Armand J. Labbe, 60; Curator Helped Put Santa Ana’s Bowers Museum on the Map

Armand J. Labbe, the chief curator and director of research and collections at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Arts, has died. He was 60.

Officials at the Santa Ana museum said Tuesday that Labbe, whose scholarship in ancient and native cultures of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific Islands was manifested for 27 years in dozens of exhibitions, succumbed to cancer on April 2.

“He was a whirlwind of activity, with a very powerful desire to contribute. He woke the place up,” recalled Paul Apodaca, a Chapman University professor who worked alongside Labbe, first as an artist, then as a curator, from 1978 to 1995 and remained friendly with him until his death.

Apodaca credited Labbe’s drive with “revolutionizing” the Bowers, which went from “a quiet little local museum” before his arrival in 1978 to one that would put on three or four shows a year.

That pace “was just nuts,” Apodaca said, considering the small curatorial staff, which typically consisted of Labbe and one assistant -- and sometimes just Labbe alone. Apodaca said the stream of exhibitions that Labbe curated or helped plan earned new prestige for the museum and was vital in persuading the city of Santa Ana to invest in a $12-million renovation and expansion, completed in 1992.

“He was synonymous with the museum,” Bowers director Peter C. Keller said Tuesday, and was often its public face as a lecturer and discussion leader. “He was a fabulous speaker, a legend.”

In an age of specialization, Labbe stood out as someone who “was able to discuss a variety of world cultures in an enlightened and informed way,” said another former colleague, Janet Baker, now curator of Asian art at the Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona.

Labbe told The Times he wanted to illuminate how people from other places and times lived, and not just detail how they created artwork. Exhibitions, he said in 1992, should help viewers “get right under the skin of these cultures and see artwork as they would see it.”

Among the more than 30 shows for which Labbe was sole or principal curator was “Colombia Before Columbus” in 1986. His glossy book on the subject, issued by Rizzoli International, was one of many scholarly books and articles he published over the years.

“Colombia Before Columbus” was translated into Spanish and was honored by the Colombian government, which in 1988 issued a postage stamp inspired by an image from the book’s cover.

Labbe, who lived in Costa Mesa, was a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is survived by a brother and a sister. A memorial service is scheduled for 5 p.m. April 17 in the courtyard of the Bowers Museum, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana.