June 29, 2010
February 21, 2010
Richmond Barthe
James Richmond Barthé (January 28, 1901 – March 5, 1989) was an African American sculptor known for his many public works, including the Toussaint L’Ouverture Monument in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and a sculpture of Rose McClendon for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater House.
Barthe once said that “all my life I have be interested in trying to capture the spiritual quality I see and feel in people, and I feel that the human figure as God made it, is the best means of expressing this spirit in man.”
Richmond Barthé was born in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, (in January 1901). His father died at 22, when Richmond was only one month old, leaving his mother to raise him alone. Barthé spent his teen years in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Lyle Saxon of the Times Picayune newspaper, tried unsuccessfully against racist policy to get Barthé registered in art school in New Orleans. In 1924, with the aid of a Catholic priest, the Reverend Harry Kane, S.S.I, and with less than a high school education and no formal training in art, Barthé was admitted to the Art Institute of Chicago. During the next four years Barthé followed a curriculum structured for majors in painting. During his four years of study he worked as a busboy at a small café. His work caught the attention of Dr. Charles Maceo Thompson, a patron of the arts and supporter of many talented young black artists. Barthé was a flattering portrait painter, and Dr. Thompson helped him to secure many lucrative commissions from the city’s affluent black citizens.
January 5, 2010
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. September 30, 2009
Why would anyone object?
Some residents don’t appreciate being mooned by new artwork
By AMY HAMILTON/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
The town of Silt has become the butt of jokes in recent weeks all because a new sculpture at the town’s entrance depicts a rock climber’s bare bum.
After the sculpture’s unveiling in late August – a rendition of large rock decked with wildlife, a fly fisherman, a coal car and a cougar perched atop – it’s the backside of a nondescript human figure climbing its west flank that’s been in the national media spotlight.
Residents in the small town of about 2,500 are divided on whether the sculpture, commissioned by the city, in the town’s roundabout is too cheeky.
“I have friends in San Diego and Nevada, and they said they saw a story about Silt,” said Poke Stiers, who owns the shop Tim’s Tools, near the sculpture. “I said, ‘Was it about our roundabutt?’ “
Most drivers in the roundabout do not pay any attention to the bare-bottomed climber, but some exit 1-70 just to see the sculpture.
