Amon Carter print details

The Negro Looks Ahead

Richmond Barthé (1901-1989)

Object Details

  • Date

    1940, cast 1986

  • Object Type

    Sculptures

  • Medium

    Bronze on marble base

  • Contributors

    Cast by The Art Foundry

  • Dimensions

    16 x 10 x 10 in.

  • Edition

    10/10

  • Inscriptions

    signed, l.l.: Barthe 86 ©

  • Credit Line

    Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas

  • Accession Number

    2007.1

  • Copyright

    Status undetermined

Object Description

Racial discrimination prevented Barthé from receiving formal art training near his home in Louisiana, so in 1924 he moved to Chicago to enroll at the Art Institute there. After completing his studies, he left for New York City, where he joined the social world of the Harlem Renaissance—a flowering of Black art and literature rooted in the Great Migration of African Americans from the South during the early 20th century.

Barthé worked largely within the figurative conventions of classical sculpture, which he used to craft uplifting and dignifying portrayals of Black Americans. He explained that this particular sculpture was also meant to commemorate President Franklin D. Roosevelt. “I believed that the Negro advanced more under him than any other President since Lincoln,” he wrote, “so I did this piece of the Negro emerging out of his rough background with hope in the future.”

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023)

Additional details

Location: On view
W28-artist-CMYK-CarterBlack
See more by Richmond Barthé

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