Samella Lewis, nationally renowned artist and emerita professor of art at Scripps College, will speak on her recently published book, Barthé: His Life in Art, on April 21, noon, at Scripps College Malott Commons, as part of the Tuesday Noon Academy. The event is free and open to the public.
Part intimate biography, part stunning visualization through exquisite photographs of the sculptor’s art, Barthé: His Life in Art brings to life the monumentally powerful work of a complex genius, James Richmond Barthé. Professor Lewis will trace Barthé’s amazing life and brilliant career path from the rural south to the galvanizing Chicago, energizing New York, and finally to the more quiescent climes of Jamaica and Pasadena.
Written through the lens of an artist-colleague who was a confidant and close friend of many years, the book is the definitive study of this multi-talented sculptor, who conversed with nature and brought to full-blooded and passionate life both heroes and ordinary mortals who changed the world.
Born in 1901, Richmond Barthé is one of the most widely celebrated sculptors of the 1930s and 40s. Barthé was a talented child who, despite having less than a high school education and no formal artistic training, was admitted to the Art Institute of Chicago at age 18. He emerged from the Institute as one of the leading figures in bronze sculpture. His work centers on such themes as poverty, prejudice, and slavery and resonates with the collective experiences and history of African-Americans.
Samella Lewis is a towering iconic figure in American art, with an intellect as breathtaking as her staggering output of work. As an art historian, she has become an American treasure, demonstrating both depth and breadth in her understanding of the visual arts. As an artist, she has achieved and created works of stunning beauty and power in oils, watercolors, prints, and other mediums. Her work has been exhibited at the Getty Center, The Art Institute of Chicago, the New York Historical Society, Haus der Kirche, Germany, the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, among numerous other art institutions. She is the founder of the Los Angeles Museum of African American Art, and the International Review of African American Art. She has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, named a Distinguished Scholar, The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities; given a UNICEF visual arts award and six honorary doctorates, in addition to the one she earned at Ohio State University. She is the author of seven other publications. She continues to reside and work in Los Angeles.