an exhibition of African art, poSSibly as early as 1918.
If he was introduced to African art in New York, Barnes might have found a 
comrade in the dealer Robert Coady, although there is no firm evidence that Barnes ever 
visited Coady's Washington Square gallery. Like Barnes, Coady was a progressive 
55 
trunk.er and an early champion of African-American cultural contributions. Coady had 
already assisted John Quim in developing his collection of modern art, and likely African 
sculpture as well.31 In his short-lived periodical The Soil Coady promoted the idea of an 
aesthetic relationship between the arts of Africa and African-Ameri~ and, by extension, 
Western modernism, which, he felt, owed its development to the ''Negro" contnbution. 
Coady's activist spirit led him in 1919 to request that Quinn donate a part of his modern 
art collection to Howard, the prestigious black university.32 
Barnes seemingly would have had a close ally in Coady. Indeed, Coady's own 
II : 
words on the subject of the American "negro" from 1917 presage the later writings of ,",  I I, 
,,,,  
Albert Barnes: 
The American Negro has contnbuted to our young culture many of its most 
valuable qualities. He has given us ...t he best ofo ur music. I have examples ofh is 
painting which I claim the best ever done in this cowitcy ...t he Negro lives a poetic 
life and he is full of mystery, rhythm ... To develop those qualities and fit them into 
our complicated American life is, as I see it, our ''Negro problem.',33 
But by 1919, Coady had closed his New York gallery and two years .later,just as Barnes's 
interest in African sculpture was beginning to peak, Coady died ofp neumonia. 
''The Best Private Collection ofNegro Sculpture" 
Regardless of whether or not Barnes had seen African sculpture prior to 1922, he 
did not collect such objects before that time. Barnes purchased virtually the entire 
collection of African art through Paul Guillaume, with whom he began corresponding on a 
regular basis in January 1922. In my docwnentation of the fonnation of the collection and 
of the relationship between Guil.laume and Barnes, I have relied extensively on the 
56 
prodigious amount of correspondence between the two provided to me by the Barnes 
Foundation. This archival material has afforded me considerable insights and has been 
crucial to my analysis, particularly in the absence ofGuillawne's own memoirs or collected 
archival material. 
The Barnes collection of African art was assembled through at least five separate 
purchases from Guillaume's Paris gallery, beginning in the summer of 1922 and continuing 
through at least December 1923.34 I will discuss here the content of the collection in 
general terms, reserving consideration of its specifics for the next chapter. As previously 
noted, the overwhehning majority of works acquired by Barnes are figural statuary, but : i I I ' 
there are also a significant number o ;, f " m I asks as well. Other objects in th~ collection I : 
include heddle pulleys, cups, tobacco mortars, stools, and headrests. Most of the works 
collected by Barnes were from the French colonies in Africa, specifically Mali (then the 
''French Sudan''), Ivory Coast, Gabon and the Congo. Yet there are also objects from the .. 
'' 
present-day countries of Sierra Leone, the Republic ofB enin, and Nigeria 
Bames's first purchase of African art, in the summer of 1922, was his largest. He 
bought forty-seven works for a total 3o 5 f 71,025 francs, or approximately $14,205. Over 
30 of the pieces in this initial selection were figural, such as the Baule male (fig. 13) from 
Ivory Coast. Seven masks were also acquired, including an Ivory Coast face mask (fig. 
14), probably Senufo or Kulango, with traces of its indigeoous pigmentation. The more 
utilitarian objects purchased by Barnes that summer typically have a figural element, like 
the small staff top with two figures, probably of Kongo ethnic origin (fig. 15). 
57 
On November 6, 1922, the dealer Joseph Brummer opened an exhibition of 
African sculpture and modem European paintings at his New York gallery at 43 East 57th 
Street. The works displayed at Brummer's gallery crune from Paul Guillaume and B~es 
visited the exhibition three days after its opening: 
It seemed like a visit to your shop when I went in to Brummer's place in New 
York yesterday. Your Negro sculpture was very fu.miliar and makes decidedly the 
best exlubition of Negro sculpture we have ever had _in this country. I hope 
Brummer succeeds in selling all of the pieces fur you, but ifhe does not, I think it 
would be well for you to let some of them stay in this country so that they can in 
go in my new museum. 36 
Barnes decided to acquire three works from the exlnbition: a mask from Ivory Coast, a I ',  
I 
: I 
"Soudan" figure, and a Fang reliquary figure (fig. 16) from Gabon.37 They were : ' 
I ' 
'., 
purchased through Guillaume's gallery, not Brummer's, for a total of 45,500 francs. 
,, 
In the winter of 1922, Barnes returned to Pam and purchased an additional 30 
works from Guillaume's gallery for the sum of 131,110 francs or $26,222. Again, masks ',,( 
'I  IO 
I 
and figural statuary dominated the selection, with Barnes acquiring a number of Dan 
masks from Ivory Coast. The most expensive of these, at 6,000 francs, was a Dan mask 
retaining bits of raffia, beads and cowrie shells from its former life in Africa (fig. 17). 
Barnes also bought four small Bembe figures from the Congo (fig. 18), descn"bed as ''petit 
Sibiti" in reference to their geographic origin. Among the more utilitarian objects in this 
group were two Baule divination tappers (rnte d'Ivoire), referred to as ''marteau 
musicale." 
Owing the swnmer of 1923, Barnes acquired much fewer works from Guillaume. 
In J\Ule, he purchased only two masks, one from the Sudan and one from Cote d'Ivoire, 
and a reliquary guardian head from Gabon, for 56,250 :francs.38 In July, Barnes purchased, 
58 
-
for 7,110 francs, a small stone sculpture, attnbuted to the Kissi of Sierra Leone, and four 
objects listed as ''Figurine Zouenoula.',39 These latter works are most likely the heddle 
pulleys in the collection, as? in this example (fig. 19), which are attnbuted to the Guro of 
Ivory Coast.40 
There is also documentation, that same summer, of another purchase of a 
''Collection Lob~" for a total of 65,000 francs.41 The latter probably refers to a collection 
of miniature goldweights that were in Mrs. Bames's collection (fig. 20). She owned at 
least thirty-six works, mostly miniature pieces in metal and ivory. The collection included 
' "' 
twenty-seven bronze miniature castings of animals, attnbuted to the Lobi culture or'Ivory l I' 
Coast; two small ivory pendant masks, possibly Pende; three figural works attnbuted to 
the Kuba peoples; a small Dan wooden mask; a Lele wooden comb; and a pair of ivory 
bracelets. 42 
In December 1923, Barnes bought, for a total of79,500 francs, two masks, one of 
which was Dan, an "idol" from Ivory Coast and the Fon iron figure, referred to as 
''Dahomey'' 43 (fig. 21). This purchase also included the large carved relief door (fig. 22), 
attnouted to the Baule of Cote d'Ivoire, that would later figure prominently at the Barnes 
Foundation. Barnes appears to have ceased collecting, at least for a while, with this last 
purchase during his annual winter trip to Paris. 
Barnes apparently selected the works himself from Guillaume's gallery during his 
visits to Paris. Descnbing Barnes's modus operandi on a typical day, the critic Waldemar 
George wrote: 
We would take in five to ten museums and private collections, going to the 
Louvre, the Musee Ouimet (which houses the art of the Far East), the Musee 
59 
Ethnographique (which displays Pre-Columbian, African and Oceanic art) ... Paul 
Guillaume and his young wife were always with us. Toward eleven o'clock at 
night Barnes would ask them to open up their gallery on the Rue la Boetie, which 
had long been closed and which we got into via the service entrance. We stayed 
there till a late hour of the night looking at the African Negro sculptures and the 
paintings ofSoutine.44 
The first shipment of African art from Guillaume's gallery was in August 1922, and 
Barnes began to display the sculpture in his house for the first time shortly thereafter. 45 
In acquiring African art, Barnes saw an opportunity to establish a collection of 
note and he set high goals for himself. A few months after beginning to collect, Barnes 
announced these lofty aspirations to his dealer. ''Please remember," he wrote Guillaume, ''I 
intend to try to have the best private collection of Negro sculpture in the world.',46 . 
.? ~  
Barnes's acquisition of African sculpture remained a priority in his collecting overall. In .?  
November 1922, faced with rapidly increasing expenses associated with the establishment 
of his foundation, Barnes told Guillaume that he would have to limit his purchases. An 
exception was made for certain aspects of his collection that he wanted to augment. 
Barnes assured Guillaume that he would ''have enough cash to buy the work of men like 
Picasso, Matisse, Utrillo, etc., and to make my collection of Negro sculpture more 
complete.',47 
The Barnes Aesthetic 
Barnes appears to have developed his standards of aesthetic judgment while in the 
process of forming his collection In this regard, Paul Guillaume would certainly seem a 
strong influence, as Barnes acquired nearly the entire collection through Guillaume's 
gallery. Indeed, it has been assumed that the objects Barnes collected reflect the 
60 
aesthetic preferences of his dealer. According to William Rubin and Jean-Louis 
Paudrat, Guillaume typified the "classic" taste in African art, which is characterized as 
objects stressing "highly refined, often intricate workmanship, beautifully polished or 
patinated surfaces, and a restrained, stylized realism. '"'8 Rubin notes further that this 
"classic" taste, exemplified by masks of the Yaw-e, Baule and Guro, was often at odds 
with the preferences of artists like Picasso, who favored more abstract objects with 
rougher workmanship.49 
Many of the objects acquired by Barnes, like the delicately carved Baule mask 
(fig. 23) in the collection, do reflect these preferences. I argue, however, that this 
. 
aesthetic reflects Bames's taste and not that of Guillaume. In their voluminous ? j 
correspondence, Barnes rarely, if ever, questions Guillaume about African art or even 
solicits advice. In fact, :from ahnost the beginning of their association, Barnes does not 
hesitate to dispute Guillaume's stylistic attnbutions. For example, referring to a group of 
labels Guillaume had made for Barnes's African pieces, the collector wrote, ''One of the 
labels - for figure number 11 - reads 'Congo, (Bushongos)'; but the type seems to me pure 
Congo without any of the characteristics ofBushongo work as I have seen it.',so Barnes's 
cultural attributions, however, were not always accurate. In the example above, 
Congo is the region where the Bushongos (i.e., the Kuba ethnic group) reside. 
Even if we did not have such strong archival evidence, it can be clearly 
demonstrated that Bames's collection is a selective representation of what was 
available at the time. Guillaume evidently tried to present Barnes with a range of objects 
:from various cultw-es in West and Central Africa. In a letter to Barnes dated September 
61 
11, 1922 de ;J..;. ., .. scnv. . '!$ some recent pure.bases, Guillaume wrote that he had "quelques negres 
dont un mSl~nue bro me B ---i e,r u.n  et une 
belle  i.d ole du Gabon -J.e  vous trouverai pour l'annee 
prochaine ? que.Iques Dahomey et Congo pas cher.',.s1 
? 
Barnes, however, usually opted for 
works which .fell into the categories of" good" art he had established. 
A comparison between the Barnes collection and that of Han Coray, who also 
acquired his collection of African art through Guillaume during the same years as 
52 
Barnes, further suggests that Barnes formed his own African art aesthetic without 
Guillaume. Coray was a Swiss dealer who sponsored the first Dada exhibition in his 
Zurich gallery in Januazy 1917. The 1917 show included a number of African objects 
from Coray's own collection, purchased the previous year .from Paul Guillawne. 
From 1920 until 1928, Coray continued to buy works .from Guillaume's gallery, 
eventually assembling an impressive collection of approximately 2,400 works of 
African art. 
As Miklos Szalay has convincingly argued, Coray did not define "African art" 
narrowly. 53 Thus, while his collection did contain .figural statuary and masks, it also 
included numerous examples of objects for everyday use, such as musical instruments, 
weapons, jewelry and textiles. Some of the types of objects in Coray's collection 
Were similar to that of Barnes, such as the Bembe mother-and.child figure .from the 
Congo (fig. 24), probably sculpted by the same hand as some examples in the Barnes 
collection. yet Coray also selected a number of works from Nigeria, a region whose 
work did not appeal to Barnes, like the Igbo Janus-faced mask (fig. 25), 
62 
The rather select aesthetic of the Barnes coJlection was, I would argue, the result 
ofBames? . 
s restricted definition of"African art," which revealed a prererence for relatively 
naturalistic masks and fl~ statuazy from specific cultural regions. As he did ~th 
modernist Painting, Barnes probably reached his standards of aesthetic judgment by 
viewing the objects themselves after studying, then dismissing, the available texts. Of the 
:rew hooks on African art, Barnes apparently valued only the work of Roger Fiy.54 Fiy, 
however, does not distinguish between various forms of African art but discusses it more 
generany_ Barnes was also certainly aware of and had likely even read the primary 
,. 
ethnographic texts on African material culture. While these books provided him with a ,, ' . :..,.  
Ir 5... I r,  
generaJ cultural background upon which he could oose his aesthetic standards, it is 
Probable that Barnes also closely.s tudied the works Guillaume offered as wen as extant 
lllUseum collections. 
There were several existing collections ofA frican artiracts in American museums 
at the time. 55 None, however, were dedicated to "art" per se, but were museums of 
natural history. In New York, the American Musewn of Natural Histoiy had a large 
collection of objects primarily from Central Africa acquired from King Leopold of 
Belgium and from the museum's Congo Expedition in 
56 
1909. 'The Buflhlo Society of 
Natura1 Sciences (fig. 26), now the Buffillo Musewn of Science, owned two extensive 
collections of Afiican material .from the west coast of Africa as wen as a collection of 
57 
carved tusks that were executed during the Pan American Exposition of 1901. In 
Chicago, the Field Museum also displayed African artimcts in ''22 standard cases" on the 
second floo r. cu ra t or B . La-w-l:e r C.u11:.u..~a.-.-.,c..:;+c.-1!L-N-U-'  the museum's main attractions as ''bromes, 
63 
wood and ivory carvings from Benin, of which we have a rather comprehensive and 
representative collection. "58 
Closest to Barnes, however, was the African collection at the University Museum 
(fig. 27) of the University of Pennsylvania in western Philadelphia. Founded in 1887, the 
museum initially acquired a sizable number of objects from missionaries and explorers in 
Africa. Its early holdings included a large collection of Fang objects from Gabon 
presented by Reverend Robert Hamill Nassau in 1891 and about a hundred wor~ from 
the Kongo peoples in .zaire assembled by Reverend W. H. Leslie. The collection was not 
developed in a systematic manner, however, until around 1911 when the museum, under 
the guidance of director George Byron Gordon, began purchasing works from Africa 
through the British dealer W.O. Oldman, who regularly supplied the museum with non-
Western artifacts until his retirement in 1927.59 Through Oldman, the museum acquired a 
t"J  
group of sixty works from the kingdom of Benin, Nigeria that, together with an earlier 
acquisition from Henry Ling Roth, formed a rather significant collection of objects from a 
specific region. The museum's holdings were also particularly strong in works from 
Gabon and the Congo. 
The University Musewn in Philadelphia is the only established American museum 
collection of African art that Barnes consistently wrote about to Guillawne, suggesting 
that this collection was the one with which he was most :familiar.60 Although Barnes 
obviously visited the museum to study its collections, it appears that he had made aesthetic 
determinations prior to his visits. As early as Au~ of 1922, shortly after his first 
purchase from Guillaume, Barnes reported that: 
64 
the collection of Negro sculpture at the University Museum in this city comprises 
probably 200 pieces, mostly from Benin and Bushongo. They have no Ivory 
Coast, Sudan, Guinea, Sangha or the other important regions. Most of the pieces 
they have are not, according to my judgment, of the primitive savage types, but 
seem to be mixed with European in 6f 1l  uences.
In his response to Barnes, Guillawne agreed that the University Museum's collection was 
a mixed lot, assembled, he wrote, in the manner of ancient ethnographic collections. 62 
Guillaume advised that the museum would eventually want to sell off the collection, 
keeping only those works that were ''pur et de premier ordre." 
Barnes continued to visit the University Museum in order to study the collection 
and compare the works with those he had acquired from Guilla\Jfile. On September 22, 
1922, Barnes revealed his developing aesthetic sense with regard to African sculpture in a 
letter to Guillaume: 
Several times since I wrote you I have been to the University Museum to see the 
Negro sculpture and every time I look at it I realize how much better my pieces of 
sculpture are. I doubt if Mr. Hall, the man who wrote the articles on negro 
sculpture in the Museum Bulletin, has any fueling for art but is merely a writer 
who is :fiuniliar with various historical .fucts about it. The reason I say this is that 
he has a really beautiful Gabon head, which is listed as a Congo piece, and a rather ? 
nice figure which is typically Sudan, which is also listed as Congo. 63 
Guillaume wrote back to Barnes about the ''tete Gabon," possibly this Fang reliquary 
guardian head (fig. 28), that Barnes had admired in the University Museum collection, 
stressing the importance of the object type. He advised Barnes that although technically 
the object derived from the Congo "l'art est si distinct de Ia production du vaste Congo 
qui il est trop sommaire aujourd'hui de designer sous le nom de Congo un objet des 
Pahouins du Gabon. ,,64 
65 
Barnes eventually met with Henry Usher Hall, the curator at the University 
MUSeum. Hall, who approached the collection from the perspective of ethnography, was 
dismisscd by Barnes as a man insensitive to the artistic merits of African sculpture. 
65 
Barnes had no compunction about correcting Hall's attnbutions of some of the works, 
probably those mentioned in an earlier letter to Guillaume, and clearly set an antagonistic 
tone in his dealings with Hall. 66 
Barnes also maintained a relationship, of sorts, with the curator of the B~klyn 
Institute of Arts and Sciences, Stewart Cuiin. Culin was assembling a collection of 
African art for the museum during the same years Barnes was collecting. Interestingly, 
Culin had previously been director of the University of Pennsylvania Musewn from 1892 
until 1903. As the first curator of the newly established Department of Etlmology at the 
lllUseum, now known as the Brooklyn Musewn, Cuiin made African art a priority fur his 
collecting. 
Barnes was skeptical of Culin's aesthetic' seDSibilities and disdainful of the 
collection of African art he was assembling fur the Brooklyn Museum. ''I know how 
highly you esteem [Culin's] rare artistic sensitivity and keen intelligence in all matters 
relating to negro art," Barnes wrote to Guillaume in a puticu.larly acerbic letter, 
suggesting that Culin's collection was comprised ofl akes: ''Especially do I know that you 
Will be interested in learning that he succeeded in 0 btaining a :fine collection ofp ieces from 
the Belgian Congo, at a ve.ry small price. It would be valuable to kn~w whether the pieces 
7 
Were mad e I?l 
 learly 
l the Congo, in Italy, or in one of the st
' d ~ stre et s Of  Pa n?s . ,'6 Ba me s c 
distinguished between his own collecting and that of Culin. which was squarely within the 
66 
tradition of ethnographic collecting. As Diana Fane bas observed about Culin's collecting 
of Native American artifucts, his twin goals were for the collection to be both 
representative and complete. 68 
Guillawne, too, was dismissive ofCulin's collection, at least to Barnes. He wrote 
''pour moi cette collectionse resurnait ah uit pieces," singling out for praise only a number 
of decorative weapons trat he sketched for Barnes in his letter. Guillaume compared 
Bames's collection to 1hat of Culin, stating that Culin's collection was . merely 
"documentaires" while those objects Barnes purchased were aesthetic.69 Elaborating on 
,IM.,  
this observation, Guillaume commented that "toutes pieces de haute noblesse qui feront 
bien lorsqu'elles se rencontreront dans le salon de !'exposition de garder leurs distances 
,, 
avec ces compagnons aux origines et au physique incertains ....M r Culin ne comprend pas ,, 
Ia selection."70 Selection, that is, the conscious application of aesthetic criteria to the 
funnation of a collection, was now a key issue for both Guillaume and Barnes. 71 
To Culin's face, however, both Barnes and Guillaume were outwardly respectful. 
Barnes even initially offered to loan his African art collection to an exhibition that Culin 
had proposed. One month later, however, Barnes changed his mind about participating in 
Culin's exhibition. Barnes felt that Culin was not discriminating enough in the objects 
selected for the exlubition. On November 9, 1922, he wrote Guillaume, "The pieces 
[Culin] bought in London and in Brussells [sic] are, as you wrote me, inferior even if 
genuine: and the wt letter he wrote me about making a conalomerate exhibition of all the 
things he proposed, leads me to think that it would be _undiantB,ed fbr either you or me to 
be identified with that exlibition. "n Barnes later declined to participate, stating that the 
67 
objects Were badly split due to the changes in temperature. To Guillaume, however, 
Barnes privately confided that he refused the loan to Cu1in because Barnes believed that 
the exhibition would "not serve the pwpose which ~u and I believe negro art should 
serve."73 
Culin's exhibition, ''Primitive Negro Art," opened at the Brookl)n Institute 
MUSeum in Apnl of 1923. The collection featured works primarily from the then-Belgian 
Congo, especially those objects made by the Kuba. Culin emphasized, in the ~gue, 
that tbe objects were presented for their artistic properties: 
.. ., 
The entire colle tc ?, tio II n, whatever may have been its original uses, is shown under the Ii? f 
~~ion ofa rt; as representing a creative :"ulse, n .ii and not fur the purpose of .. , 
illustrating the customs I of ? t he African peoples. I .... 
Cuiin's definition of"African art," however, was much broader than that ofBarnes. While ' ,",  
the exhibition included some figural works and masks, as seen in this installation 
Photograph (fig. 29), it also presented weapons, utensils, game boards (a special interest 
of Culin's), clothing am objects of personal adornment (fig. 30). Barnes evidently had 
little regard for Culin's broad definition ofA frican art 
Barnes also dismissed American dealers of African art and fellow collectors with 
similar interests. As previously noted, Barnes was not the first American collector of 
African art. In .&ct, his nemesis John Quinn began 0011ecting African art as early as 1914, 
through dealers like Alfred Stieglitz and Robert Coady, and amassed a small collection of 
about thirty-six African and Pre-Columbian 15 works by 1924. Despite bis reservations 
about Quinn, Barnes was intrigued by the apparent ~.lication, in January 1923, of an 
"edition de luxe" featuring the 76 African art collection of John Quinn. Barnes describes 
68 
the book as a photographic album featuring the photography of Charles Sheeler: "The 
finest thing is a Gabon head but there are a number of other good pieces and the total 
number of photographs is twenty-four."77 
Promoting the Collection 
In October 1922, Barnes purchased the land for his foundation, an educational 
institution that would exhibit not only modem art and African sculpture but ~' as 
phrased by Barnes, "older pictures."78 Barnes was keenly interested in promoting both his 
' , I 
i:: 
collection and his plans for an educational institution based on the collection. In 
November of 1922, he was approached by Forbes Watson, editor of The Arts, one of the 
leading art journals in the United States. Watson wanted to feature The Barnes 
Foundation in the January 1923 issue, and Barnes was quick to respond. Granting The 
Arts the :first public announcement of his project, Barnes sent Watson the plans and 
elevations for the new building and persuaded Paul Cret, the Foundation's architect, to 
write a description. 
'The January 1923 issue of The Arts devoted a significant portion to articles 
featuring the Barnes Foundation. Paul Cret, the architect for the building, contnbuted a 
piece on the building's plan and merits of installation accompanied by an illustration of its 
:front elevation. Forbes Watson produced a lengthy article entitled ''Tlie Barnes 
Foundation." In promoting the Foundation in The Arts, a key issue was the authorship of 
an article on Barnes's collection of African sculpture. Forbes Watson had originally 
planned to have Marius de Zayas review the collection, but Barnes persuaded Watson to 
69 
Jet Guillaume write the article. "An article by him would be something worthwhile," 
Barnes wrote, "for he is the man who first .introd~ negro art to Europe and to him all 
questions are referred by the mere vvriters ofb ooks on the subject. "79 
Barnes sent a cable on January 16, 1923 asking Guillawne to submit within three 
Weeks time a "strong authoritative article .?. on my carvings with photographs., ,so 
Ahbougb Guillaume sent Barnes an article the rollowing 100nth, 81 Watson ended up 
publishing "Negro Art" by Marius de Z.ayas in the March 1923 ~ an article ~t did 
not address the Barnes Foundation's collection. Barnes, stung by his perceived rejection 
',, I .:.J..  
by Watson, dismissed the event as "a characteristic piece of expJoit.ation by that shabby /1 5 
crowd of politicians and commercialists who are prominent in art circles," refemng to 
Watson, de Zayas, and Charles Sheeler (who had photographed the works in de Z.ayas's 
article). 82 
Coinciding with the announcement in 1be Arts, an exlubition of ''recent 
8Cqukitions" by the Barnes Foundation opened at Paul Gldllawne's gallery on January 22, . 
1923 ? Ouillaume had been named Foreign secre~ of the Barnes Foundation just the 
Pl'evious week. The exmbition included both paintings by European modem.fsts and 
African sculpture. The latter was prominentlY prollX>ted through the press release 
, &eco!Dpanyiog the show, which was written by Barnes. ''There are on exhibition thirty-
five (35) pieces of Ancient Negro Sculpture, which aJfogotber makes a better and more 
l'epresentative collection ofn egro art than is to be found in any musewn not excepting the 
Congo Museum at Brussels. o r the British Museum ,,aJ ? ' 
70 
Guillaume also published a special isme of Les Arts a Paris dedicated to the 
Barnes Fowxiation. The issue included an article on the educational plans fur the 
Foundation. "La Fondation Barnes, une experience d'education." written by Barnes and 
translated by Guillaume into French. Guillaume contnbuted two articles, "Negro Art at 
the Barnes Foundation," and "Le Recent voyage du Dr Barnes a Paris," and Waldemar 
George wrote, "A Propos des bas-reliefs de Lipchitz a1 a Fondation Barnes." Barnes was 
clearly pleased with the issue, especially the opportwuty it provided to have his id~ reach 
a new audience. 
Bames's increasing confidence in his own ta&e and selections, furthered by the 
excitement generated by the announcement about the Barnes FoundatiOI\ resulted in a 
more authoritative tone in his correspondence with Guillaume. Barnes often advised 
Guillaume on strategies for selling objects from his gallery in the United States and 
emphasiz.ed the importance of the Barnes Foundation in establishing a market fur African 
art. On March 6, 1923, Barnes wrote Guillaume: 
I received the photographs of the fifty-six (56) pieces which you say you have 
offered to Culin for four hundred ($400.00) dollars. I believe it would pay you 
better to keep those yourself and sell them in America after a couple of years when 
negro art will become well-known here through the exhibition of the collection in 
the Folllldation. I am sure you could get more than twice the amount of rnoney 
you ask for them, and ify ou wish you may send them to me and I c.an keep them 
on storage in my laboratory until such time as there is a demand for negro art 
among people who have not much money to spend fur such objects. I suggest 
that you send them now because you state that the French govenunent will soon 
prevent negro sculptures from being sent out ofF rance. 84 
In Bames's own collecting of African sculpture, however noble his intentions, there was 
clearly an element of "cornering th: market." Barnes had adopted similar strategies with 
71 
other works in his collection, most notably his "discovery" of the artist Soutine, as well 
with his collecting ofa large number of late Renoirs.85 
Another strategy that Barnes advised Guillaume to adopt was to maintain a 
selection of high quality Afiican art on exlnbit at the gallery as Guillaume's private 
collection. The cache ofthis col/ectionparticuliere would serve to inflate the value of the 
objects, which could then be sold at a high price.86 
The association between Barnes and Guillaume, begun less than one y~ prior, 
had clearly transformed from a collector-dealer relationship into a mentor-tutor one. The 
announcement of plans for the Foundation, with its surprisingly strong response, seems to 
have been a catalyst that shifted the dynamics. Somewhat patronizingly Barnes wrote 
Guillaume: 
Your little gallery must be surprised to get so much attention. You will remember 
that I predicted that it would be a great sensation and that you would be the most 
talked about man in French art circles. The advertising value will be enonnous 
and I wish you had more fine paintings and more choice negro pieces to sell at 
high prices to the people who will surely come to the gallery long after the 
exhibition is closed.8 7 
Barnes clearly saw himself now as not only Guillaume's advisor in matters aesthetic but 
also as a promoter of Guillaume's importance both in Paris and in the United States. 
While establishing the Barnes Foundation on an international scale as an art 
institution of significance was foremost on Barnes's mind, he also saw an opportunity to 
enhance the reputation of his dealer. As part of this plan, Barnes encouraged Guillaume to 
write a book on African art, one that would be definitive. The book. featuring Bames's 
collection of African art8 would be published in 1926 as Primitive Negro Sculpture. 
Though authorship is credited to by Guillaume and Barnes Foundation tMCher Thomas 
72 
Munro, the publication, as will be demonstrated in the following chapter, truly codifies 
Bames's definition of African art. 
73 
NOTES FOR CHAPTER TWO: 
I 
BaLmetete rF f rom A.l b ert B mnes to Paul Guillaume, November 9, 1923. Archives of The 
s oundation. 
2 William Schack, Art and ArmoL 23. 
3 p? 
ierre Cabanne, The Great Collectors, 166. 
4 
Howard Greenfeld, The Devil and Dr. Barnes 31. 
5 
Schack, Art and Armol, 75. 
6 
p ~a~enma.ker, "Dr. Albert C. Barnes and The Barnes Foundation," Great French 
_ amtmgs from the Barnes Foundation, 6. 
7 
B~s would later describe his self-education in Paris in his article, "How to Judge 
a Pamtm' g,' ' Arts and Decoration 5, no. 6 (April 1915): 217-220, 246, 248-250. 
8 
B Anne _Distel addresses Barnes's collecting of modernist painting in her essay, "Dr. ?", 
am.es m Paris," in Great French Paintings from the Barnes Foundation. 
9 
MA mbroise Vollard, Recollections of a Picture Dealer, trans. from French by Violet 
? MacDonald (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1936), 138. 
10 
" Letter from Albert Barnes to Arthur B. Davies, February 4, 1913, as quoted in 
FT he Barnes Foundation Historic References," gallery brochure, The Barnes? 
OtJndation, 1995. 
II 
Although earlier biographers of Barnes have stated that Barnes did not buy 
::bing at the Armory Show (See Shack, Art and Ar~l 83), ~e Distel not~s 
. Barnes purchased a painting by Maurice de V.laminck there, m Dr. Barnes m 
P ans," 35. 
12 As quoted by Wattenmaker, "Dr. Albert c. Barnes and The Barnes Foundation," 8. 
13 For an in-depth analysis of Quinn as collector, see Judith Zilczer, "The Noble 
B_uyer:" John Quinn, Patron of the Avant-Garde (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian 
Institution Press, 1978). 
14 ' 
" Judith Zilczer explores Quinn's relationship with fellow modern art pa?'ons in 
John Quinn and Modern Art Collectors in America, 1913-1924," The AmerICan Art 
~ (Winter 1982): 56-71. 
74 
15 Kristian Romare, "Collector Agents from the Peripheries," Third Text 35 (Summer 
1996): 84. 
16 Guy Pene Du Bois, "A Modem Collection," Arts and Decoration 14 (June 1914): 
304. 
17 Du Bois, "A Modem Collection," 305. 
18 Barnes, "How to Judge a Painting," 246. 
19 The development of Barnes's aesthetic philosophy and, in particular, the influence 
of John Dewey upon Barnes's "method" is explored by Megan Granda Bahr in her 
dissertation "Albert C. Barnes, Work, and the Work of Art," forthcoming, University 
of Texas, Austin. 
20 Giraudon, Paul Guillaume et les Peintres, 80. 
21 From a 1936 address by Barnes to Central High School on "The Art of the 
American Negro," as quoted by Gilbert M. Cantor, The Barnes Foundation, Reality 
vs. Myth, 78. 
22 Cabanne, The Great Collectors,176-77. Other biographers, such as William 
Schack, make only passing references to the derivation of Barnes's interest in African 
sculpture. 
23 Barnes, "Negro Art and America," Survey Graphic (March 1925): 668-669. 
24 Barnes, "Negro Art and America," 668. 
25 Cabanne relates that Barnes, as a young man, sang ''negro spirituals" for the captain of a 
tanker traveling from Antwerp to New York in exchange for free passage, in The Great 
Collectors, 164. The story is corroborated by Howard Greenfeld, The Devil and Dr. 
Barnes. 10. 
26 Howard Greenfeld. The Devil and Dr. Barnes, 11. 
27 Ibid, 5. 
28 George Santayana, The Sense of Beauty (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 
1896), 1. 
29 J.B. Bullen, "Introduction," xxi, in Roger Fry. Vision and Design 
75 
30 In a March 9, 1923 letter to Guillaume, Barnes notes that the illustrations in the De 
Zayas and Sheeler book "are of pieces [de Zayas] had for sale some years ago." 
Archives of The B!ll"lles Foundation. The sale referred to was almost certainly the 
exhibition "African Negro Sculpture" held from January 26 to Februacy 9, 1918 for 
which Sheeler and de Zayas published their limited edition portfolio of photographs, 
African Negro Sculpture, with a preface by De Zayas. The language used in Barnes's 
letter, however, renders it unclear as to whether Barnes actually saw the pieces at the 
De Zayas Gallery during the exhibition. 
31 Zilczer "Robert Coady," 83. 
32 Ibid., 83. 
33 As quoted by Zilczer, ''Robert Coady," 83. 
34 93 objects in the collection are accounted for by several receipts: a November 9, 
1922 receipt for 47 objects (purchased the summer of 1922); a December 22, 1922 
receipt for 30 objects; a January 15, 1923 receipt for 5 works purchased from 
Brummer's exhibition; a June 1923 receipt for 3 objects and a "collection Lobi," the 
latter probably referring to the miniature goldweights owned by Mrs. Barnes; a July 
1923 for 5 works; and a December 1923 for 5 objects. Archives of The Barnes 
Foundation. 
35 A note from Barnes to Guillaume refers to an enclosed check as "partial payment 
for the paintings and negro sculpture I bought of you," July 13, 1922. Archives of 
The Barnes Foundation. 
36 Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, November 9, 1922. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
37 Receipt from Paul Guillaume's gallery to Barnes Foundation dated January 5, 1923 
listing purchases ''from Brummer." Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
38 Receipt from Paul Guillaume to Albert Barnes dated June 26, 1923. Archives of 
The Barnes Foundation. 
39 Receipt from Guillaume to Barnes dated July 31, 1923. Archives of The Barnes 
Foundation. 
40 Zouenoula refers to the northern part of Guro territory. 
41 Receipt from Guillaume to Barnes dated June 26, 1923. Archives of The Barnes 
Foundation. 
76 
.. 
