2RO079 - Gestalt

For this post we borrow an archival object from one of my favorite museums, The Barnes Foundation. It used to be a home, where the Barnes family would welcome students from all over Philadelphia to visit their avant-garde collection.

What’s particularly lovely is the way the Barnes pairs artwork with furniture, architecture, and hardware. The website even incorporates this practice: collection.barnesfoundation.org

This Paul Klee is Gestalt because he is showing the village and the rocks as an incorporated whole.

We incorporate this mode of thinking into Rookery as well — we know home collections are not just about art objects, but about knick-knacks, and dresses, and table lamps.

Jessie Makinson, installation view in Lyles & King’s booth at The Armory Show, 2021.