Richmond Barthè at the AWC

(Image from an exhibit at the A. W. Center)

Last Downtown Art Gallery Crawl was interesting as usual. For the first time I wasn't there visiting on my own. Special guests were with me and I had to slightly modify my usual route, changing the stops. I missed some too "strange", but I discovered others, much more meaningful. 

Thus, I entered the August Wilson Center and I discovered that they were hosting some exhibits. I just wanted to show the lobby and the common spaces, but once inside, we could visit the Richmond Barthè exhibition at the first floor. 

Simply amazing. This was my epiphany of the 7/13/2012 art gallery crawl. Never I had seen something like this, I'm still thrilled now after a week! The author was born in 1901 (Bay St. Louis, MS) and died in 1989 (Pasadena, CA). << He graduated from The Art Institute of Chicago in 1928, and then spent several months in New York, established a studio in Harlem, and eventually moved to NYC permanently in 1930. During the next two decades, he built his reputation as a sculptor. He is associated with the Harlem Renaissance. He won a Guggenheim fellowship twice and other awards. By 1934, his reputation was so well established that he was awarded his first solo show at the Caz Delbo Galleries in New York City. Barthé experienced success after success and was considered by writers and critics as one of the leading “moderns” of his time. Harlem was one of the three major centers of gay life in New York in 1930, and Barthé soon became integrated into Harlem's gay world. Throughout his career, many of his patrons and subjects were other gay men, and the exploration of both race and eroticism were central to his work.>> (Wikipedia)

The presentation was pretty small (and free! this is a good indicator of how much effort is put in art, in order to involve people. Also this is PGH) but there was plenty of sculptures, pictures and videos.

Again, I've never seen something like this. Suddenly, while looking at those statues, I remembered all the art lectures I attended at the University, all those about classical sculptures. Just like those in the Hellenistic period, for example. The iconography is different from the classical one, but the mind naturally recollects the images of Scopas, Lysippos and Praxiteles. Still there is something different, sincerely new and not classical. 

The position of the sculpted characters is not Western nor Oriental. It's a different way to portrait the body, with weird lines of strength (weird only if you try to apply the classic (and Wester - or European) canons. The body doesn't follow the gravity and there is no interest in a vertical movement. Though, the human body is strongly linked to the Earth, but develops according to horizontal planes. The line is not enough to comprise the energy flowing from the statues. If you try to design a line along the bodies, you'll end with circles or bizarre tangles. 

You need a surface (plane or curved) to catch this flow of culture, tradition and humanity summarized in each statue. 

Even the portraits of heads (also those representing Christ or Madonnas) are evidently not Western, nor European. I'd probably have to say they are Afro-American, maybe. But this kind of iconography is pretty amazing and new. I've never seen other examples such powerful and clear in the way they express life. And what a life...

Confrontation between Barthè and a Greek-Roman statue

Lysippo, on the left, and Barthè on the right.

 Graduating in Chicago, from the Art Institute, he likely studied the bases of the sculpture from its origins, getting in "touch" with the Masters from Europe and the classic tradition. Then, the way he used the lessons learned, applying those to his personal experiences and approach to the world and to the society, is really worth seeing - in person.
Until September 15, 2012


The Gallery crawl, anyway, wasn't only that wonderful exhibition... There was plenty of interesting stuff (please note: I'm saying stuff - interesting but "stuff", compared to R. Barthè's work).


Here some pics from the Wood Street Galleries. Playing with light, shadows, a spoon and some plastic bottles. A simple engine moves light and spoon in order to change the direction and proximity of the light source.

 

 Playing with light, again moving... turbine of lights, revolving at high speed for different effects (on the visitor!!)

 Jerry Irwin at Space Gallery.

And then all the other spaces along Penn Avenue...
I mean, I don't have to make a detailed map of all the galleries. The event is the street itself, something you can easily do with no special guide or gps. It's chaotic but self explaining. If you get lost, keep following the people.
For one afternoon a month, the city becomes a puzzle made of layers, or a book with pages in trace paper; each layer is much or less detailed and dense of things. All the page dialogue each other, mixing the information.
You just have to turn over the pages and create your own story.