-------'.-:'-=-=-=---------
---------- -
42 Th 
.her ~au:a Barnes collection was bequeathed to the Brooklyn Museum of Art upon 
bee h m 1967. Information on the objects from the Laura Barnes bequest has 
n ~enerously provided by the Registrar's Office at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, 
laoc cession numb. e rs 67.25.1 - 67.25.42. UnforttmateJy, the Brooklyn Museum no 
u nger owns obJects :from the collection, and the conection description herein is based 
P<>n accession record descriptions. 
43 
B Receipt :from Paul Guillaume to Barnes dated December 31, 1923. Archives of The 
antes Foundation. 
44 
As quoted in Schack, Art and ArmoL 140 
4S 
Barnes writes Guillaume on August 7, 1922: "The .first shipment of cases 'arrived 
two days ago and I have already placed the negro sculpture in my _house. It looks fine 
~ I am sure will be very much admired." Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul 
uillaume, Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
45 
Th LeBtter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, November 27, 1922. Archives of n 
e antes Foundation. " 
47 
Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, November 17, 1922. Archives of 
The Barnes Foundation. 
41R.. ? , ??? ,,. th 
ubm, "Modenist Primitivism: An Introduction." m ..P ri.mitIVJSm 1D 20 Centwy 
~ New York: The Musewn of Modem Art, 1984) 17. Paudrat also stresses this 
P<>mt in "From Africa," 152. 
49 
Rubin, "Modernist Primitivism," 17. 
so 
n~~tter :from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, August 11, 1922. Archives of The 
~es Foundation.. 
51 
Letter :from Paul Guillawne to Albert Barnes, Sept. 11, 1922. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
52 
In 1995-96, the VlHkerlrundemuseum der Universitllt ZOrich exlub~ed 200 ~orks 
fro.rn the Coray collection and published an extensive catalogue edited by ~ 6s 
:7.aJay, Atiikanische Kunst aus der sammlung Han Coray 1916-1928 (Muruch: 
restel, 1995), in conjunction with the exhibition. 
SJ 
See Szalay, "KJassik," ibid., 9-15. 
77 
54 
Barnes d' ? 
earlier isnus~d the writings of Clive Ben, though Ben had been cited by Barnes 
howe on as an influence in his "How to Judge a Painting" from 1915. Even then, 
conno~er, Barnes wrote "I suspect Clive Bell of being a writer rather than a 
JSSeur." Barnes, "How to Judge a Painting," 248 
ss 
ll1a~~oo.ldyn _Museum Archives provide a fairly comprehensive account of African 
Mu e m Amencan museum collections, ca 1922-23. During those years, Brooklyn 
cAo1&iis e~um  curator Stewart Cu.Jin was developing the museum's own collection of art and wrote to other museum curators asking for a summary of their 
Coll cti~ns. The information in this paragraph is derived from the Culin Archival 
ection (General Correspondence), The Brooklyn Museum Archives. 
a56n f n the ~ongo Expedition of Herbert Lang and James Chapin, see Enid Schildkrout 
U-ni C~is Keirn, African Reflections: Art from Northeastern .la.ire (Seattle: 
versrty of Washington Press, 1990). 
' till 
57 ''t? 
M "? For a discussion of the fonnation of ethnographic collections at the Buffalo 1jl :; , ,/11 
~se~ of Science, see RM. Gramly, "Art and Anthropology on a Sliding Scale," in .. .",  
(New York: The Center for African Art, 1988) 33-39. 
58 
AxL e~er from B. Laufer, Field Musewn, to Stewart Culin, November 21, 1922. Culin 
chival Collection (General Correspondence), The Broo.k]yn Museum Archives. 
59 
S Allen Wardwell documents the development of this extensive collection in African 
~ture from the University of Pennsylvania Museum (Philadelphia: Philadelphia 
useum ofA rt, 1976), 16-17. 
60 
B~es also wrote about the Brooklyn Museum. but the African collection there 
Was Just being assembled by then curator Stewart Culin. Beyond the United States, 
the only other musewn collections of African art that Barnes ever mentions in his 
;t~~rs to Guillaume are those of the Congo Museum in Tervuren, Belgium and the 
ntishMuseum. 
61 
B Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, August 11, 1922. Archives of The 
arnes Foundation. 
62 
B Letter from Paul Guillaume to Albert Barnes, September 5, 1922. Archives of The 
arnes Foundation. 
63 
T~etter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume,, September 22, 1922. Archives of 
Barnes Foundation. ? 
78 
- -- -- -----
64 
B Letter from Paul Guillaume to Albert Barnes, October 5, 1922. Archives of The 
o::s Foundation. The letter included a hand-drawn map of the territory by 
fc h wne to emphasize his point. The tenn "Pahouin" is the French colonial name 
or t e ethnic group Fang in Gabon. 
65 
his B~es. wrote Guillaume that Hall "is an affected, superficial person with only 
do t~~ical infonnation. He is not as sensitive to fonn, feeling and expression as my 
Tug. Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, December l, 1922. Archives of 
e Barnes Foundation. 
~, . . 
. told him a number of his attributions are wrong and he got quite excited ... he is 
;;::.ently afraid of me. I have the reputation of talking in public about pret~ders." 
67 
Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, October 6, 1922. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
68 ' 
Fane, Obiects of Myth and Memozy, 21. "I  ' 
69 GuilJa ume singled out a Guro mask from Cote d'Ivoire and a Fang head from Gabon as 
J>articularly beautiful examples. 
70 
Letter from Paul Guillaume to Albert Barnes, October 16, 1922. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
71 
Regarding the Congo Museum in Tervuren, Belgium, Barnes wrote dismissively, "I 
had always understood the pieces they had were the first selections and had been ? 
obtained by the first ones on the spot in the wild regions of Africa." Letter from 
Albert Barnes to Stewart Culin, October 6, 1922. Archives of The Barnes 
Foundation. 
72 
Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, November 9, 1922. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
73 
Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillawne, March 26, 1923. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
74 . 
Stewart Culin, Primitive Negro Art (New York: The Brooklyn Museum, 1923) 
75 
Judith Zilczer, "Alfred Stieglitz and John Quinn: Allies in the American Avant-
Gar~e," The American Art Journal (Swnmer 1985): 2!; see also notes 15-16. 
Ironically, eighteen African sculptures from Quinn's collection were purchased by the 
University ofP ennsylvania Museum after his death. 
19 
76 
thisT her~a re, to ~ knowledge, no extant copies oft his book. Although it is possible that 
of~ be ~e 'Pho!ograpbs ofM odem Painting and Sculpture and oft he Masterpieces 
- ~TheArt advertised for sale by the Arts Publishing Corporation in the January 1923 
0 Am, those photographs do not seem to have been bound into a book. 
B"WL: tter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, January 19, 1923. Archives of The 
The :to~dat~on. "I just saw an edition de luxe of John Quinn's negro sculptw-e. 
total st thing JS a Gabon head but there are a number of other good pieces and the 
int n~ber of photographs is twenty-four. I saw also another book, with an 
finroduction by De Zayas, with about twenty-five illustrations, many of them quite 
to :hisS heeler, who got the books published, told me that all the pieces were brought 
country by De Zayas and most of them sold here." 
11 "H 
old ~tofore I have collected only modem pictures but from now on I intend to buy 
Pau7J :~ures regardless of names if they are good." Letter from Albert Barnes to 
ume, October 11, 1922. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
I j /!~ IJ 
79 J/1 
Letter from Albert Barnes to Forbes Watson, January 14, 1923. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
80 C 
The ablegram from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillawne, January 16, 1923, Archives of 
Barnes Foundation. 
8J 
be B~s acknowledges receipt of Guillaume's article on African art - ''very fine and 
F autiful" - in a Feb. 12, 1923 Jetter to Guillaume. Archives of The Barnes 
OUlldation. . 
82 -
Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, March 9, 1923. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
83 
Press release dated January 31, l923. Archives ofThe Barnes Foundation. 
84 
B Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, March 6, 1923. Archives of The 
arnes Foundation. 
85 
In a letter to Guillaume dated Jan. 16 1923, Barnes urged Guillaume to buy and 
then set aside paintings by Soutine in ord;r to sell them at a higher market price based 
on new demand. Barnes to Guillaume, Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
~iarding Bames's many pw-chases of Renoir, Christopher Riopelle_h as put fo";11 the 
Idea that Barnes was again attempting to drive up, the ~ket pn~ by ~reatmg _a 
dellland Ri n "Wh S Man n-.. :""" ., lecture in conJuhnec tBio n withF P huinladdaet'l phia. ope e, y o f lWIN'"'1' ,.  
~~~wn O of Art exhibition, ''Great French Paintings from t arnes ion, 
80 
86 
Barnes wrote to Guillaume: "I strongly advise you to take seriously what I have 
told you about the great opportunity you have to make a lot of money on Negro Art, 
merely by keeping your best pieces on exposition as your private collection in Paris. 
If collectors wish to buy those pieces you should sell them only at a very high price." 
Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, November 9, 1923. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
87 
Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, February 4, 1923. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
;~I ,I 
?~ 
ir., I 
,,,11,  
.,I.  
81 
Chapter Three: 
DEFINING AFRICAN ART 
Not until the recent opening of the Barnes Foundation, fur pwposes of education 
and research, has there been availabJe a collection representing all the chief schools 
ofn egro sculpture, selected entirely from the standpoint ofa rtistic value. 1 
- Primitive NW"Q Sculptw-e, 1926 
In developing a collection of African art that was to be, .in Bames's words, both 
"c omprehensive" and ''representative" the collector was, in essence, de.fining African art. 
The objects Barnes selected and displayed, first at his h:>1ne and then .in the galleries of his .,:,u. ., 
?'I 
educational foundation, fostered a particular taste .in and way of Joo.king at African art. :/1: 
?:'  
The aesthetic criteria and ideological perspectives manifest in Bames's African art ' 
collection are, I maintain, ultimately re&cted .in Primitfye Negro Sc\dpture. published in 
1926 by the Barnes Foundation. 
This chapter considers Primitive Negro Sculpture as the codification of Bames's 
aesthetic tenets as applied to African sculpture. Although authorship of Primitive Nc.:aro ? 
.Scumtu_r,,. is credited to Paul Guillaume and Thomas Munro, archival research reveals the 
formative role Albert Barnes played .in both its evolution and content. I discuss first the 
origins of the text, evaluating the contributions of Guillaume, Munro and Barnes to the 
1inaI product, and situate the text within the context of other publications on the aesthetics 
of African art. I then consider the aesthetic criteria and doctrine advocated .in Primitive 
Negro Sc~ as a reflection of Bames's beliefs, comparing the text to the content of 
Bames's Aftican art collection. In particular, the regional traditions and ~ 
82 
-
Characte . ' , 
nstics prollX)ted m the text will be analyud as providing a selective definition of 
African art. 
The Origw l)f''Primitive Negro Sculpture" 
The initial .idea of writing a ?,Dok on African art based on Barnes's coilection 
apJ>ears to have stemmed from the article Guillaume bad Mitten, at Barnes's request, fur 
~ in Janwuy 1923. Although The Arts u1timate1y published an article by~ de 
Z.ayas instead of that by Guillaume, as discussed in the preceding chapter, Barnes was 
'l/ I 
determined to see Guillaume's article in print. In March of 1923, Barnes wrote to II ' :: ) 
?I 
Guillarnne, proposing that his article be included in a planned book on Bames's African art 
COilection: 
Your article on Negro Art is so nne that I shall print it in the catalogue of the 
Folllldation which will be illustrated - so you need not regret the .fiasco about it 
with the journal You .have the English transJation which you can study at your 
leisure and see if you wish to change what you have Mitten. The catak>gue will 
not be published for a year or more. 2 
In the full of 1923, Barnes began disc~ more seriously with Guillaume his 
Plans for a book~ on the collection. Construction was well underway on the 24-
roozn galJeiy and 12-room ivdmioistration ooi1ding of the Barnes Foundation. The 
Foundation, though housing Bames's art collection, was designed as an educational 
institution, not a museum. Barnes t,hererore needed texts that could be used in 
CO.tyunction with the co1Jection and that would reflect the approach to art appreciation that 
he was proznoting through the Foundation. 
83 
In November 1923, Barnes outlined his ideas for a book on African art. Though 
he was appealing to Guillaume to mite the book, Barnes planned to strongly influence the 
develo.PIDent oft he text. He wrote to Guillaume: 
Your position demands that you write a book on negro art. You could do it 
?etter than any other person and I should be glad to read your manuscript and 
mcorporate some basic aesthetic, psychological and philosophical principles 
~t would help make the book the authoritative one on that subject. After it 
18 published in France, I would translate it and publish it here as one of the 
educational books of the Foundation. 3 
As will be demonstrated, the resulting publication, ~ Negro Sculpture, was clearly 
guided by and reflects the detailed aesthetic analyses ofA lbert Barnes. ::1.1 
111 1 
,"C i' t ' 
Given the rather lengthy list of books and articles that Barnes did mite, both :i.ii  
before and after the publication of Primitive N<WQ ScuJ,pture, it might seem odd that 
Barnes did not seek authorship of his own book on African sculpture. Yet, employing 
0 thers to mite his own analytical observations was not new to Barnes. He had earlier 
negotiated with the French critic Waldemar George about a history ofE uropean painting 
4 
that George was to mite through the lens ofBames's aesthetic theory.
Barnes's reluctance to author the book may be further explained by his desire to 
Inake a name fur the dealer Guillaume in the United States. Barnes recogniz.ed the 
Ullportant role that Guillaume had played in Europe in drawing public attention to the 
artistic properties of A:fiican sculpture. With Guillaume as author, Barnes felt, the book 
Would augment the yoq dealer's growing reputation and, at the same time, fuel the 
.ll1arket fur African art. As Barnes explained to Guillaume: 
A book of that 1cind would give you :first position in the world on negro art and 
would be a demonstration that, as I told Waldemar George, you are only 
84 
incidentally a dealer. It would also be of great help to spread your fume among 
collectors and would increase your sales ofb oth paintings and negro art. 5 
Not incidentally, by promoting Paul Guillaume's reputation in the United States, Barnes 
could further the importance of his own collection of African art because it was acquired 
entirely from Guillaume's galleiy. 
Although Guillaume had been planning since at least 1920 to write a more detailed 
book on African art than his 1917 collaboration with Apollinaire,6 the dealer apparently 
took some coaxing to generate a manuscript. Barnes let the matter rest fur a fuw 'months 
and then repeated his request more vigorously: 
In about ten months the galleiy of the Barnes Foundation will contain what i<, 
probably the most important collection of Negro Art in the world and we shall 
have no book descriptive ofNegro Art to which we can refer people who wish to 
learn something about it. .. since you were the man who did most to bring Negro 
Art to the attention of the public, nobody but Paul Guillaume should be the author 
oft he book which we desire. Ify ou write such a book I would go over it carefully 
and put in enough material about the psychological phases and art values of the 
subject to try to make your book the most important one of its kind that has ever 
beendone.7 
Apparently inspired by the urgent tone ofBarnes's letter, Guillaume began working on a ? 
more extensive manuscript fur a book on the Foundation's African art collection in 
Februacy 1924.8 
~iye Nao SculPture" in Context 
The proposed text was, ofc ourse, not the first book to discuss objects :from Africa 
from an aesthetic viewpoint. In addition to those works, primarily French, that were 
I 
considered in Chapter One, a number of other publicatiorw focused on the artistic 
appreciation of objects from Africa. The earliest of these was Negemlast!k. published in 
85 
1915 by Carl Einstem. , an infI uenr ial wri.t er and cri.t i.c  m.  the Gennan Expressionist 
movement. The book is generally considered to be the first publication to present a 
number ofo bjects from Africa entirely from the perspective of art. 9 Einstein addresses the 
subject with a short introduction fuHowed by 111 p}K>tographic reproductions illustrating a 
variety of Afiican sculpture. His essay discusses the influence of African art on painting, 
the relationship between religion and art in Africa, and the perception ofv olume in African 
SCUipture, then focuses on masks and other oiject types. 
Although the textual section advocates the artistic appreciation of Aiix:an 
scwpture, an emphasis on fonn is imst evident visually in the photographic reproductions. 
.Presented entirely .from a formal point of view, there is no infonnation given for any oft he 
0 biects reproduced, either in a caption or in an a~ other than the plate number. 
Multiple photographic views for several of the objects further encourage artistic 
appreciation of the objects. For examp~ a mortuary post from Madagascar rnunted 
by a male figure and a remale figure ~ featured in five separate views (:fig. 31 ). 10 
A fonnal perspective also influences the organization oft he works themselves in 
the catalogue section While certain categories of objects seem to have been grouped 
according to region, such as reliqualy guardian .figures from Gabon, others appear to have 
been arranged according to structural or trematic simiJarities. A Teke male .figure from 
Congo and a Senufo .female figure from northern Cote d'Ivoire are thus juxtaposed in 
plates 70 and 71, presumably because oft heir similarly styled crested coiffure (fig. 32). 
British critics were also writing about Afii~ sculpture. Inspired by a 1920 
exhibition of3 0 African 0 ~ at the Chelsea Book Club in London, Roger Fzy wrote his 
86 
widely read essay, ''Negro Sculpture." Fry bad visited the extnbition with Virginia Woolf 
on April 15 oft hat 11 year and published bis review in Athenaeum the following day. In his 
essay, Fry focuses on two specific aspects of Afiican sculpture: its freedom from 
representational accuracy and its fonnal emphases highlighting three-dimensionality. 
Fry is enthusiastic, albeit grudgingly, in his praise for African art: 
We have the habit of thinking that the power to create expressive plastic fonn is 
one of the greatest of human achievements, and the names of great sculptors are 
handed down from generation to generation, so that it seems unfirir to be ~reed to 
admit that certain nameless savages have posse~ this power not only in a higher 
degree than we at this moment, but than we as a nation have ever possessed it. 
And yet that is where I find myself I have to admit that some of these things are 
great scuJpture - greater, I thmk, than anything we produced even in the Middle 
Ages.12 
What Fry believes distinguishes African sculpture :from Western traditions is "complete 
plastic :freedom," or an ability to recreate form in three-dimensions. Yet despite his 
recognition of the creativity of African artists, Fry ultimately concludes that ''fur want of a 
comcious critical sense and the intellectual powers of comparuon and classification ... the 
negro has failed to create one oft he great 1c 3u  ltures oft he world "
Also in attendance at the Chelsea exhibition of 1920 was Clive Bell, who 
published an essay on African art that reveals a mentality similar to that of Fry concerning 
black artistic production Bell's ''Negro Sculpture" relates the "discovery" of African art 
by the European vanguard and debates its relative aesthetic merits. In a tone skeptical of 
general enthusiasm for art negre, Bell begins by initially conceding that Afiican art may 
deserve a place among the great art traditions. He maintains, however, that the art of 
Africa is ''no match for the greatest," a category he defines as encompassing Chinese, 
archaic Greek, Byzantine, Romanesque and early Italian Renaissance art. 14 In fact, he 
87 
COntimJes , despi?t e the current interest in scuq>ture from Africa, it should be mted that 
"perhaps the most pedect achievements of these savages are to be found amongst their 
textiles and basketwork ,,1.S 
Bell focuses his essay, however, primarily on African sculpture. Unlike Fiy, Bell 
does not highlight specific formal characteristics such as three-dim.monality. Instead, be 
argues that while African sculpture may be aesthetically interesting, it cannot be 
COnsidered great art because its?a rtists are purely iDstinctual. Bell writes: 
At the root oft his Jack ofa rtistic self-oonsclou.mea lies the demct which accounts 
for the essential inferiority of Negro sculpture to the very greatest art. Savages 
Jack 16
 
self-consciousness and the critical sense because they Jack intelligence. 
Ben ultimately concludes that Afiiam scuJpture is not the product Of "creative 
lmaafnatio.n" but an mstinctual fonn only .incldcmaUr achieving aesthetic exceilence. 
While African artists bear the bnmt ofh is critJcllm, Bell also di.tcusses tho cwnmt 
state of knowledge regarding the objects tJienB,lves. He maintains that African sculpture 
7 
is a dying tradition, arguing that "the producmn of fine art is apparentJy at an end."J
Regarding those works of African art in collections, Bell contends that the dates and 
Provenance assigned to such objects are merely speculative. He concludes his critique 
With a rather smug observation concerning the "_primitivist" vogue in Western art: 
And thus it comes about that, at the present moment, we have in Europe the 
extraordinary spectacle of 8 grand efflorescence ~f the highly self-co~ious, self. 
critical, intellectual, individualistic art of paintinB amongst , ~ 18 rwns of tbe 
instinctive, ~ commtll181, and easily bnpreSSed arts of utility. 
Barnes was fiuni1iar with all of these publicario.os, considered among the more 
' 111 
J)l'Olllinent writings on the subject during the first decades of the 20tJJ. Century. He had, 
for exampJe, a brief correspondence with C.arl Einstein in 1925, although they did not 
88 
discuss African art specifically.20 Barnes was also initially taken with the aesthetic theories 
of Clive Bell, whom Barnes cited as an influence in his 1915 article "How to Judge a 
Painting." Both Clive Bell and Carl Einstein were later specifically denounced by Barnes 
as ''people who have no real knowledge of the subject and are merely exploiting it to their 
own egoistic ends.',21 Bell, in particular, was also singled out for criticism by Barnes's 
cronies Laurence Buermeyer, Paul Guillaume and Thomas Munro, among others.22 
Barnes, at least initially, seems to have reserved the most respect for the art 
criticism of Roger Fry. In an article published in the May 1924 issue of Opportunity, 
Barnes descnbes meeting Fry at Guillaume's gallery, a place Barnes referred to as "The 
Temple": 
One summer afternoon when the heat was intolerable outdoors, I called at the 
temple and found Roger Fry and Paul Guillaume discussing Negro art. I listened 
for a while and then took possession of Roger Fry and had a talk on Renoir and 
Cezanne which I shall remember for the rest ofm y life.23 
That Barnes would be drawn to Fry's criticism is certainly understandable. Fry's formalist 
approach to African sculpture was similar to that of Barnes, at least superficially,? 
incorporating the same language of visual analysis. Looking at figural works from Africa. 
for instance, Fry would see ''the neck and the torso conceived as cylinders" and ''the head 
conceived as a pear-shaped mass.',24 
Yet by the summer of 1924, Barnes had largely dismissed Fry's writings, possibly 
as a result of the strengthening ofBarnes's own sense of aesthetics. After reading Fry's 
Vision and Design. Barnes wrote Foundation teacher Thomas Munro that he was ''more 
than ever convinced that Fry is an academician, and that much of his thinking is a mixture 
of mush and literature, only sparsely sprinkled with plastic essences.',25 To Barnes's mind, 
89 
Fty's ? 
Visual analyses were not focused enough on the specific ronnal properties ofA frican 
SCUipture, In Primitive Negro Scumture, Fzy is only given mint praise, though it is worth 
noting that he is the only critic accorded any commendation in the book. 26 
Absent from all of these publications, Barnes felt, was a "scientific" perspective 
and an extensive disc~.ion of the distinct stylistic properties of individual objects. Barnes 
Was there.tore convinced that the book be proposed to Guillawne would be an important 
00ntribution, offering more .fully developed analyses of African objects as art wo~ks than 
any of the earlier publications. Barnes believed that his approach was unique in its 
st J;~ 8Y ematic method ofa esthetic analysis. He advocated the direct observation ofi ndividual I I' ' 
objects from which one could derive a clear and "objective" description of ronnal 
0haracteristics. If these observations and analyses were to be codified into a text, Barnes 
feh, then the text would, in tum, generate increasing public enthusiasm for the art fonn 
As Barnes later wrote to Guillaiu:ne, rerening to African art, "I told you a Jong while ago 
that as soon as we started to talk about it in America in a scientific and intellectual way 
that it would begin to get the attention it deserves- 7 ,,2
Applying the Dames Method of "OQiective" ApaJysis to African Art 
Barnes emphasized the importance of his systematic approach to the appreciation 
ofA frican sculpture, writing to Guillaume in November 1924 that when such a method is 
applied, 
the result is something which is entirely new, not only in the matter of negro ~ 
? ? ,__1 In other words, we have used the basIC 
but m the study of sculpture m ~~- . the fact that in dealing with an 
principle of scientific method which ~gmzesb' ts the most important ones; 
objective situation the mets of the partieular o !JeC are 
90 
!;: that ve.ry important principle seems to have been ove.rboked heretofore by all 
people who have written on negro art.28 
s? . 
Jgnificantly, the "particular objects" to which Barnes refers in this letter are VW>rks .from 
his own collection of African sculpture. Thus, the ideal formal characteristics that are 
outlined in the book are derived entirely .from African sculpture that Barnes had selected. 
The application oian "oQjective" method ofa rtistic awreciation to oqiects .from Africa, as 
promoted in the book, may therefore be considered essentially a codification of Barnes's 
own aesthetic criteria. 
Paul Guillaume sent Barnes his notes fur the book on African art on August 29, .. , 
I,,  '
192 29 /I 
 
4. By his own admission, Guillaume's essay approached the subject in a fl 
conservative manner. In his letter to Barnes accompanying the manuscript, Guillaume said 
that he had avoided any references that might make easy targets fur criticism and had been 
.further 30 COnstrained by the Jack ofd ocumentation on African art. It was clear, moreover, 
that Guillawne welcomed Bames's contnbution to the book. He explained to Barnes that 
his C$ay was intentionally brief; so as to highlight Bames's aesthetic analyses, which? 
Guillaume 31 said would be the most forceful statement oft he book.
Shortly after he received the rnanuscf4)t ftom Guillawne .in September of 1924, 
Barnes brought it to Thomas Munro. Munro bad been hired by Barnes the previous Apn1 
as a member of the educational staff at the Barnes Folllldation. Prior to his appointment, 
Munro had been a faculty member in the Department of Philosophy at Columbia 
University for four years. Barnes wanted to develop Quillaume's text, adding structural 
analyses focusing on individual works ftom the collection, and Munro was contracted to 
Work on this aspect of the book. 
91 
Archival evidence suggests that Munro's contnbution to the book was also 
fundamentany directed by Barnes .. In a number of letters to Guillaume beginning in 
September 1924, Barnes relates the progress of the manuscript: 
I gave your manuscript on negro art to MWlrO to work into a book illustrated with 
photographs from our collection He is very intelligent, is greatly interested in 
negro art, and I am analyzing negro sculpture while Munro taices notes. 32 
Several weeks later, Barnes again descnoes how he has "gone over with [Munro] the 
Plastic qualities oft he objects with considerable care. "33 GuiUaume, in response, reiterates 
his support for additions to the text that reflected Barnes's methodology, observing that "il 
serait plus conform a 1' exactitude que votre signature ou la sienne 1igurait en compagnie 
de la mienne. ,,34 
By November 1924, the proposed book on African sculpture included not only the 
fonnai analyses of individual objects provided by Barnes, but also a historical and 
ethnological account as well as a chapter on the artistic qualities ofA frican sculpture, all of 
which were evidently written by Munro. 35 Barnes had decided by then that Guillawne 
36 
should no longer be listed as sole author, as had been the original plan Guillaume's 
contnbutions to the text, while interesting, were neither comprehensive nor sufficiently 
''objective," according to Bames.31 Barnes, however, still wanted to credit Guillaume as 
an author, m>stly because Barnes felt Guillaume's name carried considerable weight As 
Barnes expJained in a letter to Munro in November 1924: 
The book is sure to get international attention because . P~uI's name is 
m. se bl id ifi d ?th th ubiect of negro art and he JS m close touch para y ent e WI e s ;i ? th h 1 'vilized' 
.th prac t1' c ally  every museum and nn?1 nortant collector m e w o e c1 WI r-
38 . 
world - even in Japan. 
92 
In light of Mum 0 , ib ? s conm Utions and the expanded text, however, it was ultimately 
decided that the book, ftJmiti ve Negro Sculpture, would be published jointly authored by 
Paw Guillaume and Thomas Mu nro. 39 
As previously argued, Bames's strong role in the development ofP rimitive Negro 
&~ encourages a reading oft he book as a codification ofB ames's aesthetic criteria 
for A1ncan sculpture. The "Introduction" clearly reveals the book's origins as a text fur 
the Barnes Foundation, noting that ''the method employed has been in active use for 
severai )'ears .in courses ofa rt appreciation, based on the collection ofa ncient and modern 
SCuJptw-e and painting ofw hich the examples shown in this book are a part. ,,40 Even ifwe 
did not have such strong evidence ofB ame.s's role iD ,prjmitiye Negro SculPtw'e, however, 
a CO.mparjson of the aesthetic tenets set furth in the book with the content of Bames's 
CO.Dection ofA frican art further underscores this point. Though the book is intemed as a 
ge.ne.raI .introduction to African art, its definition ofA frican "art" is clearly based on objects 
from the Barnes Fowidation coJlection 
Like the earHer works by Einstein, Apo.Dinaire, Fty, Bell, and others, Primitive 
~o Sc~ de:fines African artimcts as ''fine art" within a Western aesthetic 
fraineworlc. The text also enters contemponuy debates on authenticity, antiquity and the 
Place of African sculpture within artistic evolution. The book differs from earlier 
J>Ublic:ations, however, in providing clearly developed ~ criteria fur 811 appreciation 
ofA 1ncan sculpture. Primitive Negro Sculpture not only distinguishes art from artffiu;t in 
93 
general, but also specifies ideal fonnal properties for African sculpture and delineates 
African "style regions" based on shared stylistic characteristics. In addition, Primitive 
Negro Seu.IM@ offers detailed structural analyses of individual works, all .from the 
Barnes Foundation collection, ?that are illustrated in the book. As the first text to render 
specific fonnaJ criteria for African sculpture, .Primith1e Negro Sculpture provides 
considerable insight into modernist interest in objects .from Africa and, in particular, 
Bame, 
s s own aesthetic preferences and biases. 
&ltiauitr. AYilienticity and "Pure" African Art 
Among the contemporary debates surrollllding Afriam art that Primitive Negro 
?cuJp~ engages is the is.sue of the pmported antiquity of African artistic traditions. 
frirnnive Negro Sculpture clearly seeks to establish African sculpture as an ancient art 
41 
form Indeed, the book apparently was originally titled Ancient Negro Scul,Pture.
Objects from the Barnes Foundation illustrated in the book are given dates that range from 
the fifth to the nineteenth centuzy. As also seen in earlier publications, the book 
42 
additionally suggests that art production Jong since ceased in Africa. African SCulpture is 
therefore defined not only as an ancient tradition, but also as a rare commodity. Ironically, 
Illost of the objects that Barnes bad collected were likely created no earlier than the late 
nineteenth century. 43 
.__,, ancrrP?we stance in his ~y for Primitive 
Though he may not have UJA.en an '"Mr-? 
Nem-o ~,. .. 1. .... ___ ? !..A,A. .t iaf in this aspect of the book. He is ~. P aul Guillaume was very uw~ . 
illustrated . the 
8Pecifically credited with providing attnbutions am dates for all the works m 
94 
text. 44 ~ had realized, early on, the importance of ''antiquity'' to collectors of 
African art? 4 S His mentor Guillawne Apollinaire had, in met, focused on establishing dates 
for Afi-ican art. The Barnes Foundation co&ction, Guillaume maintaintxl, presented a 
specific chronology for African art in which "the epochs have been for the first time 
definitely fixed. ,,46 
The ac.curacy of Guillawne's dating oft he works was questioned by Barnes prior 
to the book's publication. Infonned by Munro that current archaeological researc~ placed 
the ear1 ie st date fur African art at arotllld I 600, Barnes asked Guillawne to secure the 
accwacy 47 of the dates he had proposed for oijects in~ Foundation's collection. The 
intense COITespomence between the two regarding ~ issue of~ reveals a rarely seen 
side of Guillaume, in which his opinions are stated forcefuJJy. Guillaume vigorously 
defends his dating of the works, asserting that only the cowardice of archaooJogists . 
J>revented them from decrignating African art Jrior to 1600. 
48 J?istinguishing between style 
and era, Guillaume argues for at Jeast the possibiHty oft he existence ofA frican art be:rore 
the J( /1 century. While he concedes that the conservation of wooden sculpture in a 
tropical climate was extremely difficult, GuiJ.Iaume nevertheless staunchly defends his 
chronology. Questioning the infallibility of science, Guillaume vaguely suggests that 1m 
49 
own 1amitiarity with the art had allowed him to deduce the dates ofimividual objects.
8UIJ>risingly, given his proclivity to objective and scientific reasoning, Barnes readily 
8ccepted Guillawne' s explanation. so 
While Primitive Negro Scuq>ture adwcated_ the antiquity of African artistic 
trad.itio~ the book did not suggest, as had earlier writers, that the art fonn represented 
95 
- - . - . - - -
the o ? ? . 
ngms of human.kizxfs artistic traditions. Many critics, following the nineteenth-
century th . . 
eonst Gottfried Semper, saw African art in evolutionary terms, maintaining that 
the abstract. f . ion o African artistry reflected the beginnings of art, or the ''primitive" (i.e., 
th
e arts of non-Western peoples), that eventually evolved into naturalism, or the 
"cj~,, (ie., Western arts from the Renaissance on). This perspective is .firmly 
articulated in the criticism ofM arius de ,Zayas. Writing in The Arts in 1923, for example, 
.Marius de 2.ayas proclaims: "African negro sculpture can be considered as being one of 
the first styles of art that man ever created . . . because it belongs to a people whose 
1 
:mentality is taken as corresponding to the primaiy state ofm an's inte11ect't5
In contrast to this clearly racist view, .P.rimitiYe Negro Sculpture offers a :fu.irly 
radical reinterpretation of the place of African sculpture within the evolution of fonn 
Despite its title, the book tacitly proposes that African art is not ''primitive" at all, but 
rather a foiward-thinking artistic tradition: 
Where they seemed to be misshapen, ood1y proportioned, they were really 
ntshioned with consummate skill to achieve e:tfects that Europeam had not been ? 
able to see or appreciate. Instead of the beginnings of art, valuable .o nly as 
historical relics, they were perhaps a stage in advance ofE uropean evolut10n, and 
valuable as ideals. 52 
Most significantly, in its discusmon of African artistrY, Primitive Negro Sculpture accords 
the African artist creative agency, thereby refuting the criticism of Fry and Bell, who 
proposed African art as a product ofi nstinct. 
