In this ongoing series, we ask museum guards—who, after all, spend more time with art than almost anyone—to offer commentary on particular artworks in their institutions. For this installment, two guards from the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia share their takes on works by Horace Pippin and William Glackens.
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Guarded Opinions 7
Commentary by Joseph Klimczak Jr. and Fantasia Turner
“My favorite painting here is Christ and the Woman of Samaria by Horace Pippin. It is of Christ sitting outside at a well, and a Samaritan woman has come to get water, and they talk. Though Christ was still the perfect model of compassion, this was the first painting I’d ever seen where Jesus looks like a person of color: the Jesus I’d seen growing up was always white. And look at the other colors in the painting! Jesus is wearing white and bright purple, the sky is these beautiful shades of pink, and the trees are black in the background. I can imagine myself at the well there with my homeboy Jesus.”—Fantasia Turner
Joseph Klimczak Jr. is a guard at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.
Born and raised in North Philadelphia, Fantasia Turner works as a guard at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.
Paul VanDeCarr is a writer, editor, and trainer for UN agencies and other leading NGOs. He received his M.P.A. from Harvard Kennedy School. He lives and works in New York City.