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SCULPTOR
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?Stevedore. ?
And Barthe loved dance, a passion also evident in his work.
Hunt, the other sculptor featured in the exhibit, began working many years after Barthe and greatly admired his work. Hunt?s work, featuring'winged shapes and contorted circles, is more abstract than Barthe?s.
A Mississippi county fair was the site of Barthe?s first show, given when he was 12.
&fter he was denied admission into southern art schools because he was black, Barthe went north to study at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Originally a painter, he became involved with sculpture after casting two heads to improve three-dimen-sional aspects in his paintings. The work ended up in an art show, which led to his first commissioned work.
?What I?m interested in is the spiritual quality,? Barthe told Lewis, an art history professor at Scripps College in Claremont, Calif., who served as curator for the exhibit.
A videotape of some of her interviews with him is part of the display. "If J can feel what I want this figure to express, my hands will take care of themselves.?
Barthe's work can be found in collections in the United States, Jamaica, England and India. His public works and commissions included ?Green Pastures: The Walls of Jericho,? created for the Harlem River Housing Project, and the ??Toussaint L?Over-ture? monument for Haiti.
the exhibit has drawn a lot of visitors on weekends, said Valerie Smith-Madden, a spokeswoman for Anacos-tia'Museum, the branch of the Smithsonian devoted to African American history and culture.
"This is an African American museum, but these works transcend" one ethnic group, Smith-Madden said.
Barthe died in Pasadena, Calif., in 1989. Lewis said she was trying to "keep a promise to him? by staging the exhibit.
??He would have been so happy,? she said. ??But he believed in reincarnation, so he is very happy, really, very^happy.?