? In detennining what constitutes African art, .frimitive Negro Scajpture advocates 
a restrictive racially-based definition in accordance ~ contemporary ideology. The text 
limits ''negro sculpture" to the art of west and central Africa, excluding the rest of the 
96 
- -= - - -- -
cont? 
lllent. A map, entitled ''The Countzy of Negro Aif' (fig. 33), illustrates the point 
visually. "Negro sculpture" is further denned as 'pure," meaning that a work should 
exhibit no Western influence~. The "art-producing negro," according to Primitive Negro 
.fu;~ "was the negro untouched by foreign influences. ,,sJ The notion of racial and 
Cultural Purity as applied to African artiJacts was, however, largely a product of Western 
categor-i?o+!- 54 
4 -1.Vn Most objects collected during the early twentieth century were likely 
Cleated Dearly a &eneration after the advent ofE uropean coboialism. ss 
One art tradition that was considered by Barnes, and others of bis era, to be 
"tainted" with Western inflnences was that ofB enin. 56 The kingdom ofB enin, in present- It 
day N'igeria, was established around 1200 and grew powcrfuJ through trade with Portugal 
alld Holland, beginning in the late fifteenth century. Renowned fur their intricate bras.s-
cast Worlcs Pl'oduced for the court, Benin artists depicted their surroundings in their art, 
including scenes of the palace as wen as roreign soldiers ard traders. The inclusion of 
EllroJ >ean iconography led many to suggest that art from Beni?n  was oot a "p ure " traditio n 
Guillaume echoed this position in a 1923 Jetter to .BarneS, in which be claimed that post-
16th centwy works from Benin were not truly African. 51 
~'l o fA frican Sc?Jpture 
. __ _.1.,_~ the primmy purpose of 
Beyond considering questions ofa ntiquity and ~~nJ' 
J>..:....J, ? .~ f African sculpture from 
~$ Negro &;yJpture was to anaiyz.e the formal plOr-? -- 0 
an ae~J.. ....... :_ .
"UJICUC Vie wpoint. Einstein had proposed earli
?e r, m?  uN=,-.a-eP>f=fl?J..a.,s,.t,~ik=.  that an 
llnderstm,,-1:,._ _---.,-nr to artistic appreciation of African 
--&U.11.~ of content and context was w.u_,__., 
97 
sculpture. Primitive Negro Sculpture advocated a similar approach, arguing that such 
knowledge would hamper appreciation of the ''plastic" qualities of African sculpture. The 
book did, however, concede that cultural factors did influence the form of an art work.58 
For that reason, it included a section, "Chapter I: Its Re1ation to African Lire," that 
sketched the racial, geographic, social and religious backgrmmds of African artistry. The 
majority of Primitive Negro Sculpture, however, is devoted to the fonnal analysis of 
African sculpture in two separate chapters, "Chapter Il: Its Artistic Qualities" and 
"Chapter ill: Its Chief Traditions." 
Primitive Negro Sculpture distinguishes first between aesthetics am art. The 
"aesthetic impulses" of the African artist, the book contends, may be seen not only in 
sculpture but also in song, dance and story-telling. 59 Utilitarian oijects, as well, may be 
"treated with surface ornament or shaped into structures which are pleasing by their basic 
form. ,,6o Yet the book separates art from artifuct, maintaining that "by far the most 
important as art of all the objects of negro manufucture are the masks and fetishes.',61 As 
discussed in the preceding chapter, this aesthetic bias is reflected in the composition of 
Barnes's collection. Approximately two-thirds of the works are either masks or figural 
works. The remaining objects include heddle pulleys, cups, utensils, staff tops, whistles, 
and musical instruments, some of which are reproduced Primitive Negro Sculpture as 
"Carved Utensils" (fig. 34). As may be seen from the pootograph, most of the ''utilitarian" 
objects still feature a figural element. 
Primitive Negro Sculpture rnaintaim that African art most significantly differs from 
other fonns of artistic expression in its sculptural qualities or "three-dimensionality," as 
98 
Fzy had noted earlier. Barnes observed in his 1925 publication, The Art in Painting, that 
the aest:het ? ? 
JC lllterest ofA frican art Jay in its successful execution oft hree dimensiom: 
11! ~lJ!tecture and ?~ pture, where space is actua.Uy present, there is the ~ 
distmct10n between a vital, personal ammgement ofs paces which gives the feeling 
~~ or extensity [s ic J, and the inability really to co.rx:eive the oiject in three-
~?~~nal terms. Primitive Negro art sho\W this power of conception in three 
dimensions, while in much of Greek sculpture it is comparatively lacking. 62 
While Fry went no .further than observing the scuq,tlU'8l force of African art in general 
~ &imitive Negro Sculpture advances the formals approach by considering how the 
A1rican artist explores three-dimensional nmn in figures and masks. 
The book emphasiz,es in particular the restru ,,c  turing of the human body in the 
.interest ofd esign. The distortion from natural proportio.m perceived in African sculpture 
had been Previously noted, beginning as early as 1894 with the secolXi edition ofF riedrich 
Rafz.eJ's VlSJkerkunde. 63 Roger F.ry, too, bad observed that the African artist's "pmtic 
sense leads him to give its utmost amplitude aIXf relief to all the protuberant parts of the 
body, and to get thereby an extraordioarily en:phatic and impressive sequence ofp lanes. n64 
. The BSmlrnption that A1iican .figural sculpture distorts natural proporth.m belies a Western 
aesthetic bias fur, as Susan Vogel bas oh5erved, "because it <bes not seek to duplicate 
nature, African art does not distort the furrns of nature. On ifs own terms, African art 
never exaggerates. ,,6s 
RetJecting this ~e, frimitiye Negw Scajpture discusses the exaggeration 
and distortion off urm in African sculpture. Yet, the book goes one step further, ~ing 
the division of the body into distinct units of sculptural design as an important 
charact~ of African .figural sculpture. These units, the text maintains, establish a 
99 
formal theme that unites the whole through the repetition of similar lines, p1anes, and 
masses punctuated by contrast and variation: 
So distinguished and usually marked off by a surrounding groove or hollow, each 
part can be moulded into a variation of some chosen theme - a sharp, slender 
projection, or perhaps a smooth, bulbous swelling - never exactly the same as its 
neighbors, for that would be monotonous; never too far from nature, or 
completely abstract, for that would destroy its interest as representation .. In the 
same figure an artist may introduce two or more radically different shapes, perhaps 
repeating and slightly varying each one. 66 
An example of this from Bames's collection could be the seated female figure (fig. 35) 
attnbuted to the Senufo of northern Ivory Coast. Here, there is a thematic repetition of a 
conical motif: evident in the coiffure, head, and breasts, that is varied through shifts in size 
and shape. An additional theme, a series of "slashing horizontal curves" throughout the 
length of the figure, is seen in the line of the chin, the arms and the thighs, and is 
contrasted with the ''vertical rods" oft he neck, torso and chair legs. 
The language of fonnal analysis employed in Primitive Negro Sculpture 
dehberately evokes comparisons with music. The success of sculptural design, and 
therefore the aesthetic pleasure derived from its contemplation, is to be found in the 
rhythmic repetition and variation of these distinct units. This analogy to music is directly 
addressed in the book: 
To the eye, to the hand, to both together moving over the surface, the statue is 
like music in its succession of repeated and contrasting sensuous fonm, its 
continuities and subtle alterations of a theme. Or rather it is the material for nrusic 
that one may compose at will, proceeding always in a new order from line to line 
and mass to mass, singling out and reorganizing the elements, perceiving always 
some new relationship that had never presented itselfbefore.67 
The employment of musical analogies to visual art traditions was not new. Indeed, as 
Judith Zilcz.er has demonstrated, the synaesthetic comparison oft he visual arts with nrusic 
100 
had emerged as a central theme m?  progressr?v e 1A?, u_.1,"_1;,1~1n'4.U.  cri?t ic? J?S m sm? ce at least 1913. 68 
Yet Barnes w 0 uld push the analogy :further, proposing an aesthetic relationship between 
Aincan-American spirituals -~ African sculpture, as will be discussed in a later chapter. 
Masks, according to Primitive Negro Sculpture, offered a particular cha.Henge to 
the African artist m? the1' r creati?o n. The re are, the book proposes, inherent .,w:-m.: tati?o ns to 
the art :foi nn The mask must use only the :face for its ''theme," needs to be close to natural 
size?m  order to be worn, and cannot be fully realiz,ed scuipturally in three-dimensions. 
Therefore?  th e art.J..S t ' s ''plastic problem is to produce, .w. 1.:u,..11.W:. . ?u i.-~...  Jimita? t1?0 ns, a de si?g n out 
ofa  rew given elements. ,,69 
Masks comprise a signfficant portion of Bames's collection, totaling at least 
twenty-five works. As Primitive Negro Sculpture suggests, they appear to have been 
selected to provide a sense of the variety of formal solutions. There are, fur example, at 
least nine masks attributable to the Dan of Ivory Coast and Liberia. They range .from 
those works exhibiting more realistic Jacial features, as in this example (fig. 36), to those 
featuring greater abstraction, like this mask (fig. 37). Other masks in the collection are 
etnbellished with "accessozy ornaments," remnants of their funner lives in Africa A 
Senufo mask (fig. 38) .from northern Ivory Coast, for example, retains some of its blue, 
gold, red and bu1f. l red pi.g ments. s=-:1 .. ~, another Dan mask (fig. 39) bas bits of ~ 0 ruwau,, 
raffia, beads and cowrie shells attached to its _per:in:eter. Unlike most collectors who 
stripped woks f s:: the' :. . -t:,.enous nmctions, Barnes seems to have kept r o any re1erence to ll' JUUl6 
these elements fur their expression ofa esthetic sensibilities. 
101 
After proposing the general characteristics of African sculptural design, Primitive 
Negro Sculpture outlines a method whereby to distinguish between successful and 
unsuccessful sculptural fonn This, Barnes felt, was necessary in order to gain an 
appreciation of art. The book considers two examples of African sculpture that, in their 
fonnal design, embody the essential characteristics of African sculpture, as defined by 
Primitive Negro Sculpture: dissociation of the body into units, rhythmic repetition, and 
contrasting themes. The works, referred to in the book as "Guinea," are more likely from 
the Lagoon region of southern Ivory Coast. The first figure (fig. 40), smoothly finished 
with a greater emphasis on technical skill, is considered to be uninspired, carrying "the 
principle of repetition almost to the point where it becomes monotonous and 
uninteresting."70 In contrast, the other work (fig. 41), of less refined workmanship, is 
characterized as ''ungainly, but full of life; its rhythms are direct, impulsive, irregular and 
strong."71 According to the book, neither work represents sculptural excellence but rather 
are "at opposite poles of negro sculpture, and indeed of all art."72 
The Stylistic Characteristics of Regional Traditions 
In addition to this general discussion of the formal aspects ?of African sculpture, a 
primary concern of Primitive Negro Sculpture is the classification of African sculpture 
stylistically by geographic area. 73 The text was pioneering in this regard, preceding the 
four-volume work of Carl Kjermeier, Centres de Style de la Sculpture Negre Africain of 
1935-38. Kjersmeier's study, admittedly less selective and more detailed than Primitive 
Negro Sculpture, is widely credited with introducing the concept of African "style 
102 
re01ons " The 
C>4 ? se "style reoinns" ,1-.v-.,. 11., ? O"~ were geograp.w'-<W.1 contained writs, usually 
COJTesponrt,nn . 
-'5 to specffic African cultures, whose art work exbJ.bited shared stylistic 
characteristics. A decade before Kjermeier, J>r.imitn,e Negro Sculpture introduced stylistic 
re ? 
gions, though this contribution has been largely overlooked by Africanist art historians. 74 
According to 1?rimitive Negro Sculpture. the ''major" African art traditions derive 
from four regions: Sudan, Ivozy Coast, Gabon and the Congo. 75 Over 100 of the 
approximately 120 works in the collection come from these four regions. Minor traditions 
are listed as Benin (Nigeria), Dahomey and Guinea, ofw hich there are six examples in the 
collection Absent from .Bames's collection, and from discussion in the text, are works 
from other regions of Africa typically represented in Western collections of the time, 
including those from Ghana, Nigeria (o ther than Benin), and Cameroon 
Paul Guillawne had, in fact, introduced ethnic clasfilfications for African art slightly 
earlier in his article, "African Art at the Barnes Foundation," published in 1924. Guillaume 
76 
proposes that the art-producing peoples of Africa derive from three main "stocks. " In 
the northwest there are, according to Guillaume, the ''N'igers, Bobos. the Baoules. the 
Agni, the Agw, the Gouros and the Dan;" to the southwest, the Fang (''the most beautiful 
of the Pahouins"); and inland on the equator. the "Bushongos" with their sub-groups. 77 
Guillawne?s regional ilistinctions correlate, in general, with those in Primitive Negro 
.&ulp~ with the northwest comprising both "Sudan" and ''Ivozy Coast," the Fang 
situated in Gabon; and the ''Bushongos" in the Congo. Yet, Guillawne does not continue 
to SJ)ec:ify shared formal characteristics for these c1assificatio.ns, commenting only that ''the 
103 
collection of Negro art in the Barnes Foundation is rich in works coming from races of 
these different sources."78 
Primitive Negro Sculpture, in contrast, does define stylistic characteristics of 
"major'' and 'lninor" traditions. The descriptions of "typical" works from each of these 
regions are actually quite restrictive. According to the book, the typical Sudan work is, 
for example: 
slender, elongated, angular, making frequent use of straight lines, pointed 
projections, flat planes and sharp edges. Its frequent awkwardness of attitude and 
crudity of surface tend to augment the total effect of sharp staccato force or wiry 
suppleness. 79 
In the Barnes collection, the Sudan "style" is represented by selected works from three 
ethnic groups: the Bamana and Dogon ofM ali, and the Senufo of northern Cote d'Ivoire. 
Approximately one-tenth of the Barnes Foundation collection fulls into this stylistic 
category. It consists of several Bamana n 'tomo masks, such as this example (fig. 42) and 
Senufo and Dogon figural sculpture, including the well-known Dogon "couple" (fig. 43). 
The art of the Ivory Coast, according to Primitive Negro Sculpture, is: 
characterized by a tendency to surface ornament and richness of detail, rather than 
by a rigorous pairing down to structural essentials. Yet its ornamentation is not 
merely superficial, since the structural basis is itself strongly conceived in terms of 
design, and the ornamental elements intimately correlated with it. 80 
Nearly one-third of the Barnes Foundation collection :fulls into this category. The works 
derive primarily from two separate artistic traditions, the Dan and the Baule/Guro/Y aure 
complex. There are at least twelve Baule figural works, such as this female figure (fig. 
44) , and a fair number of Dan, Baule, and Guro masks. Surprisingly, this category 
includes a more recent example of Baule art, a bust of a female (fig. 45), possibly 
104 
Produced by .~-L-
a worAM10p active in the 1920s.81 Other objects trom this region in the 
co llectio but 
n, not categoriud as "art" by Barnes, would be the Baule divination tappers, 
and Baule and Guro heddle p. . u ll eys. 
Art from Gabon is defined as having a tendency: 
to~d a bulbous or pear-like shape, or a repetition ofs uch shapes, with a flow of 
curvmg Planes that rise from hollows into smooth swelling surlaces. It is 
comparatively plain and simple, Jacking in accessoiy ornament, depending for its 
effect on the rhythm and contrast oft he masses composing its basic structure. 82 
This definition is the most restrictive of all the "style regions" proposed by Primitive 
Negro Sc~ applicable only to Fang statuary, as in this example (fig. 46). The 
descnt pti?o n does not fit other works trom Gabon in the collection, such as Kota reliqwuy 
figures (fig. 47), and the Pwm mask, .figure, and bell Approximately sixteen works in the 
collection are from Gabon, though only seven oft hese are ofF ang origin. 
frimmve Nw;o ScuJmure maintains that the broadest aesthetic variety may be 
found in the art of the Congo, although it is described as only ~nally exhibiting 
art' ? JStic excellence. The book rotes that: 
? ? .pieces of considerable force and :fine draftsmaDShip are occasionally round, in 
Which faces often have a portrait-like naturalism, along wi!'1 disto~n in_ o~ 
parts, and a thoroughly worked out total design. . But there ~ ~ient vanety m 
the designs to point to the existence of many different traditions, rat.her than a 
single prevailing one. 83 
This variety is reflected in the works Barnes collected fur the Foundation, which include 
Luba Caryatid stools, Kuba cups (Jig. 48), Kongo figures, a number of small Bembe 
Works, and a Lulua figure (Jig. 49). Although the book singles out for derision the nkisi 
figures found throughout the region which are descn'bed as crude workmanship 
105 
"C OlJCealed by . 
a profusion of nails and bits of cloth, "84 the Barnes collection does include 
0neofthese 
PC>wer ~ attn'buted to the Teke (fig. 50). 
Some of the ~les in the Barnes Foundation coUection that 1a11 into the 
cafego.ry of "Minor traditions," being works from Benin, Dahom:y or Guinea, appear to 
have been selected b!Y  Ba mes because of unique -i.-...+-:~ tha t ~;cf,m,..,,~,.1.. WJA(~UiiU.JU...., ....,IJUl,Wo'lU them 
artisticauy, As discussed earlier, Benin ~ _pobJcmatic, according to Primitive Negro 
~ because '~ is a hybrid art, weak but yet distinctive ronn, combining both 
A1rk an and European elements. ,,as The sixteenth-centmY cast bronz.e ~nger .tigure 
(fig. 51) in the collection, with its cross pendant arx1 helmet of possible European 
derivation, Was likely selected as an example of this hybridity. In contrast, the small 
broll7.e .Pendant representing 8 face (Jig. 52) was po~ included for the "distinctive 
Pattern" found .in the rhytlnn of its enlarged reatures. 16 Iro.ni:ally, Amcanist art historians 
today Would characteriz.e the messenger figure as a ,masterpiece and ~ a provincial 
attributi 
on to the smaller work. 
frimit;vr Negro ScuJpture concludes with a brief chapter relating African art 
tz:aditions to llX>dem Western art. This 1ina1 section of the book was, again, significantly 
influenced by Barnes. In November of 19'24, BameS bad suggested to Thomas Munro 
that SUch a chapter be included. ''One very important met about negro sculpture," he 
Wrote, "is its com.iderabJe influence upon contemporary painting .fur the last seffllteen 
Years and that :.tact should be noted in considerable detail in a special chapter.'"' To guide 
MUoro 's writing on the suiject, Barnes sent a manuscnpt that be bad authored along with 
COpies of Alain Locke  ,s  ''InA.  No te on A~. ... Art,, and Bames's '71.te Temple," both of J-WJi,.au ' 
106 
which had been published in the May 1924 issue ofOpportunity.88 Barnes declined to be 
credited with authorship, stating that "since the :fact of the influence is known there is no 
occasion for anybody's name to be used in connection with the matter, not even mine.',89 
The chapter begins by considering artistic developments in the West that paved the 
way for an aesthetic interest in African art. African sculpture, the book proposes, 
intrigued modernist artists because it challenged cJassical form. 
90 In the exaggerated forms 
of African figural work, contemporary artists fuWld a confirmation of their aesthetic 
beliefs. This perceived distortion from nature seen in African sculpture, while perhaps 
new to modernism, was part of a Jarger histozy of furm, according to Primitive Negro 
Sculpture. Thus, Cezame, like the African artist, "did not hesitate to stretch an arm as the 
early Greek vase-painter had done, as El Greco had done, in order to emphasiz.e a curve 
more forcibly and to integrate a design.',91 
This perspective on the re1ation of African art to past art traditions and, in 
particu1ar, to modernism is reflected in Bames's own writings on the subject. In his 1925 
The Art in Painting. for example, Barnes highlighted the influence of African sculpture in 
the work of Picasso, Modigliani, and Soutine.92 In his later work on Matisse, Barnes 
developed this analysis, highlighting "circumscnbing grooves" and "the mask effect" in his 
93 
discussion of African influences in the wo~k of Matisse. The painter, Barnes argued, 
drew from this three-dimensional tradition and reorganized it into "exotic pictorial 
conceptions which embody characteristics representative of European traditional forms, 
such as those of the Venetians and Cezanne."
94 1be fullest expression, however, of 
Bames's ideology concerning African art and its relation to modernism may be seen 
107 
-
visually in the arrangem,nt oftbe coDection at the Jlan10S Foundation, as will be discussed 
in the next chapter. 
108 
NOTES FOR CHAPTER THREE: 
I 
y Paul Guillawn
e d . 
ork? R. k an Thomas Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture, 1926, reprint (New 
? ac er Art Books, 1968), 4. 
2 
Letter fro Albe 
Barn m rt Barnes to Paul Guillaume, March 9, 1923. Archives of The es Foundation. 
3 
BarneLetteFr from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, November 5, 1923. Archives of The 
S Oundation. 
4 "I 
fir t r:eived a long letter .from Waldemar George today in which he tells me about the 
ho 8 ok he has written for the Foundation. What he writes is vezy interesting and I 
t pe the book will be valuable in our educational work." Letter from Albert Barnes 
0 Paul Guillaume, October 29, 1923. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
By February 1924, however, Barnes had broken ties with George and 
~anceled publication of the book. He was particularly harsh in his criticism of 
theeorge's manuscript, writing: "I .have studied his manuscript with the greatest care in 
:?ht -i~h~o~p~e  off inding sufficient ideas and solidity to enable me to put it in such form that be used for our educational purposes. ~ut the whole ?"ok is a ~ss of bad 
th. ... ~' lack of real experience in art, and a stupid hero-worship of certain untenable 
7mes abou! modem art." Letter .from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, February 
8'  924. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
s 
B Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, November 5, 1923. Archives of The 
arnes Foundation. 
6 
~ discussed in Chapter One, Guillaume revealed plans for an ''important" book on 
African art in his response in Bulletin de Ia Vie Artistjgye, 693. 
1? Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, FebruarY 15, 1924. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
8 
Responding to a letter .from Barnes dated Februaz:r 15, 1924, Guillaume wrote: "Je 
vais me mettre au travail; si je reussis je vous soumettrai mon manuscript et vous 
l'alcooliserez pour Jui donner une densite convenab.le." Letter .fro~ Paul Guillaume to 
Albert Barnes, February 23, 1924. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
51 
An analysis of Einstein's aesthetic approach may be found in Jean Laude, 
"L? esthetique de Carl Einstein," Mediations 3 (1961). 
10 
The mortuary post is reproduced on plates 7 through 11 of Neger_plastik._ The 
Wor~ attn"buted to the southern Sakalava of Madagascar, was formerly m the 
109 
collection of s u1 
catalogue en)t :ic  ptor _Jacob_ Epstein, probably as ~arly as 1913. See John Mack, Prestel, 2 350~, m Africa: The Art of a Contment ed. Tom Phillips (Munich: 1995
lip , 
.ry's . 
was pub~~~w. was reprinted in his compilation of essays Vision and Design. which 
again, quitee m_ ~920. A decade earlier, Fry had first written about African art _ 
Dia . p~sitively - in "The Art of the Bushmen," a review of Bushman 
Hel~~? an ili~strated book on southern African rock paintings, reproduced by 
in Mar ;~e, :with ~ introduction by Henry Balfour. This article was first published 
Bullen ~ 91 O m Burlington Magazine and later included in Vision and Design. J. B. 
XXi m Roger F.ry, Vision and Design (London: Oxford University Press, 1981): 
colomaJ:1e politi_cal implications of Fry's criticism and its relationship to the 
ofR t enterpnse are discussed at length by Marianna Torgovnick in "The Politics 
oger Fry's Vision and Design," in Gone Primitive, 85-104. 
12F 
iy, "Negro Sculpture," 70-71. 
13 F 
iy, "Negro Sculpture," 73. 
14 
Bell, "Negro Sculpture," 114. 
IS 
Bell, ''Negro Sculpture," 115. 
16 
Bell, ''Negro Sculpture," 116. 
17 ? 
in Bell: "Negro Sculpture," 120. While contemp<>raIY thought attributed the "decline" 
the African art production to the advent of colonialism, Bell proposes an alternate 
oiy, suggested by "Negro experts" that "Negro art already in the eighteenth 
century,...,,, as fallin g m? to a decli?n e from s'o me obscure, m? te rnal cause. "Ib'!Id . , 120 ? 
18 
Bell, ''Negro Sculpture," 120. 
19 ~ was also mmiliar with other works such as Nancy Cunard's, Anthologie Negre. 
Which he purchased through Guillaume's gaHery in 1922. Receipt .from Paul Guillawne to 
Albert Barnes, dated July 1922. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
20 
Einstein wrote a letter to Barnes dated October 3, 1925, inquiring about an article 
Written by Thomas Munro. Barne; replied on December 3, 1925. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
21 ? 
B Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillawne, March 28, 1924. Archives of The 
arnes Foundation. 
110 
22 ~
issuBeu
~en=ne= of th ye:r:'s- ":P= ::----::-------------------J attern and Plastic Form," originBlJ.y publisb.ed in the January 1926 
on art B e OYmaJ of the Barnes Foundation, is a direct refutation of Bell's theort'es 
opposi?t io uetn nMeyre r' s essay, wh i ch was reprinted in Art and Education, stated that ''In 
independ n t O f ? "!3e~ we shall seek to show that plastic form is only relatively 
detail of: 0 ? s~bJect, ~ that while subject does not in any degree prescribe the 
fix the ~J.St s work, 1t does furnish the point ofd eparture and relatively, at least 
John D condihons of success." Laurence Buenneyer, "Pattern and Plastic Form," fu 
rd 
FouncJat~wey et al., Art and Education 1929, 3 ed. (Merion, PA: The Barnes 
ion, 1954): 126. 
Passa e:imilarJy, ~auJ Guillaume and Thomas Munro, referring specffically to several 
Ce~e from ,Clive Bell's essay ''Negro Sculpture" :from his 1922 book, Since 
;ge ' note 'In so far as these remarks have any meaning at all, the following 
s may serve to show their utter untruth." Primitive Negro Sculpture, 6. 
23 Al 
bert Barnes, "The Temple," Op_portunit;y (May 1924): 139. 
24 
Fry, "Negro Sculpture," 71. 
2s L 
B etter from Albert Barnes to Thomas Munro, July 22, 1924. Archives of The 
runes Foundation. 
26 I_nn.en u.t.1.v e Negro Sculpture, Guillaume and Munro refer to ''two or three short 
,:iicles _on special exhibitions [that] contain suggestive but fragmentary remarks" on 
Re subject of African art. A footnote to this comment notes: "The best of these is 
Moger Fry's article Negro Sculpture (1920) in Vision and Design." Guillaume and 
unro, Primitive Negro Sculpture, 3. 
. Interestingly, Fry's later discussions of African sculpture, written after the 
?Ublica~ion of Primitive Negro Sculpture, focus more on individual analyses of form 
;1 specific objects. See, for example, Fry, "Negro Art" in Last Lectures by Roger 
~:, 1939, intro. Kenneth Clark (Boston: Beacon Press, 1962): 75-84. Fry's ''Ne~o 
- was developed from a series of lectures Fry presented as Slade Professor ofF me 
Arts at the University of Cambridge 1933-34. Following the distinctions set by 
Munro and Guillaume's book, Fry ~ dismissed the art of B~, Nigeria and 
Dahomey, but mainly because ofits political organization as monarchies. 
27 
Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, May 14, 1924. Archives of The 
Baines Foundation. 
28 . 
Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, November 14, 1924. Archives of 
The Barnes Foundation. 
29 Paul Guillaume refers to the manuscript in a Jetter to Albert Barnes, Au~ 29, 
1924, Archives of The Barnes Foundation. The file of Paul Guillaume 
111 
Correspond ? 
African art ence for the ye8: 1924 also contains 811 undated and untitled typescript on 
says ''Paul cl:~=uma~ly ~ltte~ by Guill~ume (a_ handwritten notation on top-right 
to specuJat tba ~e. s file ) with handwntten edits by Barnes. While it is tempting 
that this i e th t this 15 the manuscript Guillaume submitted, there is no clear evidence 
.frilnitive ~ e case. The typescript is much more ethnographically oriented than 
this was th egz:o. Sculpture, discussing the context of African sculpture at length. If 
e onginal draft, very little of the text was used in the final publication. 
JO 
BaLmeetste Fr  .fro mdapt.  au 1 Gui
.l laume to Albert Barnes, August 29, 1924. Archives of The 
oun 1On. 
JJ 
PuiPssaaunl t Guilla wne wrote that Barnes's analyses would be "le meilleur de l'ouvrage 
Archi argument." Letter :from Paul Guillaume to Albert Barnes, August 29, 1924. 
ves of The Barnes Foundation. 
32 
BaLme tteFr  .from Albe rt Barnes to Paul Guillawne, September 30, 1924. Archi.v es of The 
es Oundation. 
JJ 
BaLme tter .from Albe rt Barnes to Paul Gui.l laume, November 14, 1924. Archi.v es of The 
es Foundation. 
34 L 
B etter from Paul Guillaume to Albert Barnes, October 8, 1924. Archives of The 
ames Foundation. 
35 
d Bames's account of Munro's contributions is summarized in a letter to Guillaume 
~ed November 6, 1924: "Munro and I have been working on the book on Negro 
two_ days every week for the last month. Munro has made a very good job of the 
Part which he has done himself and I have analyzed a number of the figures in plastic 
terms. I believe that the book will be a sensation because it is the first time that a 
~eaily scientific method has been applied to the study ofn egro art. Most of the credit 
; d_ue to Munro who is extraordinarily intelligent, has learned very quickly the real 
;eling of negro art, and has presented his ideas in a very clear and logi~ manner. 
h~ book will include a brief historical and ethnologi.cal account." The sect10ns likely 
Wri~en by Munro, to which Barnes refers in the letter are "Chapter I: Its Relation to 
African Life" and ''Chapter II: Its Artistic Qualities." Archives of The Barnes 
Foundation. 
36 
B Letter .from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, September 30, 1924. Archives of The 
ames Foundation. 
37 
B Letter .from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, November 14, 1924. Archives of The 
ames Foundation. 
112 
3. L8estt~er ~fro=m ~Al:b-e ~~-------------------
Barnes Founda. rt Barnes to Thomas Munro, November 14, 1924. Archives of The 
t1on. 
39 
In 1929, Guilla ?. 
??pJptIJre Ne ~e -~ublished what he termed a French translation of the text, La 
stylistic anal gre Pnnutive. Revisions to the book included the omission of all the 
with th ;ses and .the replacement of the illustrations of Barnes Foundation objects 
Barnes os: om Guillaume's own coilection. The changes to the book incensed 
the Fo 'wda~ wrote a scathing letter to Guillaume and "deposed" him ofh is.position at 
un tion. 
by Guiiian his l~~er, Barnes specifies two statements proposed, falsely Barnes claimed, 
Wrote th ume: (!) !~! you fonned my collection ~fNe~ro BI! [and] (2) That you 
cone e book Pnnut1ve Negro Sculpture' in conJunctJon With Munro". Barnes 
one ~ued, '7!1e truth about my coilection ofN egro sculpture is that you never chose 
ace piece of it for me. I selected it and on my own judgment." Further, Barnes 
ne uses Guillaume, "The truth about the book 'Primitive Negro Sculpture' is that you 
tir;er wrote a single word it, and you never contributed one idea to its contents. The 
fr page of that book acknowledges that I inspired, guided and controlled it" Letter 
F, om ~bert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, June 21, 1929. Archives of The Barnes 
0 undat1on. 
Barnes' s claims were almost certainly true. This altercation led to the 
severance 0 fB arnes and Guillawne's Jong-standing fri?e n dsh i?p . 
40 
Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculptilm 7. 
41 
ThB arnes refers to this title in a September 30, 1924 letter to Guillaume, Archives' of 
e Barnes Foundation. ? 
42 "'Ih e sman supply of genuine and important objects was soon exhausted; others came 
but slowly from remote tropical villages. For the art had been long dead in Africa, am 
only the ancestral heirlooms, centuries old and scared, were to be desired." Guillawne and 
?unro, ftinritive Negro Sculpture, 2. 
~ . ~ 
An exception to this would be the Benin messenger ngure, which dates to the 16 
century. 
44 _The list of illustrations notes ''with attribution and dates estimated by Paul 
GUi1Jaume." In Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Scajpture, np. 
4sG. 2 
rraudon, Les Arts a Paris chez Paul Guilla~ 1918-193S, 3 ? 
46 
Paul Guillaume, "African Art at the Barnes Foundation," pm,<>rtuni1! (May 1~24): 
141. G. . :11-ume con t?m ues m.  this vem. tatm'g  that studvmo- the obJects furnishes uuut , s J--c 
113 
"reliable data from . 
genealogy fth which may be detennined, by legical [sic] deduction, the age and 
0 ese masques and idols." Ibid., 142. . 
47 
BaLrneetst eFr  fro mda A. lbe rt Barnes to Paul Guillaume, October 23, 1924. Archives of The 
0 un tion. 
48 
BaLrneetste r from p. a u1 Gu i.l 1:' laume to Albert Barnes, November 6, 1924. Archives of The 
roundat10n. 
49 "Mais 
etudi ? {;: vecu depuis seize annees parmi les bois negres et j'ai eu le temps de les 
vers er. iar: par deduc~ion, par divination aussi, je me suis senti attire irrestiblement 
Albe~P chronolog1que que j'ai cherche a nxer." Letter .from Paul Guillaume to 
arnes, November 6, 1924. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. ? 
so 
ha w~?  rm g to Munro, Barnes stated, "I have more respect for Paul's knowledge than I 
theve ir the ethnologists and I am willing not only to let the dates stand as he gave 
m, ut to take a crack at the 'savants' on the basis of what Paul cites in the letter" 
BL etter.fro m Alb ert Barnes to Thomas Munro, November 17, 1924. Archives of Th,e  
arnes Foundation. 
51 
Marius de Zayas, ''Negro Art," The Arts 3 (March 1923): 199. 
52 
Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture, l. 
53 .. 
Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture, 13. 
54 
CoI nterest in racial purity, however, was not an exclusively Western preoccupations. Armie . 
ombes has observed that, around the tum of the 191b century, West Africans also 
stressed that the adoption of European culture had led to racial deterioration and 
degeneration. See Coombes, Reinventing M'@, 39. 
55 
Complicating the issue is the existence of works that appear to have been created for 
Western patrons, yet quickly became canonic,al works of "authentic" African art. An 
example would be the figural work of the Mangbetu that, according to the 
groundbreaking research of Enid Scbildkrout and Curtis Keim, created such work in 
~esJJ<?nse ~o the interest of Western explorers in the region. _see Enid ~chil~~ and 
urtis Kenn, African Reflections: Art .from No~ern .laire (Seattle. Uruversrty of 
Washington Press, 1990). 
56 Anni . 1 ? 
?e Coombes discusses the European reception of works .from Berun at ength m 
her book,  Re m. ventm. g Afri.c a. . ? 
114 
S7 "B .-1 
l'art dn  to,u t cas.  l'art d u B e,r u.n  poste,n ?e ur au V"tTAv .T1 00le :..1SffAi e .n'est pas plus negre que 
Lette ~1 Amerique ~u Sud posterieur a l'occupation espagnole n'est de l'art indien." 
