Sculptor R. Barthe, 88; Depicted Actors, Activists

Richmond Barthe, a sculptor best known for his realistic depictions of actors, black activists and mythical characters, has died at his Pasadena home at age 88, it was learned this week.

Barthe, a familiar figure in New York and Los Angeles, had numerous public sculptures on both coasts. He worked in marble, bronze and plaster and his output ranged from depictions of artist Henry O. Tanner to “The Awakening of Africa,” in which a muscular male nude pulls himself off the ground.

Born in New Orleans to Creole parents, Barthe, who died March 6, began painting at age 6 and had his first exhibition at 12. He studied where he could (Southern art schools would not accept black students then) until a Catholic priest sent him to the Chicago Art Institute, where he studied painting and anatomy, but never sculpture.

He took drama classes to lose his thick Southern drawl but also found in the theater a source of images.

In fact, he told The Times in 1979 that he considered himself an actor. “I must be the person I’m making in order to sculpt him. If I can feel what I want the art to convey, you will feel it too.”

His theatrical busts came to include Sir John Gielgud, Katharine Cornell, Maurice Evans and Gypsy Rose Lee.

His other subjects ranged from farmers to children to Hindu temple dancers. His public sculpture was equally varied--from an American eagle in front of the Social Security Building in Washington to a 40-foot equestrian statue of Jean Dessalines, leader of the 1804 revolution that wrested Haiti from Napoleon’s forces. That statue stands in Port-au-Prince.