{"data":{"id":"8220","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":8220,"topgoose_id":2739,"tms_id":8220,"display_name":"Richmond Barthé","sort_name":"Barthé Richmond","display_date":"1901–1989","begin_date":"1901","end_date":"1989","biography":"\u003cp\u003eRichmond Barthé sculpted the human\nbody with a sensitivity to movement\nand expression, earning him acclaim during\nthe 1930s and 1940s. At age fourteen\nBarthé moved from Mississippi to New\nOrleans, where patrons encouraged him to\npursue the formal study of art. In 1924\nhe began studies at the Art Institute of\nChicago and started to work in sculpture,\nwhile also taking private lessons with\nthe painter \u003ca href=\"/artists/16503\"\u003eArchibald Motley Jr.\u003c/a\u003e Settling in\nNew York in 1930, Barthé quickly joined\nthe artistic and literary circles of the\nHarlem Renaissance. Along with fellow\nAfrican American sculptors Meta Fuller,\n\u003ca href=\"/artists/4456\"\u003eElizabeth Catlett\u003c/a\u003e, and Augusta Savage,\nhe used figuration and the classical\nsculptural tradition to depict aspects of\nblack American life and culture, drawing\nparticular inspiration from the worlds\nof music and dance.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBarthé’s plaster\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/1436\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eAfrican Dancer\u003c/em\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/a\u003epresents the tensed body of a woman in the midst of a dance; her head is thrown back and her eyes are closed in a gesture of absorption and, perhaps, spiritual transcendence. Following the aesthetic and political theories of Alain Locke, Barthé, like many black American artists, looked to Africa for subjects and symbols in his work, though with only a generic conception of African ritual and costume. \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/1436\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eAfrican\nDancer\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e was Barthé’s first female nude, though the muscular body seems somewhat ambiguously gendered; his sculpture most often treated the nude male and celebrated the masculine form, perhaps a tacit acknowledgment of the artist’s homosexuality. This quietly forceful sculpture expresses the abiding motivation of his work—“to capture the spiritual quality I see and feel in people.”\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":true,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500020064","wikidata_id":"Q3431473","created_at":"2017-08-30T17:34:43.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-13T07:05:19.073-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/8220/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/8220/exhibitions"}}}}