Foundr _om Paul Guillaume to Albert Barnes, April 6, 1923. Archives of The Barnes 
at1on. 
t:r e~!: nd a ~oubt, since art is intimately bound up with the rest oflire, these Jacts ha,e detennmed the forms his art assumed. But just how these influences work is a 
P..:_? ~ously intricate question; one can only gu~ at it . .."  Guillaume and Munro, 
U.!tmtlve Negro Sculpture, 7 
S9 
Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture, 19. 
60 IbI? d., 20. 
61 Ib? 
.ma? 1~?? 23. The artistry of utilitarian objects was qualified by stating that ''the great 
b !JO~ of these various utensils, of course, are not to be taken .seriously as works ofa rt, 
~t ~e Interesting only as ethnographic specimens, or to show the abounding aesthetic 
Vttality oft he people" Ibid., 23. 
62 
Barnes, The Art in Painting. 106 
63 
Tho_UJ?l Ratz.el observes ngural distortion in African sculpture, 11: 1?cuses P~Y on 
~ relig10us meaning of the art and does not provide a careful stylistic analysis of form. 
Fnedrich Ratz.et Volkerlamde. 21111 edition (Leipzig: 1894). 
64 
Fiy, ''Negro Sculpture," 72. 
65 th
Su~an VogeL "The Buli Master and Other Hands," ~s ofAfrica. Oceania_ and e 
~' eds. Janet Catherine Berlo and Lee Anne Wilson (Englewood Clifis, NJ: 
Pr en fi ce-HaJL 1993), 72. Her emphasis. 
66 
Guillaume and Munro. Primitive Negro Sc?Jptur!t 31? 
61 Ibi? d., 33. 
68 
Judith Zilcz.er, ''The Aesthetic Struggle in America, 1913?
1918?" 53? 
69 
Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sc?Jptur~ 41 ? 
7o Ib?i d., 126. 
71 Ibi d., 128. 
115 
12 Ib1? d., 128. 
73 
rnis~discussed in Chapter Two, Barnes made repeated references to the attribution -
In wr? :nor otherwise - of African sculpture in the museum collections that he visited. 
their :mg t? Stewart Cu1in, for example, Barnes notes ''It amuses me in looking at 
piec llecti~n to see that they do not even know enough to properly classify their 
Ste:s acco~dmg to the districts from which they came." Letter from Albert Barnes to 
art Culin, October 6, 1922. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
74 Adri 
in " an C!erbrands, for example, does not mention the Guillaume and Munro book 
n? !h~ History of African Art Studies," African Art Studies: The State of the 
-1scipline (Washington, D.C.: National Museum ofA frican Art, 1990). 
75 "The 
.fr most important art-works come from the Ivoiy Coast and Gabun on the sea, and 
:::; the hack-country regions of the Southwestern Sudan, _the upper and lower ~ngo; 
0
C s, ~~ less impressive, come from French Gwnes, Dahomey, Berun and 
8lnenm. Guillawne and Munro Primitive Negro Sculpture, 14 
h According to Primitive Negro Scua,ture, ''the names of tnbes or territories, and 
~ e. c~eristics of their art, will be given veiy broadly and loosely as a tentative 
WDning for .further research'' Ibid., 62. 
76 
Guillaume, "African Art at the Barnes Foundation,,, Qpportunity (May 1924): 141. 
77 1bi'd ., 141. 
78 lbi'd ., 142. 
79 
Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpt{@, 14. 
80 lb1' d., 88. 
81 For a similar work and a discussion of this workshop, see Su~ Vogei cat. 36, in 
Em: Sprits and Kin gs ed.  S usan V oge1  vn. .,re w York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 
1980 ), 74-75. 
82 
Guillaume and Munro. Primitive Negro Sculpture. 63? 
83 
Ibid., 108. 
84 lbi'd ., 108. 
8s lbi'd ., 13. 
II6 
86 Ibid., 123-24. 
87 
BaLrneetste Fr  .fro m A.l be rt Barnes to Thomas Mwtro, November 14, 1924. Archives of The 
0 undation. 
88 
BaLrne ttenr  .fro m Albe rt Barnes to Thomas Mwtro, November 14, 1924. Archives of The 
es rOuncfation. 
89 
BaLineet tenr  .fro m Alber t Barnes to Thomas Mwtro, November 14, 1924. Archi.v es of The 
s rouncfation. 
90 
''CoI ntere~1y, the book suggests that even cJassical art is not :free :from distortion: 
~tonal modes of representation may seem to be realistic because of their 
co b. . ? Yet they are only one sort of distortion; they reveal, in an artiflcial 
~ ~ion, one small group of nature's countless aspects," Guillaume and Munro, 
_, 1 32. 
91 
Ibid., 132. 
92 
Barnes, The Art in Painting, 353. 
93 
B Albert Barnes and Violette de Mazia, The Art of Henri Matisse (Merion, PA: The 
runes Foundation Press: 1933), 88. 
9? B 
arnes and de Mazia, The Art ofHenri Matisse. s9. 
117 
Chapter Four: 
THE TRIUMPH OF L 'ART NEGRE: 
AFRICAN ART AT TIIB BARNES FOUNDATION 
!t will be the glory of a few men endowed with certain prophetic vision to have 
:cri~ ~ the history oft he beginning oft he Twentieth Centwy the revelation of 
:~ea prrsum tive statues of the African black race. Among these men Dr. Barnes with a radiance quite particular ... Perfectly certain of the high value of 
Fi e Joy ~ instruction offered by Negro art, he makes a place for it in The Barnes 
0 undation and his idea is to give it a place of honor; its role in that manner is 
enlarged, since he does not hesitate at the outset to place African sculptw-e on the 
1 
same plane as the incontestable masterpieces of contemporaneous art. 
-- Paul Gu.ilJawne 
2 
The Barnes Fowidation opened to the public in the spring of 1924. It was the 
first .Pennanent installation in the United States to present objects from Africa as fine art. 
As with his selection of the collection, Barnes applied bis educational aesthetic theozy to 
its Presentati? on, di?s sociating African artifacts from an ethnograph ic  context an d si?t uatm? g 
tbem within a Western aesthetic framework The objects were arranged by Barnes to 
visually emphasize the specffic fonnal elements he valued and to encourage a fonnal 
C01llJ)arison of various regional traditions. At the same time, Barnes situated African 
SCulpture within a continuwn of fonn as a catalyst for Western modernism. Presented 
simultaneously as the inspiration for modernism and as the object ofm odernism's fonnalist 
vision, African art was clearly intended by Barnes to be an integral part of the 
Foundation's educational mission. 
While th ? ha t nsidered the codification of Bames's aesthetic 
e preVI0US C p er co . 
theoiy and its application to African sculpture in textual sources, this chapter examines 
118 
~Wthese '' 
cnticaJ. evaluatiom are reflected visually, in the insW.lation and photography of 
Ni-ican 
art at the Barnes Foundation, and didactica1ly, in the Fowxfation's educational 
ProBnuns. ,-,__,,__, 
~wnu to this is an~ oft he visual narrative aeated through strategies of 
display and rep.~....:-
---UIG&JUn and of the framing devices employed by Barnes to elucidate 
8Peci1ic 
8Spects oft he objects. More than an e~n ofo ne man's beliefs, the display 
at the Barnes Foundation had signfflca.nt impact on tlx>se students and visitors at the 
Follndat?1 011 Recent scholarship bas recognized the power of installations in ~lining 
obj 
ects. As F.l'all9(>ise Forster-Hahn bas omerved: "If we understam 'display' as the 
material representation ofphilosopbbl thought aa1 idt:ologr.al discoumes, then displays 
do not .mere~ re&:ct or mir.ror society and a partkular historical moment, but actooly 
:dmction as 8gents that shape the historical process itse1?,,3 
1 COIJSider first the origim of the educational institution and focus on the 
develop.rnem of plans fur the building of the Barnes Foundation The use of African 
~t.iis. 
1D the architectural design oftbe Foundation's gallery will be anal.Y=f and related 
to the alninge.znent oft he African art collection insiJe the building. I then address the use 
oft he ,:1"-4":.a.:_:a_ n ? ?? ,__ ? ? paid ? art collection in Fo?mdat.ion classes aa1 lectures. PartJcWlU. attention 15 
to the FoUJk:fation's concerts of''negro spirituals," which presented, according tD Barnes, 
an -:..,. aesthetic structure similar to African sc$tufe. The  chapter ooncludes by co..l.?.,.:.,_,.""5 
~w tbe 8esthetics of representation demonstrated by the Foundation installation are 
Paralleled in photography oft he collection by Willard and Barbara Morgan, sponsored by 
the Follndat.ion. 
119 
~Educatio ? The Or?i? ?m _n;  oft he Barnes Fmwdffoon 
By the time the Barnes Foundation was officially dedicated on March 19, 1925, 
the coilection 
WcLs already fairly wen kmwn to many art lovers in both America and 
Europ e_ In con+-.... t ? 
.u&.la.)L o its later reputation ror exclusi>n of the piblic, the Barnes 
Foundation's be ? ? 
glnnings were open and .inclusive. When Barnes was assembling his 
COllection earl ? 
!Y on, be frequently played host to the many visitors wbo desired to see his 
lllodem art. Aimng the earliest visitors to the coJJectbn in Bames's home were Bernard 
~n and Leo Stein, the latter ofw hom visited sometime after 1915. 4 
As his collection expanded, Barnes began making plans to construct a new 
building to house his art. His idea ~ mt to create another, .laiger ~ in Mlicb to 
ho 
USe the C.Ollection, but to build an educational institution open to the general public. 
Barnes SOugbt to create an environment in which he could promot.e his nascent aesthetic 
educational theo n'e s usm? g the collection as a primarY .resource. nlle  ?w-cU-J~LI.~U  to, m?  e.~..__.,  
teach the Public to see through the Jens ofb is "scienti.ic" method of art appreciation. In 
1922, Barnes succinctly described the educational aims of his proposed foundation in a 
letter to Forbes Watson: 
The educational feature will be an efrort to put into practicsl etfect the work of 
those men _ William James George Santayana, John Dewey, Bertrand Russell ? 
Which seems to me to re~t the soimdest thinkin_g for ~ ~velopment ~f 
h~ beings along the Jines of demoaacr and education. .Primarily, the ?Dpe is 
that every person of whatever station in Jjfe will be albwed to get their ?wn 
reactiom to whatever the Foundation bas to offer; that ~ that ~
C.Onfonnity to out-worn conditions, counterli:its !11 r, Jiving and thinking, can 
have no place in the intended scope oft he Foundation. 
Shortly after writing to Watson, Barnes tormalu,ed his. plans and chartered The Barnes 
Fo~ non December 4, 1922. 
120 
t" 
ed to a 1917
 "experimen
th undation may
 be trac
The origins 0 
f e Barnes Fo .z.: h he pplied the ide
as of 
? 
s h ._ _ , 1:,..
_ 
. hi .;tory m w
mc a
o ?'- c enlll.ia.l uu  
aznes condu
cted with w rl\ers m ewey and enr
olled in
B ritings ofD 
nDe become intere
sted in the w
lob
ey. Barnes
 had ey. 6 y Dew Bar
n.es was to 
W . n New York t
aught b
1917inase
 . m University 
i
 to New 
11lIDar at Col
wnb ia
commuting fro
m Philadelph
t champions, 
become y's most ard
en ticularly 
one of Dew
e
s. 7 rnes w
as parBa
s to take Dew
ey's classe
rk once year
h 
Yo eek for three
 
d ? I i cati?o
 n to_ wnan a W ?o n an its app
? n
t in educati
he demo Cratic possib
ilities inhere
drawn to t
lained:  
eXperie 
xp le
nee. As Barn
es later e
axiom that the
 indispensab
rests on the i:1telligence in
 
 
 philosophy o
f education s 
y's  life - scientif
ic ~thod a hole. To 
John Dewe a
mc w
the democrat
ic way of rg
f ound together
 in a s.unple o
 o lligent expe
rience, 
eleme~ts
, art, educati
on_ are all b ine experience
 is inte
n ll genu by art, and m
ade a 
operatio
tter in other 
tenns a
a d from science
, illuminated 
put the m by insight d;r
ive
8 
eXJJerience gu
ided 
ion through e
ducation. 
znon possess
 two 
com y experiment,"
 setting aside
17 ''factor
deas in this 19 es 
Barnes applie
d Dewey's i eSince most of
 his employ
sions with his
 employees. 
ho0rs a  d
iscus  to -
Week for info
nnal
problems intim
ately related
stematic stud
y toward ''
 his sy  initially 
nes directed ns, the group
Were black, B
ar
nal."9 In the
se sessio
. nd  perso 
's life both economi
c a
 ofa  scientitic 
method to 
tbe Negro , he application , then t
ocial conditio
ns
Im and +i. ..... 11
.., 
s an 
d psychologic
al and . . d
 
 every 
a!Y e
 , .uuaJ.JJ 
CXJJlore
aesthetic expe
nence m
y oft he ullen 
edu m.
 a stud ary M
cat n, movi
ng on to oundation teac
her M
ng this early e
xperiment, F
rt itself De
scnbi10  rather by re
eling than 
analysis of a ussion was do
minated
'?t first the
 disc
lection. The 
later recollec
ted that,  ef
roach upon th
e sphere ofr
ed to enc
onstantly tend em when they
 
ntelligence: im
agination c t analyzed th
i . and ;...,,;,m
nation bu
~ 
he i.d  not repress
 reeling 
1eader of t group d
11 
llltruded 1? 0 the wrong pl.
ace."
121 
The Barnes Foundation was chartered by Barnes to continue the experiment 
~ Cclrfier . 
among his mcto.ry workers. Early on in its developmmt, Barnes hired 
severai 
.OOtabJe Dgures to run the educational program In additi>n to his now good 
friend, lohn Dewey, who was set from the start to seIVe as director ofe ducati>n, Barnes 
also 8PP<>inted Laurence Buenneyer as associate director of education in the Spring of 
1923 Baznes 
? described Buenneyer to Paul Guillaume as ''the IIX>st important yow.ig 
inten--._ . . 
._,,ua.r m America."12 Thom as Mu nro, who deveJo:.t.N...WA  Foundation cou? rses in 
co . . 
iuunction With the University ofP ennsy.lvanis, was hired on to the educational staff in 
Aprjj 1924 from Columbia University, as discussed in the prereding chapter. The Barnes 
FoUndati 
on was to be a radical new direction for arts education, one that would be, 
8Ccorfi;,_ 
~ to .Bames "surely the most important institution for art education that bas ever 
been started. ,,13 
BuifA:.._ 
~ the Founpptjon; "The Triu?Jph of/'Ar(Negre" 
In 1922, Barnes contracted Paul pbiJjppe Cret, a professor of design at the 
University ofP enmyfvania, to draw up plans for the Fowxlation buildings. Cret designed 
three SCJ)arafe buildings: the gallery, admaJjstration bui]ding, and service building. All are 
llivo-stozy French limestone structures with Spanish Mission clay-roof tiles. The Gallery 
( 53) f _.L:a.:,.:,,. Inside the ~1;...-. is the largest building with 16,000 square feet O eAJJWiuun space. ' 
buikuug reatures a two-sto.ry open central gaJ1err with an 18-foot ceiling and malty-two 
SllJaller Je?-' the cemra1 room is flanked on rooms on two levels (fig. 54). On the first .~ 
either side by rooms and on the second level, by i:.- 100n is. six JJn-
122 
In an article on the Foundation published in The Arts in January of 1923, Cret 
included a preliminary study of the building's front elevation (fig. 55) and related his 
primary concerns in developing his design: 
In planning the gallery that will receive the Barnes collection, the first care bas 
been to secure those conditions that the painter could wish fur the display of his 
work. This means to avoid crowding too many paintings in a single room, and to 
place these paintings in a light similar to that in which they were painted. Thence 
two rules: small rooms and studio lighting, instead of the usual toplit gallery.14 
Cret stresses, then, numerous rooms of moderate siz.e providing an ample am~unt of 
hanging space, and adequate light. Though the interior plans are discussed at some length 
in his essay, Cret is not nearly as expansive about his plans for the building's exterior. He 
descnbes it only as "built of a French stone of beautiful texture" and having an appearance 
dependent "on. the carefully studied proportion of its elements and combination of 
materials. " 15 
Barnes, however, fucused closely on details of the design for the exterior of the 
building. In developing his plans, Barnes envisioned the African collection as having 
particular significance. Though Cret, in his preliminary drawing, had planned on a typical 
classical vestibule with columns, Barnes decided that the entrance should feature African 
sculpture. This, Barnes felt, would visually proclaim his intense appreciation of African 
sculpture and announce the importance of its presence in his collection. 16 In a March 
1923 letter, Barnes referred to his plans for the tile decoration of the entrance, pledging to 
Guillaume, "You will see that L'Art Negre [sic] triumphs."17 Later that year, Barnes 
vowed that the Foundation would firmly establish African sculpture in the realm of the fine 
123 
arts. "When th . e Foundation opens," he wrote, ''negro art will have a place among the 
great art ,,..,~ ... :~ . 
44"'-l.UJ.estations of all times."1s 
Barn es ?s  i'd  eas for the entrance vestibule were realiz.ed by the Enfield Tile and 
Pott~,c 
4
- J ompany (fig. 56). Barnes specified individual works of African art, largely from 
his own collection, that were to be replicated in tile mosaics and low-relief terracottas. 
The proposed design, submitted by Enfield, was estimated at $3,130. It was to be 
executed b Mr 19 
Y a ? Allen, whom Barnes deemed "a real artist." Allen apparently created 
the design fr 20 om photographs of the objects provided by Barnes. Clearly pleased, Barnes 
deSCribed 
Plans for the entrance in a March 1924 letter to Guillaume: 
The most interesting news I have for you is that Mr. Allen, the American 
Ceramicist, has made a wonderful plan for the entrance, just outside the front door 
~f the gallezy. A friez.e at the top has two central figures (Soudan) and on each 
side there are figures of Gabon, Ivozy Coast, S1bitt and Soudan. All of these 
fi~es are reproductions from my collection and the central ones are about 85 
centimetres high. Below the :friez.e there are reproduced 8 negro masks (. full-siz.e) , 
all ~erent and all from my collection. Still lower down, set in ce~c panels on 
each s1de of the door, is a reproduction of the temple door (.full-siz.e) I got from 
You~ visit. The colors of the :figures are natural ~d they_~~ in surrom1~s 
of brilliant colors, reds, yeilows, greens, etc. All this work JS m tile.and I expect 1t -
to be wonderful because Allen is a real artist and he has become so infutuated with 
ne gro art that it has inspired him to really create a work  of  art. 21 
The African-inspired entrance of the Barnes Foundation clearly demonstrates the 
si~ of African art to Barnes and his vision of the collection as a whole. The tile 
and low- re Jie f designs present a canon of African art accolid ing to  B arnes ' s ae sth eti?c  
standards and serve as an introduction to the African sculpture inside. The sign above the 
entrance is flanked by replicas (:fig. 57) of the Senufo seated female figure in profile, 
disc~~-m the previous chapter. On either side of the doorway, are ~=?- . -115u.t"S representing 
the four regional traditions that Barnes found most important artistically, Sudan, Ivory 
124 
Co~ Gabon, and the Congo. Below there is a frie7-e ofm ask-like mces, also drawn from 
these four ? 
regio~ interspersed with small animals 1igures based on Akan and Lobi 
gokfweights (fig SB) 22 
? ? The Baule granary door from Ivory Coast, reproduced in chapter 
two, is replicated in multi--color tiles on either side oft he doorway (ng. 59). 
I Would like to now focus on the four .tigw-es of the upper frie7.e to discuss the 
J>rototypes nft __ . 
.IJCU.UCS used. To the fur left of the doorway, if one were .racing the entrance, 
there is a reproduction of a Bamana figure from .Mali. the region Barnes rere~ to as 
"So 
Udan" (fig. 60), based on a work displayed on the south wall of room 22 (fig. 61). 
Next to ? 
~ there is a replica of a Fang reliquazy guardian :figure from Gabon (fig. 62), 
based on a figure in Paul Guillaume's collection, published in the 1917 Sculptures negres 
23 
(:fig. 63), To the right of the doorway is a reproduction of a Baule male :figure ?from 
Ivozy Co 
ast (fig. 64), located on the north wall of room 21 (fig. 65). Next to that is a 
replica ofa  Bembe 1igure from the Congo, designated ''Sibit:I" in Bames's letter (fig. 66). 
This work? 
IS based on a small figure displayed on the west wall ofroom21 (.fig. 67). 
B~ evidently selected these works, representative of his .fuur ''major 
tradit~, ,, because they were especially interesting from an aesthetic perspective. Both 
the Bauie and the Bembe .figure reproduced in the em;ranceway were sing.led out -for praise 
in ... 
Ni Sc nue. The Baule male figure, -for example, is said to combine 
''with unusuai success a powerful integration of masses with richness of surmce 
 into 
Ol'Jua,_ __ ., ,,24 ,1;.,.,,.,.:,.~,. f the body
-.&4.IClJI. Particular attention is directed in the text to the w."J"',1wauvn ? 
three Illasses (the he.ad and neck, the trunk, and the_l egs) that establish a fundamental 
~ in the similarity of their sim and shape. The Bembe :female figure, too, is singled 
125 
out from among other Bembe works because the repetition of points, angles and curves in 
the work creates an "interesting mass design. ,,2s 
The integration of African motifs into the architectural design is continued 
elsewhere in and around the Foundation building. A Senufo mask from Ivory Coast is 
positioned between Greek urns and other classical decorative motifs in the metalwork 
gates and sills outside the Foundation (fig. 68). Inside, in the two-story central gallery, an 
abstracted triangular design based on Kuba patterns is interspersed with an abstrac~ed fuce 
of an eastern Bembe figure (fig. 69). The latter design was one that, according to 
Primitive Negro Sculpture, was typical of the Sangha region of the Congo. It is based on 
a specific figure in the collection (fig. 70) whose 'l)attem of mouth and drooping eyes, 
arranged as three similar ellipses about the nose" appears "simply and emphatically.',26 
Barnes clearly intended the entrance to make a visual statement about the 
importance of African art to the Foundation and highlight specific works he found 
aesthetically pleasing. Yet in addition to introducing objects from Bames's collection, the 
siting of African motifs in the classical vestibule reveals the place of African sculpture 
within Bames's aesthetic philosophy. Richard Wattenmaker has suggested previously that 
the juxtaposition of Doric columns and African motifs subverts the traditional role of the 
museum as a monument to classicism. 27 I propose that, in addition to challenging the 
hegemony of Greco-Roman art traditions, African sculpture is specifically presented 
within an historical continuum as a catalyst for modernism The positioning of elongated 
and anatomically distorted figures in place of the idealized fonns of Greek caryatids 
highlights the role of African sculpture in liberating Western art from the constraints of 
126 
classical representation The debt of modernism to African art is thus acknowledged and 
celebrated. 
That Barnes intended such a reading of the entrance to his Foundation is 
supported by his own writings. In The Art in Painting. published in 1925, Barnes 
compares the plastic achievements of classical and African statuary: 
Negro sculpture has enriched contemporary painting to a great extent. In the early 
periods of Greek sculpture figures were conceived as combinations of back, front, 
and side bas-relieis. Design was too often encumbered by representation, so that 
the arrangement of masses - head, trunk, and limbs - which would have made the 
most effective ensemble, is rarely found. Literature, in other words, stood in the 
way of plastic fonn. With Negro sculpture, the literary motive is submerged in the 
artist's distnbution of masses in accord with the requirements of a truly sculptural 
design. .. Freedom from the adventitious or meaningless gives Negro art a 
sculptural quality purer than that of the majority of the best Greek work or of 
Renaissance sculpture, which is Greek in another guise. 28 
The theme is reinforced by further references to modernism in the exterior design 
Surrounding the building are seven "Cubistic" bas reliefs, designed in 1924, at Barnes's 
request, by Jacques Lipchitz (fig. 71). ? Lipchitz was an artist whose work, Barnes feh, 
owed a debt to African sculpture in its "emphasis upon selected planes.',29 Even Barnes's ? 
specifications for colors in the entrance design reflects its underlying ties to modernist 
paintings. Barnes wanted tiles that contrasted with the buff-colored stone of the building, 
suggesting "a Persian blue" which, he feh, would "give an effect something like a late 
Matisse in color combinations. ,,3o 
Inside the Foundation: African Art and Barnes's "Wall Ensembles" 
As with the exterior design, Barnes paid especially close attention to details of the 
interior, arranging his entire collection in "wall ensembles" that were designed to facilitate 
127 
aesthetic appreciation. As Carl McCardle relates, "Barnes personally arranged the 
pictures in the gallery and he did it according to an original scheme he had evolved to 
demonstrate that the modem artists had considerable in common with the hallowed old 
masters. "31 Barnes installed African sculpture from his collection in the gallery in the :full 
of 1924, initially grouping the works in five separate vitrines.
32 'The collection of African 
sculpture at the Barnes Foundation was situated on the second floor, where it remains 
today. Several objects are displayed in the hallway overlooking the large central ro_om and 
the majority of the collection is installed in rooms 20, 21, and 22. In examining the display 
of the collection, we will focus on one such ''wall ensemble," looking first at individual 
works within a vitrine, then moving to a consideration of the arrangement as a whole and 
finally analyzing the significance of African sculpture within the larger ensembles. A 
complete inventory of the African art collection at the Barnes Foundation is listed in an 
Appendix to this text that includes information on provenance, collection and publication 
history and current location in the Barnes Foundation. 
The display of African sculpture on the south wall of room 22 may be analyzed as 
representative of the strategies of presentation employed by Barnes (fig. 72).33 This 
vitrine contains, on two shelves, seven masks and six figures of wood, four small ivory 
figures and an ivory horn. The objects were carefully mounted on dark wood bases 
designed by Paris-based craftsman Inagaki.34 Focusing the viewer's attention on the 
aesthetic merits of individual pieces, the presentation asserts the object's autonomy as 
"art" through an emphasis on form. 
128 
The aesthetic philosophy governing the overall display within the central case is 
similar to Bames's analysis of individual pieces, as diclcussed at length in the previous 
chapter. The symmetrical arrangement of mask, figure, mask, figure, establishes a 
thematic repetition. Within this uniting harmony, the differing lines, textures, and contours 
of the masks and figures provide the necessary contrast. Some are SDX>Otbly polished and 
radically distilled into essential e~ as in the Dan mask on the bottom left. Others 
are embellished with a profusion of surfuce detail, for example, the Guro mask on the 
bottom, third from left. Figural sculptures may be ~ and somewhat rough, like the 
Bamana figure that serves as a prototype for the entrance and is displayed here on the top 
right. In contrast, other figures are shiny am rounded, as is the case in the Fang reliquary 
guardian figure at ~ bottom, second :from the left. Overall, the vitrine demonstrates 
numerous and varied formal solutions to the central theme of figural and physiogoomic 
representation. 
Through dispJay~ the collection offers a comparative stylistic analy~ intended to 
highlight works Barnes considered most important artisticaily. As with the entranceway, 
the arrangement is meant to highlight the four regional traditions that Barnes felt were 
superior. Thus, the "better" works :from the Sudan, Ivory Co~ Gabon and Congo, 
which are the majority in this case, may be contrasted with the "~' woiks, such as the 
small Pende and Lega figurines on the top shelf The Barnes method stipulated that in 
order to gain an appreciation of art, one must be able to distinguish between successful 
and umuccessful form& The "lesser'' examples coul~ therefore also elicit comparisons 
with "good" sculptural design. 3s Such an ammgeum of the collection reflects its 
129 
ultimately didactic purpose and radically reinterprets the role of the museum. Recent 
scholarship on museum display reveals Bames's prescience. As Richard Brettell notes, 
regarding Impressionist and Post-Impressionist installations in American art museums, "if 
the museum is to exhibit in optimal conditions only the best ofits collections (as defined by 
curators and scholars alike), then other scholars and the public are not in a position to 
judge the installation. 6 ,,3
The vitrine of African sculpture on the south wall of room 22 is, as with the other 
vitrines at the Foundation, integrated with other works from the collection. Bames's 
intent in such an arrangement was to situate the art form within an historical continuum of 
great art traditions. Barnes believed that all successful art forms expre~ what he termed 
"basic human values" revealed through plastic means. His arrangements sought to 
demonstrate interrelatiomhips between works of different cultures and periods by 
revealing these ''universal attributes." In this wall ensemble, a comparison could be made 
between the surface detail of certain African works and the medieval triptych on the wall, 
or in the shape and sheen ofthe Fang head, in the top center, with the metal pitcher 
directly above. 
To Barnes, the particular significance of African art within this historical 
continuum of forrn lay in its relationship to modernism. The pairing of African sculpture 
with modernist painting was, of course, not a new idea. Private collectors ofboth African 
and modernist art often arranged the two together to evoke comparisons. The 
Arensbergs, for example, interspersed both in their New York City apartment, placing, for 
example, Brancusi's Prodigal Son (1915) and a Fang reliquary figure from Gabon on 
130 
opposite sides of a mantelpiece to evoke comparisons (fig. 73). 37 Yet Barnes's 
arrangement reveals a quite dehberate exercise in aesthetic contemp1ation, perhaps even 
more calculated than the arrangement of African sculpture in his home prior to the 
opening of the Foundation. 38 On the south wall of room 22, for example, Barnes has 
included paintings by Amadeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso as well as watercolors by 
American artist Charles Demuth. 
Barnes encouraged a specific comparison between the African sculpture ~ the 
works by Modigliani and Picasso. The arrangement in room 22 relates the exploration of 
racial physiognomy in the vitrine to the depiction of the human race in the paintings. The 
incorporation of Bamana masks and Kota reliquary figures on either side of the wall 
reinforces the presence of African sculpture in the central vitrine. In the wall ensemble, 
the angular Bamana mask (fig. 74) is related to Modigliani's Woman in White from 1919 
(fig. 75), because it exhibits the "distorted, elongated, oval fuce" that Barnes considered 
characteristic of African sculpture.39 
In relating African sculpture to modernist painting, Barnes very clearly 
distinguished between inspiration and imitation. While Barnes considered artists like 
Matisse and Modigliani to have been inspired by African sculptme, he argued that their 
painting was not an attempt to reproduce the three-dimensional aspects oft he art. Rather, 
''what is taken over is rendered in temis proper to painting . . . Matisse, Modigliani and 
Soutine avail themselves of the essential feeling, the spirit ofNegro art, and give it force in 
a new setting.',4o In contrast, Barnes considered Picasso's paintings of the period around 
1907 to be 'l'eally pictorial reproductions of the sculptural values of Negro carved figures 
131 
and masks." 41 On the wall in room 22, Picasso's paintings, as in his study of a head from 
1907 (fig. 76), are hung next to Kota reliquary figures to effect Bames's point. 
The placement of African sculpture within wall ensembles composed primarily of 
paintings and drawings also served to highlight the ''three-dimensionality" of African 
sculpture. Barnes had emphasized the importance of this characteristic, writing that 
"Negro art, in exhibiting a form which is in the fullest sense sculptural, bas enforced a 
sharper distinction between the possibilities inherent in painting and sc?lpture, 
respectively, and it has also put at the disposal of painting a new source of inspiration.',..2 
While a full appreciation of the sculptural aspects of African art was limited by the 
placement of the works in vitrines along the walls, several .works were highlighted in cases 
in the centers of the rooms. These included a Luba caryatid stool in room 20, a Senufu 
seated female in room 21, and the Dogon male and fumale "couple" in room 22. These 
works, considered by Barnes to be masterpieces, were arranged to allow the viewer to 
observe them from multiple perspectives. In so doing, a full appreciation of sculptural 
design could be attained for "as one walks around such a statue, its lines and masses flow 
constantly and infinitely into new designs and equilibria, with no hiatus or weak interval 
between',43 
African Art and the Barnes Foundation's Educational Proaz:arns 
Barnes was also eager to share his systematic method of art appreciation with 
others and foresaw great opportunities by connecting the resources of his art gallery with 
the university system in the United States. Teaching the aesthetic appreciation of African 
132 
I SCUJptuz-e was a 
central aspect of his promotion of African art. Shortly after the 
FolJndar 
IOn ?.Pened, Barnes was pleased to play host to a visi.t from a group ofg raduate 
students at the University of Pennsylvania who had requested to see his collection of 
Anican 
art. Baines ~If l ectmed to the students, thrilled because .he believed it ''the 
first f . 
lllle an llDportant institution of 1e.aming in America has given any attention to the 
SUb.iect Officially. ,,44 
From its inception, the Barnes Foundation sought to collaborate with ~rican 
Uoivez-siti 
es in the teaching of art appreciation In November 1923, Barnes wrote to 
?uiliatune that he had 'perfected plans by which the Foundation becomes a part oft he art 
edn,?a?!-
--Wnal COlJrses of the most important universities in America. ,,45 While Barnes did 
not SJ>eci-,;, ? 
.... , lll this letter those participating, he noted that the universities were collectively 
attended by at least 75, 000 students, several hundred of which, he surmised, would be 
interested . IPl<ll-=-- the . ' . 
lll - ... ~,g about art. Most significantly, Barnes asserted th
at umversmes 
had clgree(i that the Barnes Foundation would be able to specify the method of instruction 
in their art courses. As Barnes noted proudly to Guillawne, ''you can see what a 
lreniendous P<>We.r that gives us over the future ofa rt knowledge in America." 
To this end, Barnes hired Thomas Munro, the co-author of Primitive Negro 
~- As lk>ted in the p.recooing chapter, Munro was appointed to the educational 
statr of the Barnes Fotllldation in April 1924, having previously taught in the Philosophy 
~ at Columbia. 46 In an undated typewritten manuscript entitled ''The Barnes 
Fo,~-? undati , . . d 
~JOn and the Teaching of Art," Munro desc~'bes the Fo on s ~ron an 
ltletboq: 
133 I 
..? the major part oft he Foundation's educational work is devoted to showing the 
descent with modifications of the chief traditions in painting and sculpture. 
