Boy with Fish, 1954 bois d'arc 63 x 14  x 13 inches	Untitled ( Angel Trumpeters ) Maquette for church steeple copper 24  14 x 14 inches	Erda, 1972 terra cotta 28 x 20 x 18 inches

hen I was at UD in the mid 60s, I took 3-D Design from Mr Bartscht. Didn't learn much about making art -- my welding fell apart. Nothing I made seemed to work or stay together. But I learned a deep appreciation for things three dimensional, now my favorite form.

The campus had a few Bartscht pieces. A hollow, copper nun in the foyer of the library we used to make fun of. Only vaguely I remember others. So it was moving to see all these saints and real people I'd missed in my student haze, gathered amid the clutter of unrelated paintings at Valley House.

His were mostly traditional Catholic church statues with an elegant, modern, turn. Impressive, even to this decidedly ex-papist, and those Angel Trumpeters ( above ) have long haunted my memory -- simple, 3-D forms with indirectly implied joy.

Much later, I learned that Bartscht was instrumental in the creation of the Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art. -Story + Photographs ( except for Moses ) by JRCompton

Heri Bert Bartscht, 1964
goldleaf on basswood, 31 x 24 inches