Richmond Barthé

Sculptor

• Born: January 28, 1901
• Birthplace: Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
• Died: March 6, 1989
• Place of death: Pasadena, California

Barthé was one of the most important African American sculptors of the twentieth century. He is known for his talent in depicting the human form, particularly male forms. His work reflects his diverse background and captures a range and depth of experiences of African Americans during the pre- and post-World War II decades.

Early Life

James Richmond Barthé (bahr-TAY) was born to Clémente and Richmond Barthé on January 28, 1901. He was raised by his mother in Bay St. Louis, a small town on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Barthé’s family descended from Creoles whose ancestry combined African, French, and Native American lineage. Barthé was raised as a Roman Catholic, a religion that had a lifelong influence on his artwork. Barthé showed artistic talent from an early age; in his teens, his drawings were well known in his community.

Barthé received an important break at the age of fourteen. With the help of friends, he left home to work as a domestic servant for a wealthy family in New Orleans. Barthé spent the remainder of his teenage years in New Orleans, where, through connections with other teachers, he continued improving his artistic skills as a painter. Barthé subsequently made the decision in his early twenties to leave New Orleans and the South in order to formally study painting in the North.

Upon reaching his twenties, Barthé understood that his growth as an artist depended on his moving beyond the confines of New Orleans. He decided to emigrate to Chicago, where he would have access to professional art teachers as well as a world of connections and opportunities that had been unavailable to date. Once he relocated in Chicago, Barthé’s artistic talent flourished. While he had previously intended to become a painter, it was at this time that Barthé tried his hand at sculpture.

At the Art Institute of Chicago, Barthé studied under several important teachers. He worked in particular under the tutelage of Charles Schroeder, who became a key figure in the young artist’s career. Schroeder immediately recognized Barthé’s talent for sculpture, and he encouraged his pupil to show his work at local exhibits. Barthé also realized the quality of his sculptural pieces and put painting aside. In a short time, Barthé’s work became well known in the Chicago area, and he garnered the support of powerful patrons such as Frank Breckinridge and Julius Rosenwald.

During the 1920’s, New York was attracting talented African American artists and intellectuals to join what became known as the Harlem Renaissance. Through the financial help of his Chicago patrons, Barthé relocated to Harlem in 1929. This marked the beginning of Barthé’s New York period, during which he reached the apex of his artistic career and produced some of his finest sculptures. His style and subject matter drew upon his inherent talent, classical training, religious background, and experiences as an African American in the South as well as in Chicago and New York.

Life’s Work

Barthé’s work captures the dynamic and expressive range of the human body while incorporating sculptural styles from classical, Renaissance, and African art. Barthé adapted archetypes both ancient and modern into a style that conveys universal emotions as well as African American and homosexual experiences during the profound social and political changes of the twentieth century.

Among the many themes in Barthé’s work, dance constitutes a recurring motif. While visiting France in 1935, Barthé produced Feral Benga, a piece that captures the sensual and abstract beauty of African and European dance. Religious themes also appear in Barthé’s works, particularly in The Mother (1935). Adapted from Michaelangelo’s Pietà, The Mother transforms religious symbolism into a modern commentary on racial violence. In the sculpture, a mother gazes upward at the viewer while she leans over the body of her lynched son. The piece demonstrates Barthés mastery of classical form as well as his dismay at racial violence in the South.

The Great Depression brought about government involvement in the arts, and this resulted in Barthé being commissioned to do his first public piece, a frieze for the Harlem River Houses (1939). The frieze appears along a public wall in Harlem and celebrates the housing project, the first built by the federal government. In the frieze, Barthé mixes figures of African Americans who had contributed to the project’s success along with religious images of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt.

After World War II, Barthé sculpted one of his many masterpieces, Fallen Aviator. Completed in 1945, Fallen Aviator depicts a human figure with feathered wings attached to extended arms, reaching up toward the sky. The piece gives expression to ancient archetypes of flight, including the winged Icarus of Greek mythology, while also commemorating the African American servicemen who trained as pilots during World War II but never flew in combat. Over the next two years, Barthé produced two religious pieces, Mary (1945) and Come Unto Me (1947). Each of these pieces innovates in its lifelike depictions of Mary and Jesus and was perhaps intended to demonstrate Barthé’s solidarity with the Jewish people in the aftermath of the Holocaust.

In 1949, Barthé left his studio in New York to travel to Haiti and begin work on two statues for public display in that country’s capital. The first was a monument to Toussaint Louverture, completed in 1952 in commemoration of the Haitian military leader and national hero who brought independence to Haiti. The second commission was a monument to Jean-Jacques Dessalines, then the president of Haiti, dedicated in 1954. After completing the statues, he moved to the island of Jamaica and began working to revive his painting. His attempts, however, were not fruitful. Barthé began experiencing health problems and depression, likely because of the isolation on the island and the distance from his circle of friends and colleagues in New York.

Barthé returned to sculpture in 1959 and produced another masterpiece, Africa Awakening. In this piece, an African male figure rises symbolically from the ground, gazing intensely upward. The sculpture powerfully depicts the growing postcolonial consciousness of the time, particularly in Jamaica. During his residence in Jamaica, Barthé had difficulty earning a living, and in 1969 he left the island for Europe. After living briefly in Florence, Italy, he returned to the United States in 1975 and eventually settled in Pasadena, California, where he continued sculpting until his death in 1989.

Significance

Barthé’s sculptures demonstrate a rich synthesis of artistic styles as well as sensitivity to the aesthetic beauty of the human body. His work was pioneering and original, capturing the experience of African Americans living in a racially divided United States while also expressing universal and timeless elements of the human experience. Barthé will no doubt continue to influence generations of artists to come.

Bibliography

Langer, Cassandra. “The Mythical Realm of Richmond Barthé.” The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide 16, no. 4 (July/August, 2009): 41-42. Summarizes Barthé’s life and major sculptural works while also discussing how, during Barthé’s lifetime, the art world marginalized the homoerotic dimensions of his work.

Lewis, Samella. Barthé: His Life in Art. Los Angeles: Unity Works, 2009. In-depth biography of Barthé’s life and sculpture written by an art historian and longtime friend of the artist.

Vendryes, Margaret Rose. Barthé: A Life in Sculpture. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008. Well-researched biography of Barthé that includes insightful analysis of the sculptor’s works as well as an extensive bibliography.