Constant use is made of its own collection of ancient Egyptian, Greek, Negro, 
Persian, Chinese, and Renaissance works of art, in order to learn the essential 
features of these traditions.47 
The Barnes Foundation began offering a course in art appreciation in the spring of 
1925. The Foundation's first class was apparently fairly small As descn'bed in a letter 
from Barnes to Guillaume: "There are six people in our c~ all of them with good 
psychological background and our object is to train people to become teachers and thus 
establish intelligent art instruction in colleges, etc.',48 Classes were taught during the week 
by Thomas Munro, Mary Mullen and Sara Carles, am Barnes himself lectured on Friday 
and Sunday mornings.49 That semester, Munro aJso offered a course in modem art at the 
University of Pennsylvania, held in conjunction with the Barnes Foundation, and had 
thirty-five students. The course included a component on African sculpture and its 
relation to modernist painting. 50 
'The fullowing full, the Barnes Foundation broadened its educational program. A 
course on modem art was offered through Columbia University in New York, attracting 
an "especially Jarge" number of students. 51 At the Foundation itself: however, admittance 
policies were becoming more restrictive. In a letter to Guillaume, Barnes compJained, 
"We were bothered so much 1ast season by curiosity-seekers that we have decided to 
admit practically nobody except those people who are willing to become a member of one 
of the classes and pursue systematic study.',s2 
The "systematic study" taught by the Barnes Foundation included African 
sculpture. Barnes himself would lecture on the subject, advancing his aesthetic criteria for 
134 
African art and situating it withln a history of "great fonn." He described one of his 
lectures to Guillaume: 
Last Sunday we had a fine meeting at the gallery before a distinguished audience 
of painters, writers, musicians, etc. I talked on Negro sculpture, demonstrated its 
sculptural characteristics, and showed the difference between it and Greek, 
Chinese and Egyptian sculpture. I never had a more attentive and appreciative 
audience: many, many people thanked me and said that they could see why negro 
sculpture was important.53 
One of the more innovative uses Barnes made of the African art collection was his 
presentation of concerts featuring ''negro spirituals." Since he was a child, Barnes had 
been impressed with the power of African-American spirituals, and he even shared his 
J 
enthusiasm with Guillaume, singing for him when Barnes visited Paris and sending songs 
to the dealer from his boyhood memories.54 African-American spirituals had been 
introduced to white American culture as early as 1871 with the renown of the Fisk Jubilee 
Singers. By the early 20th century, there was established a growing literature on Negro 
spirituals which, as Nathan Huggins has observed, served to define African-American 
culture fur the majority white popu.lation55 
Barnes had always seen a strong relationship between mJSic and the visual arts. 
Indeed, at the Foundation's dedication ceremony in March 1925, the conductor LeopoJd 
Stokowski had "accepted" on behalf of the artists of America.56 In his book, The Art of 
Henri Matisse, Barnes discussed the similarity in composition of Matisse's painting, 
African sculpture and the music of Stravinsky. Moreover, Barnes observed how 
Stravimky's musical patterns had African sources: ''The character of Stravinsky's pattern, 
in some of its phases, is a direct result of his use of the primitive traditions, e.g. the 
complex rhythmic forms and the tom-tom beat of African tnbal chants and music.',s7 
135 
Barnes began to hold concerts of negro spirituals in 1925, featuring that year a 
quartet of singers. In March 1926, however, Barnes was introduced to the Bordentown 
School choir through Charles S. Johnson, editor of the journal Opportunity, a publication 
58 
of the National Urban League. The chorus was trained by Frederick Work, the brother 
of John Work, a man widely known for his published collection of spirituals. Barnes was 
immensely pleased with the Bordentown singers and began hiring them on an annual basis 
59 
to sing at the Foundation The choir would sing 'in groups of about five songs" and then 
pause between groups, at which time Barnes would lecture on the relationship between 
African-American spirituals and African sculpture.60 The yearly concerts of the 
Bordentown choir eventually became such an important feature of the Barnes 
Foundation's educational program that Barnes's only lecture of the year was reserved for 
the l?l ' VI?S i t' ?6 1 
Barnes believed the 'negro spirituals" were a truly great art form, calling them 
"America's only great music.',62 He considered the spirituals to be a poetic expression of 
religion, descnbing them beginning as "a song or wail which spreads like fire and soon 
3 
becomes a' spectacle of a harmony of rhythmic movement and rhythmic sound.',6 The 
underlying rhythm of spirituals was, according to Barnes, reflected in the lite of the 
''negro" in general: "His daily habits of thought, speech and movement are :flavored with 
the picturesque, the rhythmic, the euphonius.''64 The spirituals were therefore an 
important contnbution because, Barnes felt, they were a distinctively ''Negro" art. 
Barnes explored the reJationship between African sculpture and Aftican-American 
spirituals at length in a 1926 article for Les Arts a Paris entitled ''La Musique negre 
136 
americaine." The essay is based on a lecture Barnes delivered at the Foundation on April 
4, 1926, likely in conjunction with a visit from the Bordentown Choir. Barnes emphasizes 
the fact that both the spirituaJs and African sculpture are characteristically ''Negro" art 
forms, a fuithful reflection of their culture. 65 The uniting harmony of rhythm fuund in the 
spirituals is, Barnes contend~ also to be found in the greatest sculptural designs of 
African art. Great sculptural fonn consists of the varied repetition of certain themes 
punctuated by contrast, a fonnal structure that is replicated musically in negro spirituals. 
Re-presenting Form: Photographing the Barnes Foundation Collection of African Art 
'While the educational programs of the Barnes Foundation served to make 
Bames's collection and aesthetic viewpoint well known to certain groups of individuals, 
the photography of the art works furthered proimted their promineoce. Nowhere is this 
more evident than in a corpus of photographs and lantern slides featuring the collection, 
produced in the 1930s by Barbara and Willard Morgan, that reflect Bames's aesthetic. 
Since before the Foundation opened, Barnes had recognized that there would be a demand 
for photographs of the collectioIL When Toe Arts engaged Charles Sheeler to photograph 
paintings in the collection fur their January 1923 ismle, Barnes had offered to let Sheeler 
photograph the entire collection to be published as a catalogue.
66 As Barnes explained to 
Guillaume, "I don't want to sell anything at the Foundation, but somebody will have to sell 
7 
photos and catalogues because there will be a big demand for them.',6
The photographic set by Sheeler was never produced, probably because of the 
fulling-out Barnes had with Sheeler over prices the photographer was charging. Barnes 
did not pursue the idea again until 1930, when he was approached by Barbara and Willard 
137 
Morgan. Willard Morgan was a photographer who was the first to create 35 mm. Lantern 
slides and who introduced the Leica as a serious camera6 8 His wire, Barbara, then a 
painter and member of the faculty at UCLA, later became a prominent photographer.69 
The Morgans had met Barnes out in California through their mutual friend, John Dewey, 
who was lecturing at UCLA. In 1930, the Morgans moved to New York City, making a 
stop en-route to photograph the Barnes Foundation collection in Merion. 
The Morgans returned in September 1931 to continue photographing the 
collection. In addition to French masters such as Cezanne, Renoir and Matisse, the 
Morgans also focused on African sculpture in the collection. They made detailed 
photographic studies of aspects of the collection they found significant from an artistic 
standpoint. For example, the structure of a Fang sculpture particularly appealed to 
Barbara Morgan. She noted on a photographic proof of the work that ''the full convex 
and the following concave expresses one of the real 70 negro :findings of form to me."
Many objects were photographed from muhiple viewpoints. Refurring to a small Pende 
pendant head, Barbara Morgan wrote, "Tiris looks so different each time you change the 
71 
viewpoint the least bit, an entirely different spirit to it."
The Morgans, and Barbara Morgan in particular, shared similar perspectives on 
art as Barnes. In a 1927 article, Barbara Morgan emphasized the significance of"aesthetic 
essences," believing that an artist's role was ''to extract the most significant, most moving 
aspects - to refine and essentialize them, to get rid of the unnecessary, and to articulate the 
72 
subtlest, most intense, most profound expression possible." Morgan characterized the 
73 
central concept which effected all her artistic efforts as ''Rhythmic Vitality."
138 
lJ~. this concept of~ "essences" appealed to Bames's aesthetic 
Sensibilities. 
When the Morgan, ?b ad compJetoo their photography of th, collection, they 
~~~ . 
Pl'OO:fs to Barnes fbr bis approval He was extremely pleased with the final 
Pl'oduet In ,;,.. 
? -.." Barnes fbnnulated a plan whereby the Morgans's pmtographs would be 
Sokj to 
Pl'oll'linent an institutions with the ultimate goal of'promoting the understanding 
of art 
through the 1JJedium of reproduction by Jb,tograpbs and lantern slides. ,,14 
~ his "General Piao," Barnes suggeotoo that the Mmpos 1irst obtain th, 
COoPeratio . 
n of Dllportant museums, such as those in Boston, Chicago, and New Yo.de. 
1Ie advised 
the Morgans to then pubHsh a "oooklet wbicb shall be at the same time a 
~ and a Clllalogue ofw hat you Imo to otli,r. . ,,, This flookJet, Bame,, SUj!gl:Sled. 
8hc,llld be rfim-?1- . ? ? f ? aff--.l~,, 
--ilOlJted to those institutions "in which appreciation o art JS ~
accoJlJJ>anie 
d by a letter ofe ndorsement from the Barnes Foundation. 
The letter of e.rxforsemem that Barnes piepared tor the Moigans stressed the 
didactic . ~ of their work, which Barnes deemed "a deiinite contribution to the 
~t of education in art. ,,16 The letter clarities .Bames's position on 
~ lVod<s 1iom tbe collection. He mJorsed the M>ipB's 1't>IX because be 
believed that , .. __..al'J., to art they had Produced a visual translation of Barnes s tormal "t'JA.,_.... 
~IJ, "'Pn>duciog tbe "es5ential" qualilies of the woii of art. "In )Our 
~ ofo ur works ofa rt,., lre wrote, ~ haw suca,eded in oillllining in your 
slides the . nshi between those 
qua.Jities of the object and a series of intricate relatio ps 
qllalities Whi ? ? ? ? art fonn.''17 ch give the picture or piece ofs culpture its identity as an 
139 
The catalogue that was produced was presented as first in a series of bulletins 
listing photographs and lantern slides by the Morgans. Dated May 1933, Bulletin No. 1 
featured selected works from the Barnes Foundation collection. The Morgans provided 
an overview of their photography, emphasizing the careful processing and quality of their 
slides and photographs. Although the photographs were sold to imtitutions, the Morgans 
stipulated that they were not to be copied or reproduced ''in order to maintain the original 
quality." While the catalogue itself was extemive, listing over 300 photographs, it 
apparently included less than sixty percent of the total nwnber of negatives made by the 
Morgam.7& The section on African sculpture was substantial, offering 145 photographs of 
97 objects. 
Detailed photographic studies were available for several of these works, including 
a Luba stool supported by a female caryatid (''Congo XVII Cent. Kneeling figure 
supporting seat or table, 23"; 1012-1019), a Fang figure (''Gabun Pahouin X Cent. -
Standing figure", 17 ?", 1044-47, and a female figure from the Ivory Coast ("Tall 
standing female figure," 1078-85). I would like to compare here several of the Morgan 
photographs of the Luba stooi highlighted by Barnes in a central case in room 20, with its 
structural analysis as published in Primitive Nei[O Sculpture. Such a comparison reveals 
how the Morgan photographs may be read as a visual interpretation ofBarnes's aesthetic 
interest in these objects. 
Photograph number 1012 (fig. 77) is a partial front view of the stoo~ shot at an 
angle slightly above the work. The object is arranged so that the form of the female 
caryatid is clearly outlined so as to emphasizes certain shapes: 
140 
... the dominant theme is once more an egg-shaped mass. It is stated most 
forcefully by the full and prominent breasts, and each other major part of the 
design is a varied repetition of these oval masses. The table-top and base tend to 
squeeze the figure together until it bursts into a heavy, laboring zigzag contour.7 9 
The "egg-shaped" masses and "zigz.ag contour" clearly are emphasiz.ed in this 
photographic perspective. 
Turning now to photograph number 1018 (fig. 78), a side view of the :figural 
stooi the description continues: 
. . . the thin, stiff arms and fingers and the sharp chin serve as minor contrasting 
notes to accentuate the short, bulging fatness of the other parts, although as 
mounds and cones they are in harmony with the prevailing ovoid theme. The 
rounded points at chin, ears, elbows, nipples, navel and knees are felt as rhythmic 
repetitions, and as protuberances into which fl.ow the soft swelling planes and the 
full, distended mass within them. 80 
Again, the photograph highlights the silhouette of the figure, drawing attention to the 
"rounded points" of the work, particularly the nipple and navel. The side view also 
emphasizes the verticality of the arms and :fingers, their rigidity contrasted with the 
downward-flowing masses of the figure, as descn'bed in the text. 
Photograph nwnber 1014 (fig. 79) is a close-up of the head and torso of the 
female figure, closely cropped to exclude even the suggestion of forearms. The 
description of the work in Primitive Negro Sculpture accents the repetition of the "lines 
and planes" in the features. The text observes further, "A feeling for surfaces appears in 
the strong contrast between the rough, hair-covered planes and the smooth, rippling patine 
[sic] else where.',a1 This close perspective of this photographic view stresses this contrast, 
focusing the viewer's attention on the face, breasts and hair of the figure. The lighting of 
the object further enhances the sheen ofi ts smooth surfuces. 
141 
.8anie The Morgan ho P tographs were specmcalJy promoted as study aids accompanying 
s Founcfat? 
lear ron publications and, in fact, were reproduced in such texts, a met 'Mlich 
c 1y deznonstrat 
.Both es that the works were in accordance with Barnes's aesthetic beliefs. 
C ~ofR~ezto;.. by Albert Barnes and Violette de Mazia (1935) and The Art of 
M~o also by Albert Barnes and Violette de Mazia (1939) each included twenty-.ive 
Ed rgan Photo gtaphs. Moreover, the reproductiom in John Dewey's 1934 Art and 
t~hree a. ll came from the Morgans. The photographs published in the book included 
\'Jews ofthe  Do gon male and rema1e .igure, as an example of''negro sculpture" (.ig. 
80). 
Interest in the Morgan slides and photograpbs, however, was not limited to those 
associated . 
With the Barnes Foundation As Barbara Morgan later recounted in a letter to 
.Baznes, . 
C , 'During the first years we supplied Fogg, Metropolitan, Museum ofM odem Art, 
hicago Art r,,.,..!.,_ . 
L1Jo3Ulute and many other institutions with slides and bs, . pbotograp m respome 
totheo? ? ? 
. OSinal catalogue sent out with your Jetter of endorsement.',s2 For many of these 
lllstitutions, . " 
the Photographs ordered from the Morgans were seen as 'rep.resentative 
~Jes ofA frican sculpture. .Among the JOO /aDleJ1l slides ordered by tlr: Museum of 
dern Azt, Benin b
f ru or n ze .x e a mm ap skle . , were photographs of a Kota reliqWllY, 8 
two .Ba 
lie Ille ~ ? Bamana mask, and multiple shots of tlr: Luba auyatid stool ? Fq 
ad, and the s 
. e ,n  uf ?o   that ---se -a Ated  a n interest female. BJ The range of jnstitutiOns c;AJJl ~ 
ll1 the Mo . ad The Michigan Board of 
rgan slides and photographs was extremelr bro ? 
EdUc.atio ? 
Gran Fd o undation's n m Rapids, for example, requested one Bxl Op hoto of the 
A:&ican art and excellent fbr art 
collection ''which is veiy typical of negro sculpture 
142 
education Plllposes in schools. ,,s4 Thus, through the distribution of the Morgan 
Photograph, and lantern slides from 1933 on, the prominence of the Barnes Foundation 
conecuo ? 
n was further established and the particular aesthetic perspective advocated by the 
Fobn,,l,..c _ 
---auon shared With many others. 
143 
- --
---
--
E T..I ~UR;.--
- -
oT R C A,.,. FnO ay 4)
: 
N s FO ~uu-TER . Qrtunity (M 192P
   Foundat
ion," OR
1 
PaoJ G . A ~  Art Barnes
40 llill
aume " n  ' o..u-1ca at the? ch 19th th 1 . s not until 
Mar e 
r, wa
2 
e offl . f
 n, howev
e
Th 1a1 dedic
ation o the Founda
tio . 
c "The 
foJJoWin ?,
" 
g Year.  ofP 
olitics
..  or the D
isplay
. 2 (June 
1995): 
3F isplay 77, no
rao9oise 
Fo  .!m, "T it1cs of D  Bulletin 
p rster-F
la he ~ol t 2," Art
robJerna 
. ctin , Par
tics of C
olle
g and ~i
splay
174_ 
4  The 
Schack .
 
3 2. Archiv
es of
~9
2
? Novembe
r 28, 19
s tson, 
Letter fr 0111 Albert B
 es to For
bes Wa
13 es F: a.
m
ation. ductive fr
iendship 
arn ?U.Od
 a long a
nd pro  
f e develop
ment of
  o  6
 CoJ semmar s the beginning rly influential. in
 th wey's
The :ibia ~a s clea have insp
ired De
Uo wa to  dedicated
 
etwee two  Dewey
 
, seems as actuall
y
b  ,n the 111
 
n.h ~e  tu
m , w ation, 
.Barn  ducatio
~
nes, Bar
nes, in t as Expe
rience tion publi
c
r ounda
in.terees ~ e ,t eo ion, 
A rnes F
st 1l1 a.rt. D
eWi ublicat 29 Ba
o 13  s 
1934 p  to the 1
9  extant t
es, and D
e ey
 also con
tributed neglected
 in
ly f the 
4rt arn wey as been larg
e s o
- wever, h y and the 
Substance ey's 
~13 y
, ho mmetr
w
, John De
r, arnes
's int] ~ 0
e
~ Dew Rhythm-S
y
'' See Zelt
ner ly, while 
Schola p. PbiJi f z
:enc iscussion o
f
d es's theori
es. ar
shi itner s n 67-92
.. Simil
'' orate Bar  1975), ed in par
t to 
Arts
'_for eXar
n rp
-;;:1 oes not i
nco
R Gran.er
 B. V., ow
e Pbi] d  B. ter 1917 m
ay have 
A r
y. See 
 ~' sterdam: st in art af  Dewey's
 theo
~ (Am intere in li
ng 
k 's
 s' influenc
e ~ns ofF ee
h 0 ItJas ~wi: Dewey  Barnesuggests t pursue ature: The Horiz of Megan 
sociation 
p 
lS arnes, he
 does no N i
i c B er
ience & e scholars
h oubt 
41 lobn eory ofA r
t. Exp  55. Th will no d
C Xander, h s
s, 1987),   progress,
(.t\J ~
 T
 York Pr
e
ewey is in
Granb_ any: S
t w
 nn iversit
y of Ne nd D
13aJir ation on 
Barnes a . 
. da rt t to rec h o' ~ .o se
 disse ' ss comrru
tmen
e d 
tify SIJc
e
111iss1ons.
 ribes Bar
n ll
e desc re, Barne
s enro
, 
series on 
Barnes, h lionai  
 nd a mult
imil k for thre
e ye8:s
In CarJ ll.
,  fl  a
 ~v1cca
rd1 ,es our-p
art
as past fo
rty 
  w mbia. Ev
ery wee nts halfl Jf5 
De~ y's teaclJin 'When he ts at Colu  class with
 stude  
in. l) e s: " den ey's et Ba:;ie
s s
ewey's se
 _g aduate st
u w m
for gr
 De not 
 his place
 in
lars he ha
s rnes, Th
e 
.B 
ent totnin
ar ok
W rk and 
to th scho  Dr. Ba
a atoes Ne~ y o lifetime s
pent wi empered
Dewe  T
errible-T
e ge. ~s ~d t
hat in a he 
e " McCar
dle, "T
Si!Ja) for
 sh~~  power.n::~ brain ): 93. (March 21, 1942~
144 
8 Barnes, "John Dewey's Philosophy of Education," Art and Education. 3rd ed., 
(Merion, PA: The Barnes Foundation Press, 1954), 9. The essay, included in the 
revised and expanded third edition of this 1929 publication, was originally published 
in the Winter 1946 issue of The Humanist. 
9 Mary Mullen discusses Barnes's educational experiment with factory workers at his 
chemical plant at length in "An Experiment in Adult Negro Education," Opj)ortunity 
(May 1926): 160-161. 
10 Mullen, "An Experiment in Adult Negro Education," 161. Mary Mullen and her 
sister, Nelle, were also employed by Barnes in the factory and participated in this 
"experiment." Mary Mullen was placed in charge of the seminar after she "showed a 
flair for James and Dewey,'' and later became Associate Director of Education at the 
Barnes Foundation. McCardle, "The Terrible-Tempered Dr. Barnes," (March 28, 
1942), 78. 
11 As quoted in Schack, Art and Argyrol, 99. 
12 Letter :from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, November 9, 1923. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. ? 
13 Barnes emphasized its importance in a letter to Guillaume, October 9, 1923. 
Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
14 Paul Cret, "The Building for the Barnes Foundation," The Arts (January 1923): 8. 
15 Ibid., 8. 
16 ''The walls of the vestibule in the Gallery are to be of especially made multi-colored 
tiles of which Negro Art will be the motif. That shows how much I esteem negro 
art." Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, March 1, 1923. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
17 Letter :from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, March 9, 1923. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
18 Letter :from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, November 5, 1923. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
Just four days later, Barnes reiterated his vow to Guillaume, albeit with an 
additional emphasis on the market possibilities of African art: "When the Foundation 
opens, Negro Art will become one of the imst important art values of the world. I am 
sure of that because I intend to make Negro Art a big feature of the Foundation and as 
soon as that happens all the American musewm will probably want to obtain good 
145 
pieces." Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, November 9, 1923. Archives of 
The Barnes Foundation. 
19 With the exception of a letter from Barnes to Paul Cret, dated March 12, 1924, 
referring to the proposed design, the Barnes Foundation was unable to provide me 
with any documentation of work by Enfield Tile and Pottery company. 
20 Barnes refers to this in a April 13, 1924 letter to Gumaume: ''The photo of the 
Negro Art Temple door is being used by the ceramist to reproduce in the entrance to 
the Foundation's gallery." Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
21 Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, March 7, 1924. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
22 The objects they replicate, moving from left to right, are a Bau1e mask from Ivory Coast 
(not in Barnes collection), a Dan mask from Ivory Coast (inventory no. A229), another 
Baule mask from Ivory Coast (inventory no. A189), a head from a Fang figure, Gabon 
(inventory no. A262), a head from a Kota figure from Gabon (invemory no. A268), a head 
from a Lega figure from the Dem. Rep. Of Congo (mventoiy no. Al63), a Dan mask from 
Ivory Coast (inventoiy no. Al 10), and a head from a Senufu figure from north Ivory 
Coast "Sudan" (inventory no. A209). The animal figures are likely replicated from objects 
in Laura Barnes's collection. 
23 Although Barnes notes that all the reliefs were based on objects in his collection, 
the Fang figure is not currently a part of Barnes collection. It was, however, formerly 
in the possession of Paul Guillaume who published it in the 1917 book he wrote with 
Guillaume Apollinaire. 
24 Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Nearo Sculpture, 88. 
2
~ Ibid., 120. 
26 Ibid., 114, 116. 
27 Wattenmaker. Grear French Paintings, 11. 
28 Barnes, The Art in Painting, 354. 
29 Ibid., 355. 
30 Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Cret, March 12, 1924. Archives of The Barnes 
Foundation. Interestingly, as Barnes Foundation archivist Nicolas King has observed, 
this color combination is recreated throughout the grounds of the Barnes Foundation 
146 
:----_ 
~~ Where:~tllihe;:te::=::-=-- - -----------
-~, J>ersona1 co rrac~tta. tiles contrast with blues of the floral plantiop, Nicolas 
J1 M JJJrnllllicatmn, August 1995. 
11 l 9cCarciJe, "The T "b 
' ~2): 2. em le-Tempered Dr. Barnes," Saturday Evening Post (April 
J2 " 
ft \Voulcf 
~~loUs _ ~e _Your heart glad to see the Negro art in the new gallery. It is 
-~. NoveUU::. five beautiful cases." Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul 
This . . 26JJ , 1924. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
the lllstaUation vie ? 
~ l>resent tune I w IS the only one that the Barnes FoWJdation is able to release at 
._::a,-d Watte~n  the catalogue Great French Paintings of the Barnes Foundation. 
ins? 8TotJnd as a er offers an analysis oftbis same wall ensemble infonned by his 
~tfuJ, \\-'J tt graduate of the Barnes Foundation's educational program. While 
~ scu1p::U:lllllaker's discussion of the ensemble does not detail the role of 
to "the inters~?H e notes only its rhythmic arrangement and ultimately concludes 
CJcaniirie our Jon of elegant and rugged, both African and European, obliges us 
l4 I preconceptions about the traditions ofs culpture." Wattenmaker, 21. 
have bee 
::'Uztts are hon UOable to find specilic mformation about this craftsman. Inagaki 
Ins.~~~ oft he Wever, quite distinctive and feature his chopmark incised usually on the 
~~ these mount. Many of the objects from Ouillamne's gallery were mounted by 
hllery, lJJOunts are now seen as indicating a provenance from Guillaume's 
Js'thi, 
~~ QJJent was not limited to the African coBection. As McCardle relates, 
:lttCJJtion tha ? C~bist pictures. He has them to demonstrate to the students his 
taken Serio t CubJSm is interesting only as a by-product of a bewildered age, not to 
36 usJy as art." 'The Terrible-Tempered Dr. Barnes," (April 11, 1942): 2. 
1311~!-7rd7  R. Brette u, "T ~  he Problematics of Collecti.n g and v?J SPu,_sY , Part 2,  ,, aAurt  
37 " ' no. 2 (June 1995): 167. 
Ni rranc? Yo~rJc~ llnla-CW "Walter Conrad . A . ---.i1, rensb -er ~g: P  oet, Patron, and Pamcipant m 
(SJ>ring 198~~;1t;~de, 1915-20," Bulletin of the Philajdphia Musewn of Art 16 
Ja , 0?  
iM~Cs'
ms oe aru . his ho i.~te a er rererences to the arrangement of African sculpture m . ~ 
?qs first sbj re casuai iuxtaposition with modernist paintings. Shortly afier ~~ 
~ SCUJ ~ of African sculpture .from Paris, Barnes wrote Ouilla~- My 
~s fo~ lire IS a COmtant joy and my pktw-es look an the better for baVllli the 
1922-Archi CODlpany," Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, September 12' 
Ves ofT he Barnes Foundation. 
141 
Barnes continued to change the arrangement of his collection at the 
Foundation throughout his life. He wrote to Guillawne on September 16, 1925 that 
he was rearranging paintings, and in a later letter to Guillaume on January 31, l '.127, 
Barnes descnbes a new arrangement for the main wall of room 14. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. It is unclear whether the African sculpture was similarly 
rearranged. 
39 Barnes, The Art in Painting, 376. 
40 Ibid., 355. 
41 Barnes wrote that ''in 1907 Picasso became interested in Negro sculpture to such 
an extent that his paintings of that period are really pictorial reproductions of the 
sculptural values of Negro carved figures and masks." Ibid., 370. 
42 Ibid., 355. 
43 Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Scw,ture, 38. 
44 Letter :from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, April 18, 1924. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
45 Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, November 9, 1923. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
46 Munro was eventually dismissed after his contract expired in June of 1927 because 
Barnes found him "lazy." Letter :from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, March 2, 
1927. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
Barnes replaced Munro with Violette de Mazia, who would eventually serve 
as Director of the Barnes Foundation after Barne's death, and by a Miss Portenar, 
'Yho was formerly a stenographer and bookkeeper for the Barnes Foundation. 
47 Munro, typescript entitled "The Barnes Foundation and the Teaching of Art," 
Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
48 Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, February 10, 1925. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
49 A description is provided by Barnes in a letter to Paul Guillamne, March 12, 1925. 
Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
50 One of five questions on Munro's final examination fur a course at the University of 
Permylvama taught during the Spring of 1925 ~= "Explain and discuss the intlue~ of 
148 
primitive negro sculpture on contemporary sculpture and painting, with examples." Final 
examination in Fine Arts 5, Modern Art, Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
51 Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, October 8, 1925. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
52 Ibid. 
53 Barnes described such a lecture to Guillaume in a February 23, 1928 letter. 
Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
54 Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, March 19, 1923. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
55 Huggins, The Harlem Renaissance, 75-77. 
56 Schack, Art and ArgyroL 161. 
57 Barnes and de Mazia, ''Stavinsky and Matisse" in Art and Education 312. 
58 Letter from Charles S. Johnson to Albert Barnes March 10, 1926. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
59 Barnes also tried to send the choir on a tour of Europe but the plan ultimately did 
not go through. 
60 Letter from Albert Barnes to Carl Van Vechten March 31, 1934. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
61 McCardle, "The Terrible-Tempered Dr. Barnes," (April 11, 1942): 64. 
62 Barnes, ''Negro Art and America," Survey Graphic 6, no. 6 (March 1925): 668. 
63 Ibid., 668. 
64 Ibid., 668. 
65 Barnes, "La Musique Negre Americaine," Les Arts a Paris 12 (May 1926): 7. 
66 Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, March 19, 1923. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
67 Ibid. 
149 
~1oydMor  ? ? 
69 g~ personal communication, August 16, 1995. 
Barf>at 
Br u-"~~-- ..  a Morgan's Mor an. p . artistic career is explored by Curtis Carter and William Agee in 
A-forgan & M ? rmts Drawin Watei lors & Photo hs (Dobbs Ferry, NY: 
7o org~ Inc., 1988) . 
.Barbara M 
Morgan Foun~r~ handwritten notes on back of proof for photograph #1050. 
71 tion Archives, Dobbs Feny, New York. 
A-f-hiai ndu-~ -... :'- tten not da . 
~vc ves, Dobbs es on back of a proof of photograph #1026, Morgan Foun tion 
12 Feny, New York. Barr.. __ 
UClfaMorg 
13 an quoted in Carter and Agee, Barbara Morg[!!b 12. 
Ibid., 13. 
74 
"G 
27, 1~ Ian," outlined in a letter from Albert Barnes to Willard Morgan, March 
1s ? organ Foundation Archives Dobbs Ferry, New York. 
''Ge , 
27, 19~~Pla.n," outlined in a letter from Albert Barnes to Willard Morgan, March 
1 ? organ Foundation Archives, Dobbs Ferry, New York. 
6 
~0 Letter .&o.rn AI . March 27, 1933. Morgan Undation Archi bert Barnes to Willard Morgan, 
1-, ves, Dobbs Feny, New York. 
Ibid. 
"18 
Le~.& oM~ 
FoUndat? o.rn Barbara Morgan to Albert Barnes, January 6, 195 . ore-? 
ionArchi 
-,9 ves, Dobbs Ferry, New York. 
8~ Guiuaunie and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculptlll'~ 112? 
Ibid., 112. 
81 
Ibid., 112. 
82 
-~ Letter fro ? ranuary 6, 1950. Morgan 
0Undati .rn Barbara Morgan to Albert Barnes, J? 
83 on Archives, Dobbs Feny, New York. 
J Invoice N M wn ofM odern Art, 
llne 30, 19J:i? 26530 sent from Morgan Photographs to theN e:;,ork. 
? Morgan Foundation Archives, Dobbs Ferry, 
150 
8G4r~Lan==edtt ---=--=- -------erR aad didrse --- ssed  _t-o_ -Mo-rga-n -Ph-oto-gr-aph-y -Co-. fr-om Associate Superviso-r -of A-rt. 
FolUldatio:Ar? _Michigan Board of Education, FebruarY 18, 1935. Morgan 
chives, Dobbs Ferry, New Yorlc. 
151 
Chapter Five: 
ALBERT BARNES, AFRICAN ART AND TIIE ''NEW NEGRO" 
Soon primitive Negro art will invade this country as it has invaded Europe ... 
And there will come with it a new valuation of the contnbution of Negroes, past 
and yet poSSible, to American lire and culture. It is on this certainty that Dr. 
Barnes has quietly combed Europe for the choicest of the specimens brought from 
Africa, and is even now urging serious study and exclusive research into the field, 
still uncharted, by competent and interested Negro students. 1 
-- Opportunity, :May 1924 
In l925, philosopher Alain Locke issued a call to .African-Americans to draw 
inspiration from their African heritage in the visual arts. For many, that inspiration was to 
be found in the African art collection of Albert Barnes. African sculpture from the Barnes 
Foundation was featured in several key publications of the Harlem Renaissance, including 
the movement's founding text, The New Ne~ (1925), issues of Opportunity magazine 
focusing on ''Negro" art (May 1924 and :May 1926), and the special edition of Survey 
Graphic devoted to the Harlem Renaissance (March 1925). Visitors to the collection of 
the Barnes Foundation involved in the ''New Negro" movement included Alain Locke, 
Charles Johnson, and Aaron Douglas, among others. Most significantly, however, 
Barnes himself advanced the artistic importance ofA frican art and its relation to the ''New 
Negro" through numerous speeches and published writings geared to an African.. 
American audience. 
This chapter reevaluates Bames's role in the ''New Negro" movement, arguing for 
the importance of Barnes and his collection of African art to the development of the 
movement. Despite the prominence given both his writings and collection during the 
152 
Harlem renaissance, Barnes has been either ignored by scholars, or dismissed as a 
peripheral figure whose ideas were merely indulged by the movement's leaders in order to 
maintain his patronage. I propose instead that Barnes pJayed a significant role both in 
introducing African art to the African-American connmmity and in his evaluation of 
Africa's contnbutions to artistic expression Central to my examination of Bames's 
impact on the "New Negro" JlX)Vement is a discussion of his relationships with two of the 
movement's leaders, A.Jain Locke and Charles Johnson, in light of new archival evidence 
from the Barnes Foundation 
Albert ~ and AJaip Locke: Conflicting PerSj)ectives on African Art 
Although Barnes, as previously discussed, had a long-standing interest in African-
American culture, his specific involvement in the ?'New Negro" movement began with his 
introduction to Alain Locke (fig. 81) in Paris in January 1924.2 The two men had much in 
common. Locke had graduated from Barnes's alma mater, Philadelphia's Central High 
School He was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford and had earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from 
Harvard. Like Barnes, Locke had been deeply influenced by the writings of James, 
Santayana, and Dewey. 3 Their meeting evidently made an impression on Barnes, because 
he contacted Locke at Howard University upon his return. Locke responded with a 
request to visit Merion, writing, "I am most anxious to see your collection and continue 
our conversations, and hope I may be able to arrange to do so some week-end of your 
convenience. ,,4 
153 
Barnes and Locke did not meet again in person until March 1924, not in Merion 
but in New York City. Locke had.invited Barnes to a dinner sponsored by Opportunity 
magazine at the Civic Club' in New York. 5 This event, held to honor black writers, is 
widely comidered the furma.l launching of the Harlem Renaissance. Organi7.ed by the 
editor of Qppotlunity, 6 Charles Spurgeon Johnson, the March 21 dinner was emceed by 
Alain Locke and included speeches by a host of prominent intellectuals, both white and 
black. 
