COVER: Richmond Barthé / Sculpture Review / Spring 2011

Richmond Barthé’s 1959 bronze masterpiece The Awakening of Africa graces the cover of the spring 2011 issue of Sculpture Review magazine. The edition is dedicated entirely to African American Sculpture and provides an excellent overview of key African American figurative sculptors.

The articles included are:

·         “Young, Gifted, and Black Between the Wars - Richmond Barthé’s Manhattan Years” by Margaret Rose Vendryes (author of Barthé: A Life in Sculpture) which bears witness to the artist’s life and work during the years 1929 to 1949.

·         “Sculpting a Lineage - Elizabeth Catlett and African American Women Sculptors” by Melanie Anne Herzog (author of Elizabeth Catlett: An American Artist in Mexico) which centers primarily on Catlett but also covers artists Edmonia Lewis, Augusta Savage, and Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller.

·         “Four African American Sculptors - A Vision for Today” by Jodie A. Schull which touches on the artistic achievements of Sargent Johnson, Richard Blake, Ed Dwight, and Ed Hamilton.

Sculpture Review is a publication of the National Sculpture Society.

Read Sculpture Review online

MEMPHIS: Richmond Barthé: Harlem Renaissance Sculptor / October 3, 2010 - January 2, 2011



Stevedore, bronze, 1937



Birth of the Spirituals, bronze, 1941

Born in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, Richmond Barthé  (1901-1989) grew up looking to art as a means of escape from the stringent circumstances in which he was raised. Though he showed a talent for drawing at an early age, his race kept him from enrollment to art school in the South. Sponsored by a Catholic priest, Barthé was admitted to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1924, where he blossomed as an artist and developed skill in his preferred medium, bronze sculpture.

Josephine Baker, bronze, 1950



In 1928, Barthé moved to New York, established a studio in Harlem and became a major name in the Harlem Renaissance. Over the next few decades he rose to greater prominence creating intensely emotive large and small scale bronze sculptures that spoke of his ethnic pride and appreciation for the beauty of the human form. As Barthé's biographer Samella Lewis describes, "Barthé dedicated his life to art, creating timeless treasures in which poise, dignity, intelligence and aesthetic sensibility are reflected." Richmond Barthé: Harlem Renaissance Sculptor takes a long overdue look at the artist's extraordinary career with over 25 of his most important sculptures.

Two recently published monographs give further insight (and appreciation) into the artist's life and work: Barthe: His Life in Art by Samella Lewis and  Barthé: A Life in Sculpture by Margaret Rose Vendryes.

Organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA

Exhibition Sponsors: Hyde Family Foundations, Rose M. Johnston, and Chris and Dan Richards

Location:
Dixon Gallery and Gardens
4339 Park Ave
Memphis, TN