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Bay native chipped way. into world art collections
By KAT BERGERON
STAFF WRITER
talented, sometimes forgotten native son of Bay St Louis sculpted his way to fame. In 1901 Richmond James Barthe was bom poor and black, but his hands chiseled out a niche in the white-dominated art world.
At his death March 6 in Pasadena, Calif., the 87-year-old sculptor left a legacy of bronze, plaster and stone scattered in collections worldwide. Saint Bernadette, African dancers, the face of a shoe-shine boy, Booker T. Washington, a life-sized Christ, Gypsy Rose Lee, Abraham Lincoln and dozens more became artistic challenges.
His pieces were among the first to capture the black-American soul. Instead of words, Barthe used a sculp-* tor?s knife to interpret the emotion and motion of life, whether his subjects where black or white.
?The race thing ? even growing up when situations could be heated ? didn?t seem to make a difference to him,? recalls his sister Louise Williams, who has remained in the Bay. "He?d say, ?You know it is all the whites that are helping me and buying my work.? ?
?Few Afro-American artists were more prolific or more accepted during the 1930s and 1940s than Richmond Barthe,? claims ?The First Black Masters ?artne -of Modernism," a widely accepted encyclopedic book that devotes five pages to Barthe.
"His figures of blacks at work and play have a strength and quiet dignity that must have captured the imagination of a black audience seeking to improve its image.? Barthe had lived in New York City, Jamaica, Venice
V.
MEMORIAL MASS
Who: Sculptor Richmond Barthe, a Bay St. Louis native, died March 6 in Pas-adena, Calif.
What: Public memorial Mass for Richmond Barthe. Homily will be by the Rev. Borgia Aubespln.
When: Today, 2 p.m., St. Rose de Lima Catholic Church, Necafse Avenue, Bay St. Louis.
On view: Photographs of his wor1< and some paintings and sculptures.
and Los Angeles. A seventh-grade dropout, he subsequently was awarded two honorary art doctorates, and he held Julius Ro-senwald and Guggenheim fellowships and numerous prestigious citations.
Yet some critics claim Barthe?s was a troubled life. His bouts to maintain mental and physical well-being and his inability to save for retirement took their toll, as they have with 60 many gifted men.
There was another Barthe: "Jimmy,? the quiet and easy talking young black from South Mississippi. Devoted to his family, he quit school to help his mother, and he continued to send money home after he moved away from the Coast in 1917.
?He never married,? recalls Mrs. Williams, who actu-
JOHN FITZHUGH/SUN HERALD PHOTOGRAPHER
Barthe?s bronze bust of Ms. Inez Labat.
ally is his half-sister. ?He?d laugh and say that we were family enough. He?d make special trips home to visit Mamma when she was alive.?
Mamma was Marie Roboteau, twice widowed and left struggling. When Barthe was just 3, his mother would sit him on the floor with a paper and pencil while she did
Please see SCULPTED, F-2