Barnes was one of the presenters, and he spoke to the group on the subject of 
African sculpture, which Barnes referred to as ''Negro" art.7 The speech was apparently 
well-received, and Barnes provided an account of the evening, highlighting his own 
participation, in a letter to Guillaume: 
A number of speeches were made and Mr. Locke asked me to taJk to them about 
negro art. Of course I could not say much about it except to ernphasiz.e its 
~rtance by comparison with the great art ~vements of the past and its strong 
influence upon the movement in modem art. I denounced such men as Einstein 
and Clive Bell as people who have no real knowledge of the subject and are 
merely exploiting it to their own egoistic ends. After the dinner at least twenty 
people came and taJked to me and wanted to know more about negro art? ??I n 
addition to all this several of the leaders in American life have become so much 
interested in the matter of negro art that they have asked me to act as a guide in 
having the subject presented intelligently to the readers oft he principaljournaJs.8 
The Civic Club dinner had, Barnes felt, profound consequences fur his promotion of 
African art. Barnes predicted that the evening's events would uhirnately resuh in Paul 
Guillawne's name becoming ''known all over America," African art being recognized 
widely by the American public, and other critics of African art being discredited.9 
Thrilled at the enthusiastic reception of his ideas at the Civic Club dinner, Barnes 
hosted a conference at the Barnes Foundation on the weekend of April S, 1924 to discuss 
154 
plans for educational work among African-Americans. 10 Both Barnes and Locke 
addressed a group primarily comisting of African-Americans, including some of Barnes's 
factory workers, on the subject of the "negro cause." Locke's visit to the Foundation also 
included a tour ofBarnes's collection of~ sculpture. Locke had been desirous of 
seeing the collection for some time, earlier writing to Barnes about his intent to write 
about it for Opportunity.11 Barnes, however, round Locke wanting in his knowledge of 
the various fonns of African art. As he related to Guillaume, "Locke stayed two whole 
days at my house. When he came he did not know one piece of African art from another 
and I spent a great deal of time in showing him the difference between works of various 
tn'bes and in pointing out the influence of negro art upon such men as Picasso, Lipchitz, 
Modigliani"12 Locke, for his part, called Barnes's lecture ''the most stimulating and 
educative experience I have had for years."13 
Locke completed a manuscript on African art shortly after visiting the 
Foundation.14 Clearly feeling some need to justify why he, instead of Barnes, was 
authoring the article, Locke explained, "Partly because I had promised it to (Charles 
Johnson] for this particular ~ue, and partly because of a vain conceit to show what I can 
do on less than 'six months study' (thanks to my tutor, - to whom due acknowledgement 
will be made) I am doing a short Note on African art. I hope not to be excommunicated 
15 
for it." Locke's essay, "A Note on African Art," was published in the May 1924 issue of 
Locke's first attempt at African art criticism, "A Note on African Art" sows the 
seeds of Locke's approach to African art that he would develop in later writings. The 
155 
essay begins by distinguishing between the aesthetic meaning and the cultural significance 
of African art: 
What it is as a thing of beauty ranges it with the absolute standards of art and 
makes it a pure art form capable of universal appreciation and comparison; what it 
is as an expression of African life and thought make it an equally precious cultural 
16 
document, perhaps the ultimate key fur the interpretation of the African mind.
Locke's contention was that African art should be evaluated first as art, but then 
interpreted for its historical meaning. Unlike Barnes, who leaves issues of cultural context 
to anthropologists, Locke cites specific works that reveal the "most promising lines" of 
ethnographic interpretation. 17 Barnes was later to develop a serious rift with Locke over 
issues of aesthetics and context. Yet Locke's interest in the cultural background of 
African art is aimed ultimately at establishing a goal similar to that ofB arnes. Locke views 
ethnographic interpretation as helping to combat the notion of the ''primitive" by providing 
evidence of technical mastery, thus establishing African sculpture as a ma~e artistic 
tradition. Barnes, too, saw African art as a self-conscious and dehberate act of artistic 
creation, as discussed in Chapter Three. 
While they may have shared a common perspective regarding the artistry of 
African objects, Barnes dismissed Locke's article as ''pretentious and superficial erudition" 
that drew primarily upon the work of others without offering its own insights.
18 Barnes 
was stung by Locke's failure to credit him, as Locke had promised, and privately Barnes 
accused Locke of plagiarism. 19 Although there is no evidence that Barnes directly 
confronted Locke,20 Bames's accusations were re1ayed to Locke through Guillawne who, 
having heard about the event :from his :friend, snubbed Locke during a visit to his gallery 
that August.21 
156 
Barnes disagreed with Locke over the ''purpose" to which African art should be 
put. While he admitted that Locke's essay had "a grasp of the essential aesthetic and 
intellectual principles that goes with first-hand or high-grade experience," he felt that it did 
not sufficiently advance the "negro cause": 
Negro art is so big, so loaded with possibilities for a transfer of values to other 
spheres where negro life must be raised to higher leve]s, that it should be handled 
with the utmost care by everybody. From that standpoint Locke's article leaves 
much to be desired on the part of those who have decided that negro traits as 
re~ealed by their activities are worthy of study by scientific methods in order to 
bring them to their desired p1ace in world culture.22 
While Locke was concerned with ridcling the ''primitive" of its negative connotations, 
Barnes apparently had a more activist vision of the possibilities of African art in combating 
racial bias. 
Barnes may not have been satisfied with Locke's contribution, but the remainder 
of the May 1924 issue of Opportunity should have pleased him An article that he had 
mailed to Locke in early March entitled, ''The Temple," was included, as was Paul 
Guillaume's previously published essay, "African Art at the Barnes Foundation," devoted 
to the subject of ''Negro" art. Bame's essay is, essentially, an ode to Paul Guillaume's 
Paris gallery for having rescued ''the obscure ancient Negro art from its obscure 
significance and converted it into a well of unsuspected spiritual richness from which the 
whole modern movement in art has drunk deeply.',23 Its publication in Qm>ortunity seemr 
geared toward Bames's stated goal of making a name for Guillaume in the United States. 
Similarly, Guillaume's article was a paean to Bames's collecting of Afiican art, which 
Guillaume remarked was an "act of artistic audacity ... [that] will have a world-wide 
significance of which it is not now posSible to calculate the consequences ...' ,24 
157 
Further praise is heaped on the collector in an editorial entitled "Dr. Barnes," in 
which Barnes is celebrated for an "tmcanny foresight that drew into his possession many 
of the best pieces of this African art. "25 All six of the illustrations for this issue are of 
objects from Barnes's collection, five of which are African sculpture.26 As a collector, the 
editorial notes, "[Barnes] was the first and is distinctly the last word in Primitive African 
Art and his pieces, the rarest of their kind - exquisite, exotic, distinctive, - once casually 
valued at fifty thousand dollars, are becoming invaluable.',27 
The importance of the inclusion of objects from Barnes's African art collection in 
this issue cannot be overstated. This was the first time a major African-American 
periodical bad devoted an issue to the subject of African art. Although Locke might have 
had his say on its significance, it was Bames's collection that offered examples for the 
nwnerous readers of the magazine. All of the examples were selected from the four 
regional traditions Barnes found aesthetically significant. Additionally, the works are 
given dates, presumably by Guillaume, that establish them as ancient traditions. Thus, a 
"Soudan-Niger" mask, more accurately a Bamana work from Mali, is assigned a 1o m 
century date (fig. 82). Similarly, a Guro heddle pulley, identified as "Zouenouia," is dated 
to the 13th century (fig. 83). 
The editorial in Qpportunity concludes by noting that Barnes is "urging serious 
study and exclusive research into the field, still uncharted, [of African art] by competent 
and interested Negro students.',28 The study and research referred to was Bames's pJan 
for an "intelligent constructive programme for the negro cause ... to be conducted tmder 
the auspices of the Foundation,,29 He wanted to sponsor a young African-American to 
158 
study and interpret African art at his Foundation. While Barnes's proposal was primarily 
motivated by his desire to help the ''negro cause," he also realiz.ed that interest on the part 
of African-Americans would be a strong catalyst in promoting African art. Noting the 
market potential fueled by the ''New Negro" movement, Barnes advised Guillaume to 
''buy all the good pieces ofNegro Art which are to be had anywhere because within a year 
or two it will be recognized as very important. ,,3o 
The suggestion to sponsor a researcher had been warmly received by Alain 
Locke, who told Barnes that he would quickly draft a scholarship foundation "scheme" 
with the help of James Weldon Johnson and Walter White.31 Locke further proposed that 
Arthur Huff Fauset, a folklorist and teacher in Philadelphia's public schools, might be 
suitable for the research. Locke wrote to Barnes that Fauset ''may turn out to be sensitive 
enough to develop quickly an aesthetic reaction to an art with which he has had up to the 
present little contact.',32 Fauset, who had attended the initial April 5-6 conference, came 
to a follow-up meeting at the foundation on April 14. While there, he spoke of ''the 
necessity of the negroes working together to get the things they need from politicians, 
such as schools, etc.',33 
The drive to establish this program appears to have waned after this meeting, quite 
possibly due to Barnes's :fulling-out with Locke over "A Note on African Art." Ironically, 
Locke's ''note" highlighted the proposed research at the Barnes Foundation and its 
relevance to the study of art in general: 
It is one of the purposes and definite projects of the Barnes Foundation, which 
contains by fur the most selective art collection of Negro art in the world, to study 
this art organically and to correlate it with the general body of human art. Thus 
African art will serve not merely the purpose of a strange new artistic ferment but 
159 
will also have its share in the construction of a new broadly comparative and 
scientific aesthetics. 34 
Barnes, however, seems to have turned his attentions elsewhere for the moment, possibly 
to the publication of ''Negro Art and America," his first extensive development of the 
subject of African sculpture and its re1ation to African-American artistic expression. 
"Negro Art and America" was published in 1925, first in the March issue of 
Survey Graphic and then later that year in the anthology edited by Alain Locke, The New 
Negro. Both publications derived directly from the March 21, 1924 Civic Club dinner. 
Inspired by the speeches at the dinner, the editor of Survey Graphic, Paul Kellogg, began 
making plans for a special issue to be titled "Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro." The 
magazine had a particular interest in ''race growth and interaction through the shifting 
outline of social organization and by the flickering light of individual achievement.',3s 
Having previously addressed socio-political emergences in Ireland, Russia and Mexico, 
Survey Graphic's title page introduction to this issue notes that ''a dramatic flowering of a 
new race-spirit is t.aking place close to home - among American Negroes, and the stage of 
that new episode is Harlem ,,36 The issue, read by 42,000 people, provided significant 
impetus to the fledgling movement. 
Albert Barnes's ''Negro Art and America," was likely based on his speech at the 
Civic Club dinner. While Barnes's earlier article, "The Temple," did little more than 
promote Guillawne's gallery, ''Negro Art and America" is an important essay for it ofrers 
a is the first written expression ofB arnes' s perspective on the relationship between African 
sculpture and African-American artistic expresfilOn.37 Bames's definition of''Negro art" in 
America in this essay is fuirly broad, embracing not only the work of well-known African-
160 
American artists but also artistic expression that he saw as inherent in the everyday lire of 
the "ordinary, unknown negro.',38 There was, Barnes maintained, a relationship between 
the two, the only difference being "not so much in kind, but in degrees of mamer of 
expression.',39 Both have, according to Barnes, a similar "psychological complexion" 
which he characterizes as having ''tremendous emotional endowment, luxuriant and free 
imagination'' and a truly great power of individual expression. 40 
Barnes's essay is said to have "dismayed" black leaders, in particular Alain Locke, 
who found the tone of the article to be patronizing and the content primitivizing.41 To be 
sure, like many whites of his era, Bames's praises of "negro character" were often laced 
with racist stereotypes. Locke likely took is.sue with Bames's ~t of the 
fundamental emotionality of ''Negro" art. As George Hutchinson has observed, Locke, 
while not abandoning the term "primitive" in his writing, seemed determined to strip it of 
its connotations. Locke's own contnbution to Survey Graphic, therefore, stresses again 
the technical skill of African artists. "Masterful over its material," he writes, "in a 
powerful simplicity of conception, design and e:frect, it is evidence of an aesthetic 
endowment of the highest order.'"'2 Barnes, however, did not equate his view of the 
African's "free imagination'' and "emotional endowment" with the primitive, proposing 
instead that ''what the Negro has achieved is oft remendous civilizing value. 3 ,,4
The objects chosen to represent African art in this widely read periodical again 
derived entirely from the Barnes Foundation's collection. There were eight photographic 
reproductions of African sculpture, two of which had been published previously in the 
May 1924 Qm,ortunity.44 All of the works were labeled with cultural regions. Five of 
161 
them were from the Ivory Coast, such as the Baule face mask with the bird superstructure 
(fig. 84). Two others were from the "Sudan" and one of Barnes's "minor" traditions, a 
Fon bronze figure from Dahom=y, was also included. The photographs of Bames's 
African art illustrated Locke's brief entry, "The Art of the Ancestors," and Countee 
Cullen's poem, "Heritage." 
While the tone ofBames's "Negro Art and America" may have disturbed Locke, 
he still included it in the The New Negro, his edited anthology which was to become the 
rounding text of the "New Negro" movement. Some scholars have suggested that 
Barnes's involvement in key Harlem Renaissance publications like Toe New Negro was 
motivated primarily by the desire to appease the wealthy collector. 
45 The decision to 
include photographs :from Barnes's African art collection, however, canoot have been 
mere acconunodation. Indeed, Locke's own contnbution to Survey Graphic directs 
attention to the importance of examining specific examples of African art: 
It is for the development of this latter aspect of a racial art that the study and 
example of African art material is so important. The African spirit, as we said at 
the outset, is at its best in abstract decorative foffllS. . . And if African art is 
capable of producing the fenrent in modem art that it has, surely this is not too 
nmch to expect of its influence upon the culturally awakened Negro artic;t of the 
present generation. So that even if the present vogue of African art should pass, 
and the bronz.es of Benin and the fine sculptures of Gabon and Baoule, and the 
superb designs of the Busbongo should again becoire mere items of exotic 
curiosity, fur the Negro artist they ought still to have the import and influence of 46 
the c1assics in whatever art expres&on is consciously and representatively racial. 
The New Negro, therefore, is illustrated throughout with six objects from Bames's 
coDcction, all of ~ had been previously published in Survey Graphic. The text 
additionally illustrates three works from etlmographic museums: a Kuba ndop or king 
47 
figure, a bronz.e head from Benin, and a Pwru mulcudj mask. 
162 
Locke's essay for The New Negro, entitled ''The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts," is 
a more developed version of his article in Survey Graphic that also incorporates some of 
the ideas published earlier in his ''Note on African Art." Bruce Kellner has suggested that 
the essay was motivated by his unhappiness over Bames's article.48 While it is possible, 
the ideas presented by Locke seem to more an extension of beliefs expressed earlier, rather 
than a personal reaction to Barnes. Like Barnes, Locke connects the arts of the "American 
Negro" with that of his African ancestors through ''the remarkable cany-over of the 
9 
rhythmic gift.',4 Yet, while Barnes characterizes both the African and African-American 
as having a similar psychology, Locke maintains that the "emotional temper" of the black 
Alrerican is radically different from that oft he African. Locke explains: 
The characteristic African art expressions are rigid, controlled, disciplined, 
abstract, heavily conventionalized; those of the Aframerican, - free, exuberant, 
emotional, sentimental and hwnan. Only by the misinterpretation of the African 
? ? ?
s  pint, can one claim any emotional kinship b 50e  tween them ... 
Again, Locke seems primarily motivated by a desire to combat the perception that African 
sculpture is primitive. Thus, as he had done in his earlier ''Note on African Art," Locke 
again stresses the technical mastery ofA frican sculpture. 1be African-American artist may 
therefore gain from African artistry not cultural inspiration, but ''the lesson of a classical 
background, the lesson of discipline, of style." 
Locke was later to come to a personal resolution of th! tension he perceived 
between the aesthetic and cultural appreciation of African sculpture. In I 927, Locke 
organized his own exlnbition of African art held at the New Art Circle in New York from 
Februaiy 7 until March 5. The exhibition featured a collection of over 1,000 works from 
the Congo assembled by the Belgian dealer Raoul Blondiau and purchased by Theatre 
163 
Arts magazine. In an essay Locke wrote for The Arts in February 1927, he discussed the 
importance of the collection. which, he feh, satisfied both scientific and artistic interest: 
To possess African ?art permanently and not merely as a ~ vogue, we shall 
have to go beyond such reflected values and their exotic appeal and study it in its 
own context, link it up vitally with its own cultural background, and learn to 
appreciate it as an organic body of art. Toward this, the prime pre-requisite is the 
availability of the original material in collections sufficiently extensive to present a 
representative unit yet selective enough to make an exclusive appeal as art.51 
Locke felt that the Blondiau-Theatre Arts Collection. as it came to be called, was also 
important because it came from the Congo, which according to Locke, "epitomizes Africa 
[in] that its culture is one of the oldest and most typical and that nowhere else do we find 
an equivalent or more characteristic flowering of the several handicrafts." 
1be "several handicrafts" mentioned by Locke refer to the collection's inclusion of 
metalwork, weapons, weaving and pottery, in addition to figural sculptures of masks. Not 
surprisingly, Barnes was disdainful of the collection, which, he felt, made no attempt to 
distinguish between art and artifuct. 1be collection itself was reviewed- unfawrably- in 
an article by Thomas Munro entitled "Good and Bad Negro Art," published in 1927 in 
The Nation While there ~ no evidence that Barnes was directly involved in Munro's 
assessment of the collection, Barnes gleefully summarized the article for Guillawne: ''He 
[Munro] condemned it as inferior and an attempt at cheap exploitation of the renown 
which negro art is steadily gaining in America. ttS2 
Barnes and Charles Johnson: Advancing the Cause 
Although Barnes was rever to resolve his differences with Locke over African art, 
Barnes bad a more sustained relationship with Char1es Spwgeon Johnson (fig. 85), the 
164 
editor of Qm,ortunity, in which the two explored ways that African art could advance the 
"negro cause." Johnson was a sociologist who, like Barnes, advocated the idea of racial 
advancement through artistic creativity. Although the two had known each other since at 
least 1924, when Barnes spoke at the Civic Club dinner sponsored by Johnson's 
periodical, they were not in frequent contact until 1926. That spring, Johnson was 
involved with arrangements for a lecture Barnes was to give befure the Women's Faculty 
Club at Columbia University. Barnes wanted to have his lecture accompanied by the 
singing of spirituals, and John Dewey's wife, who was apparently organizing the lecture, 
turned to Johnson for suggestions. Johnson wrote to Barnes recommending the 
Bordentown School choir, trained by Frederick Work, and Barnes enthusiastically 
supported his idea 53 
Barnes subsequently invited Johnson to Merion on April 4, 1926 to hear a lecture 
by Barnes on "negro art both in that phase which Paul Guillaume has been so influential in 
developing, and for the contnbution which the negro has made to the enrichment of 
American life.',s4 Guillaume, who would be visiting the Foundation for a week, was also 
scheduled to talk on the influence of African art on contemporary painting, rrrusic and 
poetry. 55 Johnson attended the lectures and was so taken with the subject that he 
contacted Barnes about publishing the speeches in a special issue of()p_portunity: 
"Altho [sic] what you and Paul Guillawne have said recently on the subject of 
Negro art will reach the public in some funn, thru [sic] the varied interpretations 
of those who beard your lectures, it bas been a passion with me. to see these 
discussions made available and coldly authenticated in type, for the benefit of 
those who want to learn about these things at their source, and as a safety check 
upon those who would talk wildly about them simply because they are enjoying 
some vogue at the moment .. .It will get our best efforts here and a wide 
circulation. This material now is much in demand. 
56 
165 
Barnes was apparently contracted by the periodical to develop this special issue, 
and thus, the May 1926 Opportunity was a veritable product of The Barnes Foundation.57 
The ~ue included Guillaume's essay, ''The Triumph of Ancient Negro Art," based on a 
transcript of his address at the foundation. 58 ''The Triumph of Ancient Negro Art" 
essentially relates the history of the modernist "discovery'' of African art, highlighting 
Guillaume's own contnbutions. Barnes's essay; ''Negro Art, Past and Present," was a 
conflation of his address to Columbia University in March and his April 4 lecture at the 
Barnes Foundation. 59 
In addition to these artic~ Barnes proposed several others for inclusion. ''Negro 
Spirituals and American Art," by Foundation Teacher Laurence Buenneyer, was a call for 
greater appreciation of the spirituals in which Buermeyer maintained that their difference 
in ''fundamental music quality'' - the emphasis on rhythmic organization as opposed to 
melody - contributed to their neglect as an art furm. 60 Mary Mullen described "An 
Experiment in Adult Negro Education," which essentially related the origins of the Barnes 
Foundation in Bames's 1917 experiment among his :factory workers. Barnes also sent 
Johnson a translation of the "The Legend ofNgurangurane," taken from Blaise Cendrars's 
Anthologie Negre. He deemed it "one of the most beautiful legends in the folklore of any 
people and shows why negro art is great. ,,6 I 
The illustrations accompanying the articles were from photographs Barnes 
provided of African art in his collection. He sent Johnson fifteen photographs, advising 
him to select as many as space pennits for Munro's essay.62 Barnes recommended the use 
of photograph of his Baule granary door, an object given the rather grand title of ''the 
166 
Temple Door, of the 16th Century," for the cover design. Johnson agreed with Barnes's 
choice, observing that the door was "one of the most striking of the African designs" and 
he used it on the cover (fig. 86).63 Nine of the other photographs were used to illustrate 
the articles, none of which had been previously published in Opportunity. Survey Graphic, 
or The New Negro. Other than the "Temple Door," Barnes did not specify the placement 
of any of the illustrations. 64 All the works, however, derived from the ''major traditions" 
proposed by Barnes and had captions, at Johnson's request, identifying them by culture 
and date.65 The "oldest" object illustrated was a carved ivory horn, possibly Kongo, 
referred to as "Mossendjo-Bandjabis, before 10th century'' (:fig. 87). Other works included 
a Baule male figure (fig. 88), dated to the 14th century, and a ''nineteenth century'' Senufo 
female figure (fig. 89). 
Barnes was very pleased with the final product and praised it highly in a letter to 
Johnson: 
I can see in the journal, abounding evidence of the high intellectual and aesthetic 
status of the negro. Moreover, I see it presented and arranged in a way that is 
sure to get the commendation of discriminating readers of both races as a 
milestone a long way ahead of the last one on the road to the high conception of 
intelligence and culture that is the goal of all fine living. 66 
Johnson, too, felt the issue was a success, stating that "the grouping of four or five of the 
dominant authorities and personalities connected with African art has made a measurable 
impression.',67 Barnes took an active role in promoting the publication, distnbuting the 
journal to an estimated 2,000 people who had previously purchased the foundation's 
books or subscn"bed to its journal. "Most of these people," Barnes asserted, ''may be said 
167 
to be the leaders in art and intellectual circles in America and many of them occupy 
teaching positions in universities and colleges.',68 
Although Barnes and Johnson remained friends after their collaboration on the 
special issue of Oportunity, they did not appear to have worked together again until 1928. 
In March of that year, Johnson asked Barnes, rather hesitantly, to participate in a radio 
broadcast sponsored by Opportunity on March 22. Johnson felt Bames's participation 
would be valuable, citing "the need for more people knowing the influence which African 
art has had upon modem art.'' The broadcast, as descnbed by Johnson, would feature 
music and also readings by five young African-American poets, including Gwendolyn 
Bennett, who was on a fellowship at the Barnes Foundation. Addressing Barnes, Johnson 
wrote, ''I should like the person who knows most about this African art to talk about 
. . ,,69 
twe1 v e rrunutes on rt. 
Barnes eagerly agreed to participate, believing that such a speech ''would be very 
valuable not only for the negro cause but for everybody who is interested in the modern 
movement."70 At the same time, he was keenly aware of the opportunities that the radio 
broadcast presented for the widespread dissemination ofh is ideas. "I suppose you know," 
Barnes wrote to Guillaume, ''the popularity of the radio in America - nearly every family 
has an apparatus, so you can see how widely scattered will be what I have to say about the 
subject."71 Barnes submitted a manuscript to Johnson within two weeks. Johnson was 
very pleased with the text of Barnes's prepared speech, which he called "the clearest 
statement of the subject that I have yet read," and requested Bames's pennission to 
publish the essay after his s 7p 2 eech, in the May 1928 issue of Opportunity.
168 
"Primitive Negro Sculpture and Its Influence on Modem Civilization" was 
delivered by Barnes over station W ABC in New York City. Although Barnes continues 
to use the term ''primitive" in describing African art, he, like Locke, strips it of its negative 
connotations. African art, Barnes maintains, was not "the work of savages" but rather 
''the manifestation of a life which was a stable organization, thoroughly adjusted to its 
surroundings and therefore able to find natural, authentic 7e 3x  pression." In his lecture, 
Barnes sunnnarizes the aesthetic criteria for great sculptural design in African art using 
language derived verbatim from Primitive Negro Sculpture. He concludes, suggesting 
that greater knowledge of African art will ultimately result in improved race relations in 
America: 
Appreciation of this sculpture has been rare, and indeed the Negro spirituals were 
not. properly valued until recently; but as this knowledge of the great art 
achievements of the Negro becomes more generally diffused there is every reason 
to look for an abatement of both the superciliousness on the part of the white race 
and of the unhappy sense of inferiority in the Negro himself, which have been 
detrimental to the true welfure of both races.74 
The broadcast apparently received a fair number of letters praising Barnes's 
75 
speech. One response, from a Mr. Melville Charlton, suggested that Barnes's speech be 
published and widely distributed: 
Thousands of copies of the lecture should be made with pictures of Negro art and 
some specimen pictures of the European art influenced by the b1ack man. These 
copies should be distributed to students of all races, to libraries and to the mighty 
press of America and Europe. 76 
Although the article was already going to be included in the May Opportunity, Johnson 
liked the suggestion of having reprints made ofBarnes's speech for distribution. He made 
plans to have the article printed "on special paper and with a somewhat unique 
169 
attractiveness" for mass distnbution at African-American group meetings throughout the 
country. 77 Barnes enthusiastically endorsed the idea, writing to Johnson: "I know of no 
better possible source of good than to make known to the negro race generally their 
contnbutions to civilization."78 Although there appears to be no docwnentation as to the 
ultimate use of the reprints, they were apparently distributed by the Newark Museum in 
1928 in coajunction with an exhibition there of African art. 79 
Johnson resigned as editor of()p_portunity in September 1928, and was honored at 
a Testimonial Dinner held on Sept. 14, 1928 at the Care Boulevard The new editor of 
Qwortunizy. Elmer A Carter, sought to maintain Barnes's involvement with the 
periodical in the absence of Johnson. Writing Barnes shortly after he had assumed the 
position, Carter stated, ''I hope to have the privilege of seeing your collection, and I hope 
that in the future OPPORTUNITY will not be deprived of a contnbution from your 
pen.',so He later asked Barnes to review Franz Boas's Primitive Art, referring to Barnes as 
''the most competent and available authority on such a work.',s1 Barnes read the book but 
fulllld it lacking "even the most elementary principles of psychology and art.',a2 Exhibiting 
uncharacteristic restraint, however, Barnes declined to review the book, writing Carter 
that Boas was "a highly respected anthropologist, quite an old man, and I think it would 
be neither wise nor kind to pub~ such a review.' ,a3 Although Barnes never pu blished m.  
Qwortunity again, he maintained a correspondence with Johnson during the years that 
Johnson taught at Fisk University. 
170 
The Barnes Foundation: A Visual Legacy? 
The above exploration ofBames's relationships with two key leaders of the ''New 
Negro" movement, Alain Locke and Charles Johnson, suggests that Barnes was much 
more deeply involved in both the textual and visual productions of the Harlem 
Renaissance than is generally acknowledged. The publication of African art from the 
Barnes Foundation in key texts of the ''New Negro" movement undoubtedly provided a 
source of inspiration fur the many that heeded Locke's call to look to their African 
heritage. The question remains, is that inspiration reflected visually in the art of African-
Americans from the period? 
I would like to conclude this chapter by briefly evaluating the influence of Barnes 
and his collection in the work of Aaron Douglas (fig. 90), perhaps the most celebrated 
artist to emerge from the Harlem Renaissmce. From his hometown in Topeka, Kansas, 
Douglas was alerted to the ideas of the ''New Negro" movement through the March 1925 
issue of Survey Graphic, which he later deemed ''the most cogent single factor that 
eventually turned my fuce to New York. ,.s4 Moving to Harlem in 1925, Douglas was 
introduced to Charles Johnson and began studying with the Gennan-bom artist Winhold 
Reiss. Reiss encouraged Douglas to incorporate the "techniques of African art" in his 
work.85 Douglas's success at the new visual language that fused modernism with African 
design was rapidly validated by the publication of The New Negro, which featured 
Douglas's drawings throughout. 
Barnes was introduced to Douglas in March of 1926, through Charles Johnson. 
Their meeting likely occurred during Bames's visit to Harlem accompanied by Paul 
171 
86 
Guillawne. Shortly after this, in April 1926, Doug1as made his first visit to the Barnes 
87 
Foundation. He spent a day there at the Foundation, where he observed that Barnes 
"undoubtedly has the largest single collection ofm odem paintings in America and certainly 
the finest collection ofNegro sculptures.',s8 Doug.las Wldoubtedly had been introduced to 
some of these works previously, through the inclusion of photographic reproductions of 
African art .ftom Barnes's collection in Opportunity, Suiw.y Graphic, and The New 
Negro. Two years later, Douglas had the opportunity to study these works in depth, as be 
was awarded a one-year fellowship in 1928 to study art and attend courses at the Barnes 
Foundation. 
While few scho1ars of the Harlem ~ even mention Barnes in their 
89 
discussion of Douglas's work, the recent work of Amy Kirschke acknowledges the 
importance of Bames's African art collection in offering prototypes for Douglas's art. 
Kirschke suggests several instances in which Douglas's work seems to be influtUed by 
specific objects in the collection. For example, she relates the ''typical profile Doug]as face 
with slanted" eyes (fig. 91) to a G\ll'O mask in Bames's collection (fig. 92), published as 
''Bushongo" in both Survey Graphic and The New Negro. 90 Yet at the same time, 
Kirschke is dismissive of the influence of the fellowship at the Barnes Foundation on 
Douglas's subsequent development as an artist, arguing that his style was already mmly 
developed. 91 
While Bames's art collection may have served as impiration for certain fonnal 
devices that Douglas employed, Barnes's ideas may have proven m:,re influential. 
Douglas was clearly familiar with Bames's "Negro Art and America," having avidly read 
172 
Survey Graphic and contributed to The New Negro. Therefore, ~ was almost certainly 
aware ofBames's assertion that the counterpart to AfHcan sculpture could be found in the 
spirituals of African-Americas. In 1926, Douglas was contracted to illustrate J~s 
Weldon Johnson's book of poems, God's Trombones. In evocative works in this series, 
such as The Crucifixion (.fig. 93), Douglas's incorporation of syo;opated circles and tonal 
variations sets up an urxlerlying rhythm that unites the work fonnally. 
92 As David Driskell 
has observed, Douglas's ''language of fonn [was] ... commensurate in spirit with the 
verbal Janguage oft he Negro spirituaJ."93 
It is posmble, then, that the legacy of Albert Barnes in the art of Harlem 
Renais.wice artists like Douglas is not a visual one, but a conceptual one. Douglas 
obviously would have been aware of the significance of the Negro spirituals through 
writings of the period, not only by Barnes but by many others who similarly lauded their 
armtry. Yet Doug)as's employment of formal devices that swmnon such musical 
associations imy have an added level that links them, following Bames's ideology, to 
African sculpture. The art of Aaron Douglas imy therefore evoke, ~t in form but in 
spirit, that rhythmic structure that Barnes perceived in African art and taught to his 
students at the Barnes Foundation. 
173 
NOTES FOR CHAPTER FIVE: 
1 
"Dr. Barnes," OQportunity 2, no. 17 (May 1924): 133. 
2 
Barnes refers to his meeting Locke at Guillaume's gallery in a Febraury 8, 1924 
letter to Locke. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
3 
George Hutchinson discusses at length the influence of pragmatist aesthetics on both 
Alain Locke and Charles Johnson in The Harlem Renaissance in Black and White, 42-
60. 
4 
Letter from Alain Locke to Albert Barnes, February 5, 1924. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
5 
Locke wrote Barnes on March 12, 1924, "I do hope you can come, as an attempt is 
being made to really get our younger creative group together, and to get them in 
touch also with those who have vision enough to appreciate the significance of their 
work for America and present-day culture at large." Archives of The Barnes 
Foundation. 
6 Opportunity began publication in 1923 and was sponsored by the Urban League. It 
was one of two leading African-American periodicals of the time, the other being The 
Crisis, founded in 1910 by the NAACP and edited by W.E.B. DuBois. Of the two, 
Opportunity was more oriented to black culture while The Crisis had a greater 
political content. 
7 I did not locate a transcript of this speech in the archives of the Barnes Foundation, 
but the content ahnost certainly is that in Barnes's ''Negro Art and America," 
published in March 1925 in Survey Graphic, which will be discussed later in this 
chapter. 
s? Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, March 28, 1924. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
9 Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, March 28, 1924. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. In the letter, Barnes predicts, "Within the next few weeks I 
expect several important things to happen." He specifies the critics to be discredited, 
writing that, ''the pretenders like Einstein, De Zayas, Clive Bell and Culin will have no 
opportunity to continue their game of bluff." 
10 "Last Saturday and Sunday we had meetings of negroes in our building. Alain 
Locke, whom you know and who is Professor of Philosophy at Howard University, 
Washington, D.C. made an address to them. I also spoke and the enthusiasm for the 
174 
plan for educational work among them, which we have in mind, was tremendous." 
Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, April 11, 1924. Archives of The Barnes 
Foundation. 
11 
"I would like pennission to do an article on [the African art collection] for 
"Opportunity," one of our progressive journals." Letter from Alain Locke to Albert 
Barnes, February 5, 1924. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
12 
Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume April 29, 1924. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
13 
Letter from Alain Locke to Albert Barnes, April 9, 1924. Archives of The Barnes 
Foundation. 
14 
Locke did have a draft prior to his visit but wrote to Barnes, "I musn't finish it until 
I've seen the Barnes Foundation collection." Letter from Alain Locke to Albert 
Barnes, March 7, 1924. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
15 
Letter from Alain Locke to Albert Barnes April 9, 1924. Archives of The Barnes 
Foundation. 
