Lucy Dacus loves this Philly museum so much she began writing a song during one visit
It’s not the first time she’s mentioned the museum. And apparently she took a date there, too.
Indie singer-songwriter and former Philadelphian Lucy Dacus’ new album, Forever Is a Feeling was released Friday and as it turns out, there’s still some Philly influence kicking in.
On her media tour supporting Forever Is a Feeling, Dacus revealed that museums — particularly the Barnes Foundation — played a key role in her songwriting process.
Track five of the new album, “Modigliani,” is a song Dacus penned about missing her friend, boygenius bandmate Phoebe Bridgers. In an interview with People, Dacus said she started to write the song at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway museum.
“‘Modigliani,’ I wrote in the morning,” Dacus told People. “I went to a museum, the Barnes Foundation in Philly, where there are a bunch of Modiglianis, and I started writing the song there.”
Amedeo Modigliani was an Italian modernist painter and sculptor known for the elongated characters in his works. Barnes Foundation founder Albert Barnes was one of the earliest Modigliani collectors in the United States, according to the museum. The Barnes collection contains 16 paintings by the artist.
In 2022, the foundation hosted the “Modigliani Up Close” exhibit, which exhibited the artist’s works and, what Inquirer art critic Stephan Salisbury called, “their largely concealed ghostly underpaintings.” It was on the foundation’s behest that Haifa’s Hecht Museum ran Modigliani’s Nude with a Hat and Portrait of Maud Abrantès under an X-ray only to reveal multiple portraits and sketches underneath.
And while Dacus’ “Modigliani” isn’t literally about the artist, there is a wink in the lyrics to his signature style of faces.
“Modigliani melancholy got me long in the face,” Dacus sings. “But I feel better when you call.”
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Born in Richmond, Va., Dacus moved to Philadelphia in 2019 and quickly adopted it as her own.
She rang in the New Year in 2020 at Johnny Brenda’s, honed in on her perfect bagel order (whitefish on salt from Philly Style Bagels), and advocated for progressive political candidates over the years, including Helen Gym in the 2023 mayoral race.
And she appeared to frequent the Barnes Foundation, which made it onto her Instagram stories and grid posts over the years.
On the heels of success with Dacus’ supergroup boygenius, featuring Bridgers and Julien Baker (with whom Dacus only recently confirmed her long-rumored romantic relationship), Dacus left Philadelphia around 2023, moving in with Baker in Los Angeles.
Still, Philly’s effect remains palpable.
In an interview about Forever Is a Feeling with Rolling Stone, Dacus shouted out the Barnes Foundation again as a favorite museum — and revealed that she’s taken friends, and perhaps even a date, to the institution.
So, does this mean it’s safe to say Philadelphia played a role in Dacus and Baker’s love story? We’d like to think so.
Dacus was unavailable for comment due to her jam-packed media tour. She’ll be stopping in Philly twice this year: On April 16 at the Met Philadelphia in support of her new album and again at FDR Park for Make the World Better Concert Weekend on July 25.