16 Alain Locke, "A Note on African Art," Opportunity (May 1924): 134. 
17 Locke, "A Note on African Art," 135. He mentions the work of Joyce and Torday, 
as well as A.A. Goldenweiser's Early Civilization. 
18 "None of the data in his article comes from experience or from first-hand 
information but is what anybody accustomed to consulting books could obtain. 
Locke has simply taken what he got from me and from various books and has 
combined them in an article which gives the impression it was written by a man who is 
both a scholar and has had practical experience with negro art ... Fortunately, it will 
do no harm to the cause but it should be a lesson to both you and me not to fall too 
easy victims to people who would exploit it principally for their own 
aggrandizement." Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, April 29, 1924. 
Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
19 Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume April 29, 1924. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. Barnes also typed up an analysis of Locke's essay, in which he 
dissects the article paragraph by paragraph, citing specific instances of plagiarism. It 
does not appear that Barnes circulated this "analysis," and it is possible he wrote it for 
his own amusement. 
175 
2o On the contrary, Barnes replied to Locke that he "did like the African art issue 
very, very much and _it did, as you say, spread out the subject nicely." Letter from 
Albert Barnes to Alam Locke, May 7, 1924. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
Barnes also wrote Gu~~? ''I do not intend to say anything to Locke about his 
failure to acknowledge his mdebtedness to me and I ask you kindly not to mention it 
to ru.m." Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, April 29, 1924. Archives of 
The Barnes Foundation. 
21 Barnes seemingly was so pleased with Guillaume's response to the situation that he 
wrote up an English translation of Guillaume's original letter in French: "Locke came 
yesterday. He said he. bad bee~ in England and Holland informing himself about 
negro art and seemed highly excited. I interrupted bis confidences to tell him what I 
thought of his behavior toward you in his article in Opportunity." Translation by 
Barnes of a letter from Paul Guillaume to Albert Barnes, August 29, 1924. Archives 
of The Barnes Foundation. 
22 Typescript entitled "Analysis of 'A Note on African Art' by Alain Locke," written 
by Barnes, no date (1924). Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
23 Albert Barnes, "The Temple," 139. 
24 Guillaume, "African Art at the Barnes Foundation," Op_portunity (May 1924): 140. 
2s "Dr. Barnes," OPJ>Qrtunity, 133. 
26 The only non-African work illustrated is a stone sculpture by Modigliani. 
21 "Dr. Barnes," Op_portunity. 133. 
28 Ibid., 133. 
29 Letter from Albert Barnes to Alain Locke, April 12, 1924. Archives of The Barnes 
Foundation. 
30 Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, April 11, 1924. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
31 Locke wrote Barnes on March 24, 1924, "Your suggestion about having a clev~r 
study and interpret Negro Art is capital. We must all concentrate on it 
y man aonudn bgr ing it to early fulfillment." Archi.v es of The Barnes Fo unc 1a:? 110n. 
32 Letter from Alain Locke to Albert Barnes, April 9, 1924. Archives of The Barnes 
Foundation. 
176 
33 The description of Fauset's talk is provided by Mary Mullen who, at Bames's 
request, wrote a letter to Locke summarizing the evening's events. Letter from Mary 
Mullen to Alain Locke, April 15, 1924. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
34 Locke, "A Note on African Art," 134. 
3s Survey Graphic 6, no. 6 (March 1925) 
36 Survey Graphic 6, no. 6 (March 1925) 
37 The essay seems to have first appeared in January 1925 in the German publication 
Der Querscnitt. 
38 Letter from Albert Barnes to Alain Locke, February 8, 1924. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
39 Ibid. 
40 Barnes, ''Negro Art and America," Survey Gm,phic 668. 
41 Amy Helene Kirschke, Aaron Douglas, 107. 
42 Locke, ''The Art of the Ancestors," Survey Graphic (March 1925): 673. 
43 Barnes, ''Negro Art and America," 669. 
44 These were the Bamana mask, labelled ''Soudan-Niger" on page 673 and the Guro 
mask, identified mistakenly as "Bushongo," on page 674. 
45 Most recently, Amy Kirschke writes, "The position of Bames's article in both 
collections was clearly meant as a sign of honor for this eccentric white art collector 
and critic, a token of respect that had more to do with Bame's power and connections 
than with the quality of the essay." Kirschke, Aaron Douglas 106. 
46 Locke, ''The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts," in Alain Locke, ed. The New Negro 
1925 (New York: Touchstone, 1997): 267. 
47 These works are identified in the text as, respectively, a "Congo Portrait Statue" 
from the Tervuren Museum, a ''Benin Bronze" from the Berlin Ethnological Museum, 
and a "Ceremonial Mask - Dahomey'' from the Frankfort Museum. 
48 Bruce Kellner, ed. The Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Dictionary fur the Era 
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984) 
177 
49 Locke, ''The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts," 254. 
50 Locke, ''The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts," 254. 
51 Locke, "African Art," The Arts (February 1927): 61. 
52 Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillawne, March 15, 1927. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
53 Letter from Charles Johnson to Albert Barnes, March 10, 1926. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. Barnes subsequently hosted the Bordentown Choir at the 
Barnes Foundation every spring for a concert, as discussed in Chapter Four. 
54 Letter from Albert Barnes to Charles S. Johnson, March 11, 1926. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
55 Ibid. 
56 Letter from Charles S. Johnson to Albert Barnes, April 7, 1926. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
57 In a letter to Johnson accompanying the final articles for inclusion, Barnes wrote, 
"This finishes my part of the contract to give you a special nwnber of Opportunity. I 
hope you are satisfied with the quality of the material :furnished." Letter from Albert 
Barnes to Charles S. Johnson, April 14, 1926. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
58 The transcript of Paul Guillawne's speech is in the Barnes Foundation's archives. 
Guillawne's essay is a literal transcription of the speech, lacking only four lines in 
which the subject is introduced to the audience. The omission was suggested by 
Johnson, who wrote to Barnes asking if it "could be eliminated in order that it may 
have the full aspect of an article." Letter from Charles S. Johnson to Albert Barnes, 
A.pril 12, 1926. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
59 As Johnson observed, "Your article packs into a brief nine pages the substance, not 
only of your Colwnbia University address, but many of the things which you said at 
the April 4 meeting." Letter from Charles S. Johnson to Albert Barnes, April 12, 
1926. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
60 Buermeyer, "The Negro Spirituals and American Art," Opportunity (May 1926): 
158. 
61 Letter from Albert Barnes to Charles S. Johnson, April 10, 1926. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
178 
62 Letter from Albert Barnes to Charles S. Johnson, April 10, 1926. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
63 Letter from Charles S. Johnson to Albert Barnes, April 12, 1926. Archives ofThe 
Barnes Foundation. 
64 Barnes wrote to Johnson, ''It is of no practical importance which particular illustration 
accompanies my article; so I leave with you the placing of all illustrations as fits in best 
with the make-up.'' Letter from Albert Barnes to Charles Johnson April 17, 1926. 
Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
65 On April 15, 1926, Johnson wrote Barnes requesting a "descriptive name and 
Century" for each work. Letter from Charles S. Johnson to Albert Barnes, Archives 
of The Barnes Foundation. 
66 Letter from Albert Barnes to Charles S. Johnson, May 4, 1926. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
67 Letter from Charles S. Johnson to Albert Barnes, May 10, 1926. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
68 Letter from Albert Barnes to Charles S. Johnson, April 10, 1926. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
69 Letter from Charles Johnson to Albert Barnes, March 9, 1928. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
70 Letter from Albert Barnes to Charles Johnson March 10, 1928. Johnson wrote 
back, "I am delighted that you are going to take this occasion for letting a very wide 
audience hear something about African art. The subject has been terribly muddled by 
amateurs." Letter from Charles S. Johnson to Albert Barnes, March 12, 1928. 
71 Letter from Albert Barnes to Paul Guillaume, April 12, 1928. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. ? 
72 Letter from Charles Johnson to Albert Barnes, March 20, 1928. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
73 Barnes, "Primitive Negro Sculpture and Its Influence on Modem Civilization," 
Op_portunity (May 1928): 139-40, 147. 
74 Barnes, "Primitive Negro Sculpture and Its Influence on Modem Civilization," 147. 
179 
7S 
Charles Johnson, in a March 23, 1928 letter to Barnes related the effect of his 
speech ~n some African-Americans, "One Mr. Douglas (not Aaron) insisted that it 
~ught him how to be a Negro with pride and a Dr. Charhon observed that it 'flowed 
m an exalted vein.'" Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
76 
Undated (1928) commentary entitled "Dr. Albert C. Barnes," by Melville Charlton, 
copy enclosed in a letter from Charles Johnson to Albert Barnes April 18, 1928. 
Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
n . 
Letter from Charles S. Johnson to Albert Barnes, April 18, 1928. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
78 
Letter from Albert Barnes to Charles Johnson April 21, 1~8. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
79 
Johnson writes, "The Newark Musewn is arranging to take over a group of [the 
reprints] to use in connection.with its exhibition of Negro art." Letter from Charles 
Johnson to Albert Barnes July 2, 1928. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. I have 
not located any copies of the special reprint ofBarnes's essay. 
80 Letter from Elmer A. Carter to Albert Barnes September 22, 1928. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
81 Letter from Elmer Carter to Albert Barnes, October 10, 1928. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. 
82 Barnes wrote, "African art is ignored except fur the statement of a few banalities 
buried in a mass of other data irrelevant to art values," Letter from Albert Barnes to 
Ebner Carter, October 25, 1928. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
8
~ Letter from Albert Barnes to Elmer Carter, Oct. 25, 1928. Archives of The Barnes 
Foundation. 
84 Kirs chke, Aaron Douglas. 13. 
85 
Huggins, The Harlem Renaissance, 187. 
86 Johnson hosted Barnes and Guillawne for an evening in Harlem. The itinerary for 
the evening schedules a meeting with Douglas. Letter from C?81'1es S. Johnson to 
Albert Barnes, March 29, 1926. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
87 "Aaron Douglas was at the Foundation on Monday and drank in tbose ~gs until 
his day was up. But he was so extraordinarilY timid about approaching your 
180 
presence, that he missed entirely any opportunity to see you." Charles Johnson to 
Barnes, April 7, 1926. Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
88 In Kirschke, Aaron Douglas, 107. 
89 Nathan Higgins, for example, who characterizes Douglas as the most promising 
African-American artist of the postwar period, makes no mention of Barnes in his 
book, Harlem Renaissance. 
90 Amy Kirschke, Aaron Douglas, 83. Another example Kirschke provides is an 
illustration for Paul Morand's book, Black Magic, in which Douglas's composition 
resembles a Fang reliquary guardian figure. See Kirschke, Aaron Douglas, 103. 
91 Kirschke, Aaron Douglas, 108. She also notes that Douglas, "wrote very little 
about his time in Merion and never mentioned it as a major influence on his career in 
subsequent interviews. He did not write about receiving any inspiration from viewing 
the Barnes collection or attending lectures." Ibid., 108. 
92 Douglas's incorporation of the rhythm and syncopation of African-American music 
in these works is the subject of Renee Deanne Ater's "Image, Text, Sound: Aaron 
Douglas's Illustrations for James Weldon Johnson's God's Trombones: Seven Negro 
Sermons in Verse," Masters thesis, University of Maryland, 1993. 
93 David Driskell, "The Flowering of the Harlem Renaissance: The Art of Aaron 
Douglas, Meta Warrick Fuller, Palmer Hayden and William H. Johnson," in Harlem 
Renaissance: Art of Black America, The Studio Museum in Harlem, 1987 (New 
York: HarryN. Abrams, 1994), 130. 
181 
Conclusion: 
THE LEGACY OF A COLLECTOR 
Of course to show off one's possessions may ~ms like boasting, but then the 
collector did not invent or fabricate these things, he is but their humble servant. 
He does not praise himself in exhibiting them, he offers them humbly for the 
admiration ofo thers. ..b uilding a collection, the anxious activity of inventing one's 
own inheritance, frees one from the obligation of reticence. For the collector to 
show off his collection is not bad manners. Indeed, the collector, like the 
impostor, has no existence unless he goes public, unle~ he shows what he is or 
has decided to be. Unless he puts his passions on display.
1 
-- Susan Sontag 
This study has set out to examine the role played by Dr. Albert C. Barnes in 
fostering a wider appreciation of African art in the United States and contnbuting to the 
canon that ultimately developed. An important component of this bas been a reevaluation 
of Barnes's involvement in the formation of his collection of African art. Previously 
thought to be solely a reflection of the taste of Bames's dealer Paul Guillaume, I have 
sought to demonstrate that Barnes was the one who determined its content through 
selective acquisition I have also considered the dynamics informing the formation of the 
collection. Barnes's self-generated competition with other collections of African art, both 
public and private, and his equal concern for inflating the market value of African 
sculpture, contnbuted to its development as did his increasingly assured sense of 
aesthetics. 
The Barnes FoWldation collection of African art became more widely known to 
the general public through the publication of Primitive Negro Sculpture in 1926. The 
book also advocated a certain way of viewing African sculptural design that was highly 
influential to its audience, many of whom read the book as a general introduction to the 
182 
subject. In my analysis ofthis text, I have emphasized the role of Barnes in its conception, 
development and ultimate production. Until now, Paul Guillaume has been considered the 
defining force behind Primitive Negro Sculpture. Drawing from archival sources and 
comparing the text itself to the Barnes Foundation collection, I have proposed that 
Primitive Negro Sculpture be read as a codification of Barnes's aesthetic criteria for 
African art. 
I have also tried to address the relation of African art to Barnes's larger vision of 
his education foundation, restoring its significance to the whole. With its symmetrical 
design and recessed entrance portico, the Barnes Foundation may appear to be, from a 
distance, just another classic temple devoted to the worship of Western art. Yet behind 
the imposing Doric columns, the African figures and masks are testimony to Barnes's 
abiding commitment to African sculpture. Inside the galleries, African art is interspersed 
with modernist paintings to demonstrate not only their formal similarities but to situate 
African artistic production within the larger historical continuum of form. While Barnes's 
emphases on such ''universal attnbutes" clearly derive from an exclusively Western 
aesthetic framework, the strategy was ultimately successful, in its time, in "elevating" 
African artifacts to the status of fine art. 
Finally, this study examines Barnes's interest in African art as a force for social 
change in relation to the ''New Negro" movement. Addressing the general omission of 
Barnes from this movement, I reevaluate his influence through a close examination of his 
associations with two of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance, Alain Locke and Charles 
Spurgeon Johnson. I assess Barnes's perspective on African art and its relation to 
183 
African-Americans in comparison with the views of both Locke and Johnson. The 
numerous periodicals and texts which included African art from Barnes's collection are 
also detailed as a means of demonstrating the familiarity of certain objects to a broad and 
diverse public. 
What can we ultimately determine about Barnes's influence in promoting a wider 
appreciation of African and the influence of the collection itself on the history of taste? I 
would like to conclude this study with a look at historic 1935 exlnbition, "African Negro 
Art," organized for the Museum of Modern Art in New York by curator James Johnson 
Sweeney. This was the first museum exhibition in the United States to present a group of 
African artifacts, drawn from diverse geographic regions, as fine art in a Western aesthetic 
sense.2 Although Barnes did not contnbute any ofh is works for the show, his influence is 
felt, diffusely, in many ways in this groundbreaking exhibition, standing as an apt metaphor 
for his broader contnbutions to the appreciation ofA frican art. 
Plans for "African Negro Art" began in the fall of 1934, when the museum's 
director, Alfred Barr, contacted James Johnson Sweeney to curate an exlubition of African 
art. One of the first collectors Sweeney wrote to was Albert Barnes. Sweeney had 
introduced himself to Barnes several years earlier, in 1927, writing that he was ''intensely 
interested in modern painting and all related to it, [a nd] for some years I have listened 
3 
to mention made of your collection on every side with a mixture of envy and awe. "
Sweeney soon became a regular visitor to the Barnes Foundation and an interested student 
ofBarnes's method of artistic appreciation. 4 He later credited Barnes and the Foundation 
with detennining his entire outlook on art. 5 
184 
During the time he was planning the ex:lubition for the Museum of Modern Art, 
Sweeney was also writing a small text entitled Plastic Redirections in 20th Centwy 
Painting. 6 The book discusses the influence of African sculpture on European modernism. 
Significantly, Sweeney's analyses of individual works of African sculpture borrow heavily 
from Barnesian aesthetics. A seated Dogon figure, for example, is described "angu]ar, 
staccato in its rhythms, contrapuntal in its delicate network of fonns," echoing the visual 
analysis of a Dogon work in the Barnes Foundation collection, as articulated in Primitive 
Negro Sculpture. 7 
Sweeney evidently knew Barnes's position on loaning to ex:lubitions for he 
approached the collector gingerly with a request to loan works to "African Negro Art." 
Recognizing that such a loan would "entail definite and important sacrifices of illustrative 
materials for the courses at the Foundation,',s Sweeney nevertheless asked Barnes to 
consider the request. "Wrthout a representation of your pieces," Sweeney wrote to 
Barnes, "I would always reel a serious lack, as would everyone who knows Negro art."9 
Barnes sent a brief and bombastic note in return, stating, ''if I were interested in pushing 
the propagators of hooey I need not go to New York for opportunities: the museum 
10 
parasites here are quite the equal in stupidity, brass and bluff to anything over there."
Sweeney replied immediately, observing contritely that he was aware of Barnes's 
sentiments toward museurn.5 and had merely hoped that Barnes "might be sympathetic 
11 
purely toward the idea of an ex:lubition. "
Although Sweeney was unable to secure Barnes's participation, he did include 
African art from several collectors who had been influenced by Barnes. One such 
185 
collector was Philadelphia artist, Earl Horter, who had attended courses at the Barnes 
Foundation in 1926. Like Barnes, Horter's collection included both modernist art and 
African sculpture. In a 1931 interview, Horter directly credited Barnes as a major 
influence not only in developing his own taste but in fostering a wider appreciation of 
African art: 
''Until about ten years ago," he explained, ''Negro sculpture was regarded only as 
an archaeological find but now it has been recogniwl, as it should be, as an 
exquisite form of art ...B arnes - you know, the Barnes Foundation man, was with 
me in Paris. He has one of the finest collections of Negro sculpture in this 
cowrtry, and he helped me buy my pieces."12 
Horter loaned a Bamana ntomo mask from Mali (fig. 94), a piece quite similar to the 
Bamana masks in Barnes's collection 13 Another Philadelphia collector who also knew 
14 
Barnes was Caroll Tyson, who loaned a Guro mask from Ivory Coast to the exhibition. 
Even Frank CrowninshieJd, editor of Vanity Fair and member of the Board of Directors at 
the Museum of Modem Art, had come into Barnes's orbit as a fellow collector of both 
modem and African art. 15 Crowninshie1d, who loaned a number of works to the 
exhibition, had visited the collection as a guest ofHorter in the late 1920s. 16 
Sweeney's exhibition was groundbreaking, for museum exlnbitions of the era, in 
its intent to accord ''the art of Negro Africa . . . its pJace of respect among the esthetic 
traditions of the world."17 Reflecting Barnes's views, Sweeney too stressed the ''plastic 
qualities" of African sculpture, maintaining that that was what made it interesting as an art 
form. He noted, "Picturesque or exotic features as well as historical and ethnographic 
considerations have a tendency to blind us to its true worth."18 His perspective reached a 
large audience through the exhibition itself During the run of "African Negro Art" at the 
186 
MUSeum of Modem Art, attendance averaged 1000 visitors a day, an increase of ahnost 
6% :from regular attendance. 19 
While the 1935 Museum of Art .exlnbition was undoubtedly influenced by Barnes 
in tenns of the overall appreciation of Afiican art, the strategy of display differed 
~tly :from that found at the Barnes Foundation. The works, primarily sculpture in 
Wood, were set against the spare walls of the museum and highlighted in vitrines (fig. 95). 
An anonymous reviewer commented on the effectiveness of the installation: "Against a 
background of dead white these 600 objects, selected from leading European and 
American art collections, are arranged with ample space around them, so that the idols and 
masks may be seen without conflicting with the glass display cases of smaller objects. So 
Well assembled is the collection that on one of the upper floors an entire wall is given to a 
single head. ,,20 
Sweeney's display technique became, fur many years, the standard approach to 
the exhibition ofA frican art. Its influence is still felt in recent exhibitions, such as the 1996 
"Africa: The Art of a Continent," at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Originating 
at the Royal Academy in London in 1995, the exhibition was intended as ''the :first major 
1 
survey of the artistic traditions of the entire continent.',2 The exlnbition was broader in 
scope than that of its predecessor at the Museum of Modern Art, encompassing not only 
Western and central African art traditions, but also those of the no~ eastern, and 
SOuthem areas of the continent. The Guggenheim exhibition also difrered from the earler 
exhibition in its professed goal of situating objects from Afiica within their cultural 
contexts. Even so, a clear preference fur sculpture was revealed by merely gazing across 
187 
r 
the figwal works facing out from the spiraling ramp of the dramatic Frank Lloyd Wright 
building (fig. 96). The installation itself; like the 1935 exlnbition, maintained an emphasis 
on the visual impact African artistic expression by using the curvilinear and angled 
architecture to both harmonize and contrast with the three-dimensional aspects of the 
objects. 
Although Bames's strategies of displaying African art may not have been 
influential as that of the historic Museum of Modem Art exhibition, objects :from his 
collection assumed a canonical position even in his day. In assembling the collection of 
African art for the Muselllll of Primitive Art in New York during the 1940s, Rene 
d'Harnoncourt created a notebook which may be viewed as a veritable ''wish list" fur 
collecting.22 D'Harnoncourt listed "key'' ethnic groups and compiled a group of drawings 
of ideal object types from well-known collections. His drawings included two works from 
the Barnes Foundation: the Dogon seated couple (fig. 97) and the wrought iron figure 
:from Dahomey (fig. 98). The museum subsequently purchased a Dogon seated couple 
:from the same workshop as that oft he Barnes Foundation (fig. 99), a work that now, too, 
is considered canonical. 
In the end, then, Barnes as a collector of African art offers a paradox. On the one 
hand, he viewed African sculpture as a complete mastery over form and considered 
African artists to have approached their subject in a dehberate and self-conscious manner. 
Yet he also adopted a ''primitivist" ideology in attnbuting the success of African art as 
sculptural design to the innate rhythm of the ''negro." Barnes adamantly advocated the 
188 
appreciation of African art from a purely fonnal perspective, yet contributed to the 
concept of regional "style zones," thus acknowledging cultural backgrom1d. He 
advocated altruistic policies, like the advancement of the ''negro cause," but was equally 
concerned with the market implications of African art. And, although he established the 
Barnes Foundation to prorrote African art and advance knowledge about it as an art form, 
the Foundation closed its doors to the wider public and the collection of African art inside 
has long been neglected. 
Recently, the Barnes Foundation reopened to the general public after a lengthy 
renovation.23 Because the collection is still actively used as a tool for teaching 
Barnes's systematic method of formal analysis, the FoWldation has carefully 
maintained the appearance of the galleries as they were at the time ofBarnes's death 
in 1951. Without providing any ethnic attribution or cultural information, as is 
contemporary museum practice, African sculpture is isolated formally and integrated 
conceptually with other works in the collection. While perhaps an anachronism in 
today's more culturally sensitive art world, the Barnes Fom1dation nonetheless offers 
an unconventional aesthetic experience and a window into one collector's role in 
shaping Western perceptions of African art. 
189 
NOTES FOR CONCLUSION: 
1 Susan Sontag, The Volcano Lover, 144. 
2 Stewart Culin had earlier exhibited African objects as "art" at the Brooklyn Museum 
in 1923; however, works in the exhibition derived entirely from the then Belgian 
Congo. 
3 Letter from James Johnson Sweeney to Albert Barnes, December 20, 1927. 
Archives of The Barnes Fmmdation. 
4 Sweeney visited the Foundation in 1929, April 1930, November 1931, and December 
1933 (his 1932 visit was denied because the Foundation was closed for renovations). 
Archives of The Barnes Foundation. 
5 According to Schack, Art and Argyrol, 355. 
6 James Johnson Sweeney, Plastic Redirections in 20th Century Painting (Chicago: 
University of Chicago Press, 1934) 
7 Sweeney, Plastic Redirections in 20th Century Painting, 22. A similar figure in 
Primitive Negro Sculpture is described as 'jointed in an angular staccato rhythm" with 
a "sense of airy dispersion and delicately articulated structure." Guillaume and Munro, 
Primitive Negro Sculpture, 82. 
8 Letter from James Johnson Sweeney to Albert Barnes October 23, 1934. Archives 
of The Barnes Foundation. 
9 Ibid 
1~ Letter from Albert Barnes to James Johnson Sweeney October 24, 1934. Archives 
of The Barnes Foundation. 
11 Letter from James Johnson Sweeney to Albert Barnes October 25, 1934. Archives 
of The Barnes Foundation. ? 
12 "Hobby Hunter Runs Into Artist Who Thrills in Works of Others," Evening Public 
Ledger (Philadelphia) July 3, 1931. 
13 James Johnson Sweeney, African Negro Art 1935 (New York: Arno Press, 1966), 
cat. 32. 
14 Ibid., cat. 33. The work has apparently since been destroyed. 
190 
15 I have examined Crowninshield's collection of African art and the role of artist John 
Graham in its formation in "John Graham and the Crowninshield Collection of African 
Art, Winterthur Portfolio 30:1 (1995): 23-39. 
16 Letter from Earl Horter to Albert Barnes, no date [late 1920s]. Archives of The 
Barnes Foundation. Frank Crowninshield apparently visited the Foundation again in 
December of 1937, after he gave a lecture at the University of Pennsylvania. In his letter 
of thanks to Barnes, Crowninshield expressed that he was sympathetic to Bames's views 
on art, according to Schack, Art and Argyrol, 271. 
17 Sweeney, African Negro Art 1935 (New York: Arno Press, 1966), 11. 
18 Ibid., 21. 
19 "Attendance," The Bulletin of The Museum of Modem Arl 6-7, vol. 2 (March-
April 193 5) np. 
20 "Exhibit of African Negro Art Shows Influence on Modems," The Art Digest 9 
(April 1, 1935): 9. 
21 Press release from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, May 15, 
1996. 
22 Catalog and Desiderata, Collection of African Negro Art, Photographic 
Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, Metropolitan Museum 
of Art. I am very grateful to Kate Ezra for directing me to this source originally and 
to Virginia-Lee Webb, who was also instrumental in my research. 
23 The Barnes Foundation reopened to the public in November 1995. 
191 
~ ~
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Figure I. Paul Guillaume at age 20, 1911. 
(Giraudon, Paul Guillaume et les Peintres du XX:e Siecle,1993) 
192 
Guillaume Apollinaire at Paul Guillaume's, 16, avenue de Villiers, 
Figure 2. 
(1G91ir6a.u don, Paul Guilll!IIIDI' et !es Peintre? du XX? Sii:cle. 1993) 
193 
Figure 3. Max Weber, Congo Statuette, 1910. 
194 
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Figure 4. African objects from the collection of Patrick Henry Bruce. 
(Agee and Rose, Patrick Henry Bruce) 
195 
Figw-eS. Reliquary guardian figure, Gabon (Fang), formerly in collection of 
Frank Burty Haviland. 
Published in Carl Einstein, Negerplastik (1915) 
196 
Figure 6. Paul Guillaume at his first gallery, 6, rue de Miromesnil, 1914. 
(Giraudon. Paul Guillaume et les Peintres du X:Xe Siecle) 
197 
Figure 7. Marius de Zayas, photographed by Alfred Stieglitz, 1915. 
(National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) 
198 
Figure 8. African Hall. American Museum of Natural History, New York, ca. 
1910. 
(Vo gei Art/A rtimct) 
199 
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Figure 9. Installation view, "Statuary in Wood by African Savages," Little 
Galleries of the Photo-Secession, 291 Fifth Avenue, New York, 1914. 
(Vogel. Art/A rtifact) 
200 
Figure 10. Four-sided mask, Gabon (Fang), published in Apollinaire and 
Guillaume, Sculptures negres, 1917. 
201 
LES .-\.~TS A PARIS 
?? ' ? ? ? A Collodioo Peol C..U..... 
An 'ilr? - 'Dtlll?III 'DZEMBt:. , 
Figure 11. Reliquary guardian figure, Gabon (Fang) with caption, "Art negre -
Divinite Dzembe. Collection Paul Guillaume." Published in Les Arts 
a Paris 2 (July 1s , 1918). 
202 
: i .-'\: .? ; ' 
?. I .v' 
Figure 12. Albert Barnes with his friend and advisor, the artist William Glackens, 
ca. 1920. 
(Wattenmaker et al., Great French Painting from the Barnes 
Foundation) 
203 
--- - - ~ -----------
i 
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Figure 13. Male Figure, Cote d'Ivoire (Baule). Wood. 
The Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. Al91 
(Philadelphia Museum of Art) 
204 
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Figure 14. Mask, Cote d'Ivoire (Senufo or Kulango). Wood with pigment. 
The Barnes Foundation collection. inventory no. A156 
(Opportunity. May 1924) 
205 
-
Figure 15. Staff top with two figures, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Kongo). Wood. 
The Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. Al 79. 
Photograph by Charles Sheeler, 1918 
(Sheeler and De Zayas, African Negro?sculpture) 
206 
Figure 16. Reliquary guardian figure, Gabon (Fang). Wood. 
The Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. Al 44. 
(Philadelphia Museum of Art) 
207 
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od, raffia, beads and co
wrie shells. 
Figure 17. Mask, Cote d'Ivoire (D
an). Wo 71. 
rnes Foundation collec
tion, inventory no. A2
The Ba
unro, Primitive Negro 
Sculpture) 
(Guillaume and M
208 
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Figure 18 Figures, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Bembe) . Wood. 
The Barnes Foundation collection. 
(Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Neero Sculpture) 
209 
Figure 19. Heddie pulley, Cote d'Ivoire (Guro). Wood. 
The Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A269. 
Photograph by Barbara and Willard Morgan, 1933. 
(Morgan Foundation Archives) 
210 
Art Negre (Lobi) x,?n? sll?,?Jc Coll,?c?llcm pccrlirulirrr JI~ Barn,?.1 
Figure 20. Goldweights, Cote d'Ivoire (Lobi). Bronze. 
Former collection of Lama Barnes. 
Published in Les Arts a Paris 11 (October 1925) 
211 
Figure 21. Figure, Republic Of Benin (Fon). Iron. 
The Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. Al 48 
(Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 
212 
Figure 22. Carved relief door, Cote d'Ivoire (Baule). Wood, pigment. 
The Barnes Foundation collection. 
(Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 
213 
Figure 23. Mask, Cote d'Ivoire (Baule). Wood. 
The Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. Al 92. 
(Philadelphia Museum of Art) 
214 
Figure 24. Female figure with child, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Bembe). Wood. 
Collection of the Volkerkundemuseum der Universitat Zurich, 
Switzerland, inv. no. 10104. 
(Sz.a.lay, Afrikanische Kunst aus der Sammlung Han Coray 1916-1928) 
215 
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Figure 25. Janus-faced mask, Nigeria (lgbo). Wood, pigment. 
Collection of the Volkerkundemuseum der Universitat Zurich, 
Switzerland, inv. no. 10078. 
(Szalay, Afrikanische Kunst aus der Sa.mm.lung Han Coray 1916-1928) 
216 
Figure 26. African collection, Buffalo Musewn of Science, c. 1902. 
(Vogel, Art/Artifact) 
217 
Figure 27. African collection, University Museum of the University of 
Pennsylvania, 1913. 
(Wardwell, African Sculpture from the Universitv Museum) 
218 
Figure 28. Reliquary guardian head, Gabon (Fang) 
Collection of the University Museum, Pennsylvania. 
(University Museum Bulletin, March 1945) 
219 
Figure 29. View of the "Primitive Negro Art," Brooklyn Institute Museum, 1923. 
(Brooklyn Museum Archives) 
220 
...II 
Figure 30. View of the ''Primitive Negro Art," Brooklyn Institute Museum, 1923. 
(Brooklyn Museum Archives) 
221 
Figure 31. Mortuary post, Madagasear (SakaJava), formerly in the collection of 
Jacob Epstein 
Five views published in Carl Einstein, Negerplastik (1915) 
222 
J 
Figure 32. Left: Head of figure, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Teke) 
Right: Seated female figure, Ivory Coast (Senufo) 
Published together in Einstein, Negerplastik (1915) 
223 
2. THE COUNTRY OF NEGRO ART 
Figure 33. "The Country ofNegro Art" 
Published in Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture 
224 
., 
J, CAII.VED UTENSILS 
Figure 34. "Carved Utensils" 
Published in Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture 
225 
I'",? --""?? -?""?""'F_+o_,_.,... _ ._.,...,...,>,.._.....,.,.,., ..,,?-?----y-y-..--,.-,?.. ..- -, 
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Figure 35. Seated female figure, Ivory Coast (Senufo) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. Al 96. 
(Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 
226 
--------
Figure 36 Mask, Ivory Coast (Dan) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A128. 
(Survey Graphic, March 1925) 
227 
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Figure 37. Mask, Ivory Coast (Dan) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A277 
(Guillaume and Munro, primitive Negro Sculptur,!i) 
228 
Figure 38. Mask, Ivory Coast (Senufo) 
Barnes Foundation collectio11t inventory no. A284. 
229 
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Figure 39. Mas~ Ivory Coast (Dan) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A271 
(Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 
230 
Figure 40. Female figure, Ivory Coast (Attie) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A127. 
(Sheeier and de Zay~ African Negro Sculpture) 
231 
Figure 41. Female figure, Ivory Coast (Lagoon area) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A158. 
(Sheeler and de Zayas, African Negro Sculpture) 
232 
Figure 42. Mask (n 'tomo), Mali (Bamana) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A260. 
(Sheeler and de Zayas, African Ne!!l'o Sculpture) 
233 
Figure 43. Seated male and female, Mali (Dogon) 
Barnes Foundation collection. 
(Guillaume and Mwrro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 
234 
'' ,, 
I 1, 
Figure 44. Female figure, Ivory Coast (Bau1e) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. Al 99. 
(Sheeler and de Zayas, African Negro Sculpture) 
235 
Figure 45. Bust of female, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. Al 35. 
(Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 
236 
I 
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Figure 46. Reliquary guardian figure, Gabon (Fang) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. Al39. 
(Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 
237 
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Figure 47. Reliquary guardian figure, Gabon (Kota) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A263 
(Morgan Foundation Archives) 
238 
Figure 48. Cup in form of head, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Kuba) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A253. 
(Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 
239 
'Ill 
1111111 
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Figure 49. Standing male figure, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Lulua) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A220. 
(Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 
240 
Figure SO. Head of figure, Dem Rep. Of Congo (Teke) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A138. 
(Sheeler and De Zayas, African Negro Sculpture) 
241 
Figure 51. Messenger figure, Nigeria (Benin) 
Barnes Foundation collection 
(Philadelphia Museum of Art) 
242 
Figure 52. Pendant mask, Nigeria (Benin) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A213. 
(Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 
243 
,., 
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Figure 53. Exterior of the Barnes Foundation. 
(Giraudon, Paul Guillaume et les Peintres) 
244 
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t,ll.~T t'l.ll<lll p1_, ... nr ft.\11"-' 1,\IJ,l:ft\" ?~11uw1:-.c; LOC.UIO!'( OF PIU!'(QPAL UHIBITI 
--..--:-? ?- TH.c-'nt~"'l"K Kt:!'f.uss.,st"E ? M~HSIOH?-WHIC.'ff? ttoo,sm ?TH.Ii: IIAl<NA w~..--:- ~--,-=~--
DI.I.COIN' 
N. 
Figure 54. Floor plan of the Barnes Foundation. 
Published in The Philadelphia Inguirer March 17, 1961 
245 
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T H E Jl .-\ RNES !'OU:si DAT JON !'RO :-.I T ELEVA.T IO~ O!' PI CT URE , ;.-\ LL ERY 
Figure 55. Front elevation of Barnes Foundation, drawing by Paul Cret 
(The Arts January 1923) 
246 
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Figure 56. Entrance vestibule of Barnes Foundation. 
(Photo by author, 1995) 
247 
Figure 57. Entryway flanked by replicas of Senufo seated female figure from 
Barnes Foundation collection. 
(Photo by author, 1995) 
248 
":'  
Figure 58. Low relief tiles featuring African masks and goldweights at entrance to 
The Barnes Foundation. 
(Photo by author, 1995) 
249 
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Figure 59. Baule granary door replicated in tile at entrance to Barnes 
Foundation. 
(Photo by author, 1995) 
250 
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Figure 60. Bamana figure representing "Soudan," far left side of entrance. 
(Photo by author, 1995) 
251 
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I 
Figure 61. Female figure, Mali (Bamana) 
The Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A123 
(Guillaume and Apollinaire, Sculptures nee:res) 
252 
Figure 62. Fang reliquary guardian figure representing "Gabon," left of doorway. 
(Photo by author, 1995) 
253 
Figure 63. Reliquary guardian figure, Gabon (Fang) formerly collection Paul 
Guillaume. 
( Guillaume and Apollinaire, Sculptures N egres) 
254 
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Figure 64. Baule male figure representing "Ivory Coast," right of doorway. 
(Photo by author, 1995) 
255 
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l&uz-e 65. ale figure,
 Ivoiy Co ollection, i
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 c Negro Scu
lpture) 
s F tive 
The Barne unro, Prim
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256 ----
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Figure 66. Bembe female figure representing "Sibiti," far right of doorway. 
(Photo by author, 1995) 
257 
Figure 67. Female figure, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Bembe) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. Al 72 
(Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 
258 
Figure 68. Metalwork on exterior of Barnes Foundation featuring a Senufo mask. 
(Photo by author, 1995) 
259 
Figure 69. Interior molding in central gallery with Kuba and Bembe patterns. 
(Wattenmaker, Great French Paintings) 
260 
- ,... ~- --~ 
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Figure 70. Figure, Dem. Rep. Of Congo (Eastern Bembe) 
The Barnes Foundation collection. 
(Guillaume and Munro, Primitive Negro Sculpture) 
261 
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Figure 71. 
Exterior of Barnes Foundation showing relief plaque by Jacques 
Lipchitz. 
(Giraudon, Paul Guillaume et Ies Peintres) 
262 
.,.,, .   
Figure 72. View of south wall of room 22, the Barnes Foundation. 
(Wattenmaker et al., Great French Paintings) 
263 
Figure 73. Interior view of the apartment of Walter and Louise Arensberg, New 
York, c. 1918. 
(Watson, Strange Bedfellows:) 
264 
Figure 74. Mas~ Mali (Bamana) 
The Barnes Foundation collection. 
(Morgan FoW1dation Archives) 
265 
Figure 75. Amadeo Modigliani, .~1919
(Wa )tten  maker, ~s 
266 
Figure 76. Pablo Picasso, study o! ~~:=~~:!~ 
(Wattenmaker, ~ s  
267 
Figure 77. View of Luba caryatid stool in Barnes Foundation collection, Morgan 
photo number 1012. 
(Morgan Foundation Archives) 
268 
Figure 78. Side view of Luba caryatid stooi Morgan photo number 1018. 
(Morgan Foundation Archives) 
269 
Figure 79. Close-up of head of Luba caryatid stoo~ Morgan photo number 1014. 
(Morgan Foundation Archives) 
270 
?? ._..:._...t.?.-  
;r :.: .. 4 .:~ -
Figure 80. Three views ofDogon male and female figure from Barnes Foundation 
collection, photographs by Barbara and Willard Morgan. 
Published in John Dewey, Art as Experience, 1934 
271 
.?-... ~?...__,, 
. '. -?"": 
Figure 81. Alain Locke, c. 1941 
(Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America) 
272 
11,'  
,'.I ,I  
I 
Figure 82. MBaarsnke,s M Foalui n(Bdaa1tilo18nl 1c8o) llection. ;ro,entor)' no, A220 
Published as "Soudan-Niger - Io? centurf in~M ay 
1924 
273 -
Figure 83. Heddle pulley, Ivory Coast (Guro) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A258 
Published as "Zouenouia - 13th Century," Opportunity, May 1924 
274 
~~--~ ?- -?-- ........ -
.:;
. . t  
Figure 84. Mask, I very Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. Al60 
Published in Survey Graphic, March 1925. 
275 
Figure 85. Winhold Reiss, Portrait of Charles S. Johnson (1925) 
(Watson, The Harlem Renaissance) 
276 
!ii; ??? .O PPORTt JNIT?/iEPf~ 
JOURNA; L OF N EGRO LIFE 
... ?:: 
' ., 
. ?. - ~ 
N1AY Art 
1926 Number 
FIFTEEN Contest 
'.C ENTS Awards 
Figure 86. Cover of May 1926 Opportunity featuring Baule granary door from 
the Barnes Foundation collection. 
277 
~ossENDJO? 
BANDJABIS 
??. Before . 10th CenturY 
Ivory horn, Dem. ReP? orcongo (ptol,ab1Y l{ongo) 
Figure 87. Barnes Foundation collection. in-tor)' no. AJ30 
Published as ''Mossendio-Bandjabis - Before 1o ? eenturY," 
Opportunitt, May I9 26. 
278 
Figure 88. Male figure, Ivory Coast (Baule) Barnes FoUDdation coJleclion. jnveJ!IOr)' no- AJ.67 
Published as ?Baoule - t 4" centUIY." ~MaY 1926 
279 
SOUD.r\~ ? ~IGER 
19th Century 
Figure 89. Female figure, Ivory Coast (Senufo) 
Barnes Foundation collectio~ inventory no. A228 
Published as "Soudan-Niger - 19th Century," Opportunity May 1926 
280 
Figure 90. Aaron Douglas 
(Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America) 
281 
Figure 91. Detail of face from Aaron Douglas, Noah's Ark (1927) 
(Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America) 
282 
Bushongo 
Figure 92. Mask, Ivory Coast (Guro) 
Barnes Foundation collection, inventory no. A l 06 
Published as "Bushongo," Survey Graphic March 1925 
283 
, I 
~ l 
../  
.? .. . ....... . 
. I : .._...  ~: ~ .,.  -.. : ' '"" / 
. ~ 
'I 1': >\ ?; 
... I' 
'. 
Aaron DouglaS, ~ (!927), oil on t,oard. 48 x 36" 
Figure 93. Collection of Mr. And Mrs- WilliaJll IL CosbY 
(Harlem Renrussance: M of Black A!!!eric?J 
284 
Fisuz.e 94. Mask, Mali (Bamana), formerly in the collection ofE arl Horter. 
(Philadelphia Museum ofA rt) 
285 
"?,I 
Figure 95. Installation view of"African Negro Art,"' held at the Museum of 
Modem Art in New York in 1935. 
286 
J.., 11 ! ' I ? ~~ 
r~ 
. ,.,. .. 
,. -
Figure 96. Installation view of"Africa: The Art of the Continent," at the 
Guggenheim Museum in New Y orlc, 1996. 
(Art Journal, Spring 1997) 
287 
r 
t 
I 
f 
.. 
.'. ......... ... -..:.- 
--' 
l! 
ii 
.I.  
1'.an ar:d voMn t 
Barnes Collection 
Illu s: T!~G ~age 3J; IBL ?la ta I j 
Figure 97. Drawing by Rene d'Harnoncourt of Dogon male and female figure 
from the Barnes Foundation collection. 
Catalog and Desiderata, Collection of African Negro Art, 
Photographic Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the 
Americas, Metropolitan Museum of Art. 
288 
..,  West Africa - Dahomey I D-, ;~  
~I!-----Da-h-cm_e_y_Tr_ib_e_s __. ..:,_ ____12_  _ ----Jj I~ 
~ l 
~ 
~ j! 
1J:?  
~ \ :,?  
! . 
I 
~ Figure 
.irought i."m . 
Barnes Coll. ! 
Illus: TM&?G) ?1 
plate J9 l i 
( large .!'t~\ ! 
? lllus JJS1 --- ...i 
Figure 98. Drawing by Rene d'Hamoncourt of a Fon iron figure in Barnes 
Foundation collection. 
Catalog and Desiderata, Collection of African Negro Art, 
Photographic Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the 
Americas, Metropolitan Museum of Art. 
289 
Figure 99. Seated male and female figure, Mali (Dogon) 
Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, formerly in the 
Museum of Primitive Art. 
290 
Appendix: 
INVENTORY OF THE COLLECTION OF AFRICAN ART, 
TI:IE BARNES FOUNDATION, MERION, PA 
This inventory, organiz.ed according to pJacement of the African art collection in the 
galleries at the Barnes Foundation, is based on a personal examination of nearly all of 
these objects in August 1994 in Merion, Pa The Barnes Foundation did not have at that 
time (o r ever, to my knowledge) infonnation on attnbution, provenance, and publication 
history for the African art collection I have provided the information below to the Barnes 
Foundation 
When known, I have included the materiaVs, height (approximate), and Barnes 
Foundation inventory numbers for each work. I am also including infunnation, whenever 
possible, on when the objects were purchased hlsed on my comparison of numbered sales 
receipts with number or number :fragments (typed on paper, drawn in wax or paint, etc.) 
remaining on object itself Unless otherwise noted, all works come :from the gallery of 
Paul Guillawne in Paris. Finally, I have included a publication history that, while not 
necessaril; complete, documents various reproductions of the works during the first half 
of the 20 century. 
ROOM20 
North Wall 
In vitrine, top shelf: left to right: 
Mask, Liberia or Ivory Coast (Dan) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A128 
Wood, 8 in 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 23 ''Masque Cavally," 6000 :fr. 
Published: Survey Graphic (March 1925): 673 
The New Negro (1925), 258 
Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (eastern Hemba) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A273 
Wood, lOin 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 17 "Divinite Sangha" fr. 900 
Published: Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 35: "Congo figure; Sangha, XIVth 
century" 
Mask, Ivory Coast (Guro) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A278 
Wood, pigment; 11 in. 
Published: Op_portunity th (1926): 152: "Zouenou1a, 14 century'' 
Figure, Mali(?) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A270 
Wood; 12 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 22 "Fetiche Soudan-Niger" (no price listed) 
291 
Mask, Liberia or Ivory Coast (Dan) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A271 
Wood, pigmen~ raffia, cowries, cloth; 10 in. 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 17 "Masque Yaboubas," 6000 fr. 
Published: Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 8: "Ivory Coast mask; Dan-Yaboubas, 
Xllth century" 
Divination tapper, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A275 
Wood; 11 in. 
Published: Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 4: "Fetish (Upper Ivory Coast, XIIth 
century) and utensils" 
Cup, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kuba) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A274 
Wood, cowrie; 12 in. 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 4 "Coupe Bushongo," 1800 fr. 
Mask, Liberia or Ivory Coast (Dan/Wee) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A277 
Wood; 9 in. ....:. 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 28 "Masque Yaboubas," 6000 fr. 
Published: Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 30: "Ivory Coast mask; Dan-Y aboubas, 
Xllth century" 
Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kuba) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A272 
Wood; 12 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 11 "Fetiche Congo," 500 fr. 
Published: Guillawne and Munro (1926), pl 31: "Congo figure; Bushongo, XIVth 
century" 
In vitrine, bottom shelf; left to right: 
Mask, Ivory Coast (Yaure) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A281 
Wood, pigment; 14 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 18 "Masque Cote d'Ivoire Moss~" 3,250 fr. 
Mask, Ivory Coast (Guro) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A285 
Wood, pigment; 13 in. 
Female figure, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A280 
Wood; 14 in. 
Purchased: Swnmer 1922, no. 5 "!dole Cote d'Ivoire," fr. 1200 
292 
Mask, Ivory Coast (Senufo or Kulango) 
Barnes Fowxlation inventory no. A284 
Wood, pigment; 13 in. 
Figure, Marquesas Islands; Oceania (NOT AFRICAN) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A286 
Wood; 14 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 19 "'Tiki' des Marquises," fr. 800 
Mask, Gabon (Punu) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A282 
Wood, pigment; 12 in. 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 27 "Masque M'Pongwe (Congo-Gabon)," 4250 fr. 
Published: Photographed by Man Ray, early 1920s 
Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 7: "M'Pongwe mask, XVth century" 
Seated male and female figures, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A276 
Wood; 14 in. 
Purchased: Sunmer 1922, no. 29 "IdoJe double Cote d'Ivoire," 8,000 fr. 
South Wall 
In vitrine, top shelf, left to right: 
Heddie pulley, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Fowxlation inventory no. A265 
Wood;4in. 
Purchased: probably July 1923, ''Figurine ZoumouJa" 
Ivory figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Lega) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A264 
I:vory; 4 in. 
Heddie pulley, Ivory Coast (Guro) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A269 
Wood; 7 in. 
Purchased: probably July 1923, "Figurine Zouemula" 
Published: Guillawre and Munro (1926), pl 4: "Fetish (Upper Ivory Coast, Xllth 
centmy) and utensils" 
Figure, Sierra Leone (Kissi) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A257 
Stone; 1 ? in. 
Purchased: Po~ly July 1923, ''Pierre~ (Guinee)" 1,500 fr. 
293 
Figure, Democratic Republic ofthe Congo (Bembe) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A252 
Wood; 6 in. 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 7 "Petit Sibiti (Congo)," 350 fr. 
Published: Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 37: "Congo figures; Sibiti, XVIIth 
century" 
Cup, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kuba) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A253 
Wood; 8 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 21 "Tete fonnant coupe Bushongo," 2000 fr. 
Published: Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 34: "Congo cup; Bushongo, XIlith 
century" 
Tobacco mortar, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Luluwa) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A256 
Wood; 6 in. 
Purchased: Possibly Summer 1922, no. 26, ''Petite !dole Soudan" 300 fr. 
Pendant, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Pende) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A259 
Ivory; 1 in. 
Published: Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl: 3: "Carved utensils," second from left 
Heddie pulley, Ivory Coast (Guro) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A258 
Wood; 7 in. 
Purchased: Probably July 1923, ''Figurine Zouenoula" 
th 
Published: Opportunity (May 1924): "Zouenouia- 13 century'' 
Cup, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kuba) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A255 
Ivory; 5 in. 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 16 "Statuette Ivoire Bushongo," 3,500 fr. 
Cup, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kuba) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A250 
Wood; 6 in. 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 2 "Coupe Bushongo," 1500 fr. 
Published: Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl. 3: "Carved utensils," second from right 
In vitrine, bottom shelf: left to right: 
Figure, Gabon (Fang) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A262 
Wood 
Purchased: December 1922, "Gabon- Pahouins idole," 8,500 fr. 
294 
Figure, Gabon (Kota) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A263 
Wood, metal 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 29 "Bakoutas (Congo)," 3750 fr. 
Male figure, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A267 
Wood; 20 in 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 1 "Cote d'Ivoire Grande Statue," 13500 fr. 
Published: Ahnanach Scientifique (Paris, 1922) 
Opportunity (May 1926): 148, ''Baoule - 14th Century'' 
Mask, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al92 
Wood, pigment 
Purchased: November 1922, ''Masque Cote d'Ivoire," 4000 fr. (exlubited at Brummer 
gallery in NY) 
Published: International Studio (November 1922): "A ritual mask from the Cote 
d'Ivoire" 
Female figure, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A261 
Wood; 17 in 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 12 "Idole Cote d'Ivoire," 4000 fr. 
Published: Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 25: "Ivory Coast figure, Xith Century" 
Figure, Gabon (Kota) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A268 
Wood, metal 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 21 ''Bakoutas," 2,750 fr. 
Caryatid stool, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Luba) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A266 
Wood 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 30 "Siege Congo," 2750 fr. 
Central Case 
Caryatid stool, Zaire (Luba) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A185 
Wood 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 27 "Grand Siege Congo," 800 fr. 
Published: Almanach Scientifique (Paris, 1922) 
Opportwrity (1926): "Congo - 1th Century'' 
Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 33: "Congo figure, supporting table; 
XVIlth century'' ? 
295 
ROOM21 
North wall 
In vitrine, left to right: 
Male figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo(?) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A251 
Wood; 28 in. 
Published: Gni11aume and Mumo (1926), pl 6: "Congo fetish; Busbongo, Xth 
century" 
Cahiers d' Art 7-8 (1927): 238, "ldole Baluba. Fondation Barnes" 
Male figure, Ivory Coast (Senufo) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A254 
Wood; 24 ? in. 
Published: Guillaume and Mwno (1926), pl 19: "Sudan-Niger mask (Xth century) 
and two figures (XIXth century)" 
Female figure with child, Democratic Republic of the Congo(?) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A223 
Wood; 24 in. 
Mask, Mali (Bamana or Marka) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A220 
[NOTE: This object and the one below are given the same inventory number] 
Wood, metal, encrustation; 28 in. 
Published: Qru,ortunity (1924): 141; ''Soudan--N?Jger'' 
Survey Graphic (March 1925): 673, ''Soudan-N"iger'' 
The New Negro (1925), 257; ''Soudan-Niger" 
Guillaume and Mumo (1926), pl 19: "Sudan-Niger~ (Xth century)" 
Male figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Luluwa) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A220 
Wood; 27 in. 
Published: Guillawne and Munro (1926), pl. 36: "Congo figure; Bushongo-Baluba, 
XIVth century" 
Qmx>rtunity (1926): 159 "Bushongo-Baluba, 141h Century'' 
Female figure, Ivory Coast (Senufo) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A228 
Wood; 24 in. 
Published: Guillawne and Munro (1926), pl. 19: "Sudan-Niger mask (Xth century) 
and two figures (XIXth century)" 
Op_portunity (May 1926): 149 ''Soudan-Niger, Jgh Century'' 
296 
Male figure, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A221 
Wood; 27 in. 
Purchased: possibly November 1922 through Brummer exhibition; ''Ivory Coo&," 
1,500 fr. . 
Published: International Studio (November 1922) "A wooden figure of a Bauole 
Divinity (Coll. Of Paul Guillaume)" 
Opportunity (1924): 138 
Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 21: ''Ivory Coast figure; Baule, XIVth 
centmy, side view" and pl 22 "The same, :front view'' 
West wall 
In vitrine, top shelf; left to right: 
Male figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Bembe) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al98 
Wood; 7 in. 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 6, "Petit Sibiti" 450 fr. 
Published: Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 37: "Congo figures; Sibiti, XVIIth 
century" [fur left] 
Male figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Bembe) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A182 
Wood;4in 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 8 "Petit Sibiti'' 550 fr. 
Published: Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 37: "Congo figures; Sibiti, XVIIth 
century" 
Headrest supported by female figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Luba) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al87 
Wood; 5 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 25 "Chevet Cote d'Ivoire," 900 fr. 
Published: Guillaume and Munro, pL 3: "Carved utensils" [mr left] 
Spoon with female head, Gabon (Punu) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A183 
Wood;5 in 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 24 ''Culler M'Pongwe," 550 fr. 
Published: Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 3: "Carved utensils"[mr right] 
Heddie pulley with female head, Ivory Coast (Guro) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al80 
Wood;7 ?in 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 4 "Figurine Cote d'Ivoire," 900 fr. 
297 
Staff top with two beads, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Luba) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al 79 
Wood; 6 in. 
Purchased: Probably summer 1922, no. 22b ''Fetiche double Congo," 100 fr. 
Published: Einstein, Negem1astik (1915), pl 72 
deZayas and Sheeler, African Negro Wood Sculpture (1918) two photos 
Clouzot and Levei L'Art Negre et !'Art Oceanien (1919), pl XVI 
''Fetiche double, male et femelle (Cote d'Ivoire)," listed as collection Paul 
Guillawne 
Guillawne and Munro (1926), pl 4: "Fetish (Upper Ivory Coast) and 
utensils" 
Female figure, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al 99 
Wood; approx. 8" 
Purchased: Swmner 1922, no. 7 "Statuette Cote d'Ivoire," 500 fr. 
Comb with head, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Yaka) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al 73 
Wood; 6 in. 
Female figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Bembe) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al 72 
Wood; 7 in. 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 5 "Petit Sibiti," 290 fr. 
Published: Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 37: "Congo figures; Sibiti, XVIIth 
century" [second from left] 
Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (pos.1ibly Kongo) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al 78 
Wood; 4 in. 
Male figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Bembe) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al 75 
Wood; 6 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 9 "Fetiche Congo-Sibiti," 200 fr. 
In vitrine, middle shelf, left to right: 
Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kongo) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A211 
Wood; 10 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no 16 "Petit dieu Congo" 900 fr. 
Divination tapper, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A217 
Wood; 10 in. 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 9 "Marteau musical orne Baoule," 1950 fr. 
298 
Mask, Liberia or Ivory Coast (Dan) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A214 
Wood; 6 in. 
Female figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Bembe) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A212 
Wood; 6 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 39 "Sibiti-Congo," 200 fr. 
Male figure, Gabon (Punu) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A195 
Wood, pigment; 10 in. 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 25 "Statue blanclie M'Pongwe," 550 fr. 
Divination tapper, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al 93 
Wood; 11 in. 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 3 "Marteau musical ome Cote d'Ivoire," 1800 fr. 
Male figure, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A191 
Wood; 9 in. 
Purchased: . Swnmer 1922, no. 8 "Statuette Cote d'Ivoire" 300 fr. 
Heddie pulley with female head, Ivory Coast (Guro) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al 76 
Wood; 7 in. 
Purchased: Probably July 1923, "Figurine ZouenouJa" 
Published: Survey Graphic (March 1925): 675 "Zouenouia" 
Male figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Bembe) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al 94 
Wood; 10 in. 
In vitrine, bottom shelf: left to right: 
Figure 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A225 
Stone; 8 in. 
Mask, Liberia or Ivory Coast (Dan) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A229 
Wood; 11 in. 
299 
Pendant head, Nigeria (Bini) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A213 
Bronze; 4 in 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 18 "Petit masque Benin," 950 fr. 
Published: International Studio (1922): 145 "A mask in black bronz.e from Benin 
(c ollection Bela Hein)" 
Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl. 38: "Benin mask, XVth century" 
Female figure, Gabon (Fang or related group) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A226 
Wood; lOin 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 13 "Divinite des Pahouins" 2,500 fr. 
Fork, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kongo?) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A222 
Wood 
Published: Guillaume and Munro (1926) pl 3: "Carved Utensils" 
Spoon, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kongo?) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A218 
Wood 
Published: Guillaume and Munro, pl 4: "Fetish and utensils" 
Female figure, Gabon (Ntumu) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A210 
Wood, metal; 12 in. 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 22 "Statue Gabon," 5000 fr. 
Published: The Dial (Sept. 1923): ''Negro Sculpture (Pahouin), Comtesy ofM Paul 
Guillaume" 
Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 13: "Gabon figure; Pahouin VIII - Xth 
century'' 
Pendant, Nigeria (p~ibly Ijebu Yoruba) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A227 
Bronze; 4 in. 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 14 "Masque Benin," 1500 fr. 
Published: International Studio (1922): 143 "A Mask in Black Bronz.e from Benin 
(collection ofA  A Feder)" 
Mask, Liberia or Ivory Coast (Dan/Wee) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A219 
Wood, metal, encrustation; 8 in. 
Published: Guillaume and Munro ( 1926), pl 1: ''Ivory Coast mask; Dan, XIII th 
Century'' 
Figure, Liberia (Kissi) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A216 
Stone; 4 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 32 "Statuette pierre ~e," 500 fr. 
300 
On wall: 
Figure, Gabon (Kota) 
Woo~metal 
Figure, Gabon (Kota) 
Wood, metal 
Center of room 
Seated female figure, Ivory Coast(Senufo) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A209 
Wood 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 31 "Grande divinite Soudan" 4000 fr. 
ROOM22 
North wall 
In vitrine, top shelf: left to right: 
Female figure, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al 36 
Wood; 12 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 14 "Idole Cote d'Ivoire" 1,000 fr. 
Mask, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Lega?) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A132 
Wood; 9 in. 
Purchased: December 1922, "Masque Congo," 1800 fr. 
Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Teke) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al38 
Wood; 11 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 20 "Fetiche Congo" 
Published: de Zayas and Sheeler, African Negro Sculpture (1918) 
Pendant head, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Pende) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A126 
Ivory; 2 in. 
Female bust, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al35 
Wood; 12 in. 
Published: Almanach Scientifique (1922) 
th 
Opportunity (May 1926): 151 ''Baoule 19 Century'' 
Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 23: "Ivory Coast head; Baule, XIXth 
Century" 
301 
Pendant, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Pende) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al33 
Ivory; l in. 
Female figure, Ivory Coast" (Attie/Lagoon area) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al27 
Wood; lOin. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, ''Statuette Guinee" 900 fr. 
Published: de Zayas and Sheeler African Negro Sculpture (1918) 
Guillaume and MUill'O (1926), pl 41: ''Guinea figure, XVth Century'' 
Mask, Liberia or Ivory Coast (Dan) 
Barnes FoW1dation inventory no. A279 
Wood; 7 in. 
Pm-chased: December 1922, m. 13 "Masque Dan-Yabo~" 5500 fr. 
Female figure, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al 17 
Wood; 12 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 6 '1dole Cote d'Ivoire," 1200 fr. 
In vitrine, bottom shelf: left to right: 
Head, Gabon (Fang) 
Barnes Folllldation inventory no. Al50 
Wood; 12 in. 
Mask, Ivory Coast (Kulango?) 
Barnes FoW1dation inventory no. Al56 
Wood, pigment; 13 in. 
Purchased: November 1922 from Brumrm- exhibition, ~ue Canaque" 1,000 fr. 
Published: Op_portunity (May 1926): 147, ''Kong Empire, 14 Century" 
Figure with bell, Gabon (Punu) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al54 
Wood, pigment, metal; 14 in. 
Purchased: Sunnner 1922, no. 33 "Gabon Figurine Feneon," 500 fr. 
Mask, Ivory Coast (Guro) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al 47 
Wood, pigment; 13 in. 
Published: Op_portunity (May 1926): 'Towmdi, 12th Century" 
Male fagure, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al45 
Wood; 14 in. 
Purchased: Swnmer 1922, no. 37 "Statue Cote d'Ivoire," 250 fr. 
302 
Figure, Republic of Benin (Fon?) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al48 
Iron; approx. 14" 
Purchased: December 1923, ''Dahomey'' 1500 fr. 
Published: Survey Graphic (March 1925): 673, ''Dammey (Brome)" 
Guillawne and M\llll'O (1926), pl 39: "Dahomey figure, XVlth century" 
Female figure, Mali (Bamana?) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A140 
Wood; 16 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 3 "Statue Soudan" 
Published: Guillawne and Munro (1926), pl 14: "Sudan figure, Xllth century" and 
pl 15, "The same, back view'' 
Male Figure, Gabon (Fang) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A139 
Wood; 
Published: Clouz.ot and Level, Sculptures A:fricaines et Oceaniennes (1923), pl 24 
"!dole pahouine, collection Paul Guillaume" 
Guilaume and Munro ( 1926) pl 11: "Gabun figure; Pahouin, Xth 
Century" and pl 12 ''the same, back view'' 
South wall 
On wall, top left: 
Mask, Mali (Bamana) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A260 
Wood, metal 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 23 ''Masque Soudan" 800 fr. 
Published: Apollinaire and Guillaume, Sculptures Negres (1917), pl 21 "'Kenie,' 
grand fetiche des cultures chez les 'Tomas' (Haute-Guinee). Les Tomas 
lui demandent ~i le succes dam Ieurs entreprises et la gloire dans 
les combats" 
de Z'.ayas and Sheeler, African Negro Sculpture (1918) 
Guillawne and Munro (1926), pl 20: "Sudan mask, XVIlith Century'' 
botttom left: 
Figure, Gabon (Kota) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A202 
Wood, metal 
top right 
Mask, Mali (Bamana) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. AlOl 
Wood; 25 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 38, ''Masque Soudan" 900 fr. 
303 
bottom right: 
Figure, Gabon (Kota) 
Wood, metal 
In vitrine, top shelf, left to right: 
Figure, Ivory Coast (Lagoon area?) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A158 
Wood, metal; 11 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 24 "Idole Guinee," 1000 fr. 
Published: De Zayas and Sheeler, African Negro Sculpture (1918) 
Guillawne and Munro (1926), pl 40: "Guinea" 
Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Pende) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al 05 
Ivory; 3 in. 
Mask, Ivory Coast (Yaure) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al 41 
Wood; 11 in. 
Purchased: Possibly Summer 1922, no. 34 "Masque Gouro," 4000 fr. 
Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Lega) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A151 
Ivory; 7 in. 
Female figure, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A157 
Wood; 12 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 15 "Idole Cote d'Ivoire," 1500 fr. 
Head, Gabon (Fang) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A13 
Wood; 11 in. 
Published: Guillawne and Munro ( 1926), pl 9: "Gabun head; Pahouin" and pl 10 
"the same, side view" 
Figure, Ivory Coast (Baule?) 
Barnes Folllldation inventory no. Al39 
Wood, beads; 12 in. 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 10 "Petite ldole Cote d'Ivoire," 3000 fr. 
Published: de Zayas and Sheeler, African Negro Sculpture (1918) 
Guillaume and Munro, pl. 24: "Ivory Coast figure, XVth Century" 
Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Lega) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al 63 
Ivory; 7 in. 
304 
Mask, Ivory Coast (Baule) 
Barnes Fowidation inventory no. Al89 
Wood; 11 in. . ,, 4800 :fr 
Purchased: December 1922, no. 15 ''Masque Cote d'Ivo1re, ? 
Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Pende) 
Barnes Fowidation inventory no. Al65 
Ivory; 4 in. 
Female figure, Mali (Bamana) 
Barnes Fowidation inventory no. A123 
Wood; 13 in. 
Purchased? Summer 1922 no 10 "Divinite du Soudan," 1500 :fr. 
Published:? Apollinaire and GlillJaume, Sc?lp~~ Negres (1917) pL XX "Statue du 
Soudan. Collection M. De V]ammck 
In vitrine, bottom shelf; left to right: 
Mask, Liberia or Ivory Coast (Dan) 
Barnes Fowidation inventory no. Al 10 
Wood; 8 in. 
Figure, Gabon (Fang) 
Barnes Fowidation inventory no. Al 44 
Wood; 13 in. 
Purchased: November 1922 :fromBrwnmerexlnbition, no. 33 "GabonFigure" 14,000 
fr. 
Mask, Ivory Coast (Guro) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. A192 
Wood, pigment; 12 in. th 
Published: Opportunity (May 1926): 151 "Z.Ouenou1a, 14 Centwy'' 
Carved horn, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kongo?) 
Barnes Fowidation inventory no. Al30 
Ivory; 13 in. 
Published: Qm,ortunity (May 1926): 150 ''Mossendjo-Bandjabis. Before 1< f 
century'' 
Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl. 4: ''Fetish (Upper Ivory Coast, XIIth 
century) and utensils" 
Mask, Ivory Coast.(Baule) 
Barnes Fowidation inventory no. Al 60 
Wood; 12 in. 
Published: Survey Graphic (March 1925): 673 ''Baoule" 
The New Negro (1925): 244 
Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 27: "Ivory Coast mask; Baule XIVth 
century'' 
Der Querschnitt 7, 9 (Sept. 1927): "Neger-Maske (Baoule)," 
305 
Seated female figure, Ivory Coast (Senufo) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al96 
Wood; 17 in. 
Purchased: Summer 1922, no. 2 "Statue Soudan" 300 fr. 
Published: ~uillaume and Munro (1926), pl 16: ''Sudan figure, X:Vth Century? side 
view'' and pl 17 "the same, back view" ' 
Mask, Ivory Coast (Guro) 
Barnes Foundation inventory no. Al 06 
Wood, pigment; 12 in. 
Published: Survey Graphic (March 1925): "Bushongo" 
The New Negro (1925): "Bushongo" 
Cahiers d' Art 7-8 (1927): ''Masque Ceremonial Zorenola. Coll Paul 
Guillaume" 
Studio (London) 461 (1931): 118 "Mask from the Ivory Coast. 
Collection ofP aul Guillaume" 
In comer of room: 
Figure, Ivory Coast? 
Wood 
Purchased: Possibly Summer 1922, no. 18 ''Grande Statue Cote d'Ivoire" 1,500 fr. 
Center of room 
Seated male and female couple, Mali (Dogon) 
Wood 
Published: Les Arts a Paris no. S (Nov. 1, 1919): ''Statue des deux Principes du 
Bobo-DiouJasso. Pres. Xie siecle," 
Clouzot and 1.evei "L' Art des Noirs," La Renaissance de l' Art Fraps;ais 
(1922) fig. 1:1 "Groupe. Soudan" 
Survey Graphic (March 1925): 674 "African sculpture" 
Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 18: ''Sudan-Niger figure; Bobo-
Diou1asso, Vth-Xth century' 
Lem, Sudanese Sc?Jptme (Paris: 1949) pl 1: ''Group, in hard wood with 
its natural patina. Very ancient c~ from the region of ,, 
Hombori ...F uneral group, symbolizing male and female elements 
OTIIBR 
In hallway of second floor: 
Door, Ivory Coast (Baute) 
Wood, pigment 
Published: Guillaume and Munro (1926), pl 29 ''Ivory Coast temple door'' 
Opportunity (May 1926): cover 
Male figure, Nigeria (Bini) 
Bronze 
306 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
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