“Max Barrett started life as the wild boy of Penzance and ended as the wild man of sculpting.” – Annie Gurton, The Independent, June 1997

If there is one thing I love it is discovering something hidden in plain sight! The people, places and objects that have been forgotten or overlooked. That is not to say that Max Barrett’s sculptures are hidden exactly, just that they seem to go unnoticed by most people, including myself!

After spotting a huge granite sculpture beside a roundabout in Truro (something that I must have driven past hundreds of times before) I decided that I wanted to know more about it and who had made it. What I discovered was a fascinating and unexpected character. Max Barrett should be a well known name but he was fiercely independent and unorthodox artist – a man who never wore shoes, lived in a caravan for most of his life and refused to join any of the conventional artistic groups or committees in Cornwall. His career was also a relatively brief one, he didn’t discover his passion for sculpture until he was in his 30s and he died aged just 60, so as a consequence his notoriety has faded somewhat.

But Max Barrett left behind some truly beautiful work and a powerful, uncompromising reputation.

Wild Beginnings

Born in Penzance in May 1937, into a family with gypsy roots, Max seems to have bucked convention and society’s expectations from a young age. His father, Tommy Barrett, was a well-known boxer in Cornwall who took part in 141 professional fights between 1930 and 1946 and Max also fought as an amateur too. In April 1947, when he was just 10 years old ‘Maxie Barrett’ reportedly took part in some exhibition bouts in Penzance. Growing up he would go digging for lugworms, collecting cockles or flotsam on the beaches, all to sell to, and he seems to have run a little wild in and around the town, something he wrote about later in his life:

“I loved to go to Newlyn fish market when the trawlers were landing. The smells and bustle were heaven to me. There were big double doors, where pony and carts and lorries loaded. Inside the market, men gutted, iced and boxed all manner and colours of ugly and beautiful fish. The floor was covered with slime, water and fish, so that a boy could run and slide for ten feet or more, being careful not to get in the way, as the giant workmen were quick to belt you one.

On one memorable occasion, I went into the market and saw this huge Skate amongst the fish waiting to be gutted. I had my fishing line with me with a conger hook. I unobtrusively slipped my hook into the monster and casually skated out through the double doors. Once outside I hauled in the line and ran like hell with half the fish dragging on the road behind me. I could hear the men laughing as I went.

I didn`t look on it as stealing. It came to me as naturally as it did to the gulls. I think in those days people only took what they needed, be it fish, a few broccoli or rabbits.”

You can read the full article HERE

As a young man Max never seemed to be able to settle into a trade. He is said to have worked as a steeplejack, a steel erector, an engineer, a construction worker on the new M1 motorway and even joined the navy for a time. In January 1961 Max was working as a scrap metal dealer when he and his brother Ivor found themselves in a spot of bother. They were brought before the local magistrates accused of stealing a large quantity of cast iron beams from the roof of an old mine workings at Wheal Busy in Chacewater. The police had caught them ‘red handed’ at the mine, loading up Max’s lorry with the metal.

Max took full responsibility for the crime, saying that the brothers had picked up a load of scrap in Wadebridge that day and had just been passing when they saw what they thought was a derelict property, he said he realised now that “it had been wrong”. The mine had been closed since 1920 and was the property of the Honourable George Boscawen, Max pointed out that a notice should have been put up to that effect and wryly suggested:

“The building was all dilapidated, it might have had a good roof but if a child or an animal had fallen down a shaft they would not have claimed possession of it so quickly.”

It was a few years after this, in around 1972, that Max discovered sculpting. The story goes that he wandered into a gallery in St Ives and was mesmerised by what he saw. He would later say that the materials he worked with had a spirit of their own that spoke to him.

Stone & Wood

His first attempts were at whittling pieces of driftwood but he would go on to work in granite, marble, slate, sea coal, steel and alabaster. He had some bronze figures cast in a foundry in Hayle and even created sculptures by carving pieces of wood taken from derelict fishing boats at his old haunt in Newlyn harbour. He had found his calling, was passionate about his work and began to gain something of a following but Max never felt or wanted to be part of the orthodox artistic community in St Ives. He could be scathing about these organisations and committees that he saw as “promoting mediocrity”.

Despite this in 1982 Max Barrett was commissioned by the St Ives Festival Committee to produce a sculpture. What he produced was ‘Gentle Wave’, carved from an enormous piece of Delabole slate, that he worked on in the churchyard in St Ives.

After the exhibition the festival organisers advertised the sculpture for sale but I wasn’t able to establish whether it was actually sold. ‘Gentle Wave’ eventually made its way to Land’s End, where it can still be seen, tucked away between the modern buildings, though it is within sight of the sea.

While Max is said to have often expressed his anger and frustration at what he saw as the injustices of life, he was also very spiritual about the natural world, the Cornish land and seascape, and wanted to express those emotions in his art. He said that through each piece he was trying to “channel the beauty of life” and that “all my life . . . people have thrown stones at me. In anger, I threw them back, but not now. Now I pick up the stones and carve them.”

Throughout the 90s Max Barrett’s reputation grew in Cornwall and he began receiving glowing reviews in the local press. After a joint show at Newlyn Art Gallery in the summer of 1990 the Cornishman newspaper wrote:

“Max Barrett, whose reputation as one of Cornwall’s leading contemporary sculptors continues to soar, provides one of the best things in the show, a superb, see-through carved and polished mermaid in marble.”

On another occasion the same newspaper reported:

“He is a sculptor who dances with wood and sings with stone.”

In December 1993 Max gifted an 8ft tall wooden sculpture to the people of Hayle.

Entitled ‘In Praise of Fisherfolk’ it represents the figure of a girl holding a fish aloft. Carved from a single piece of pine it was erected on the edge of Penpol Creek and set in local stone. The mayor, Mr Rob Lello, received it on behalf of the town and for a while there was talk of a sculpture trail, with other artists contributing work to be placed along a walking route around Hayle but this was never realised.

In August 1992 Truro’s County Grammar School for Girls was demolished to make way for the new Sainsbury’s supermarket. Many were sad to see the fine old building go, so it was agreed with the developers that the granite facing stones from the school had to be incorporated into the design of the new building. Sainsbury’s used the granite to build the walls around the carpark (not sure that was what people had in mind . . .) and they also commissioned a sculpture from a local artist – Max Barrett.

Max created ‘Meeting Place’ from a single ten ton piece of granite that was erected when the store opened in July 1994. Seeming to echo Hepworth in its simple holed form, it also features what appears to be a mermaid wrapping herself around the stone.

Legacy

In December 1995 Max sold one of his sculptures to the musician, Elton John, for £15,000. Called ‘Five Semi-Quavers’ it was an alabaster work inspired by the Birdcatcher Papageno’s musical flourish in ‘The Magic Flute’. He apparently created it outside the Sainsbury’s store in Truro and it sold at auction at Christie’s in London.

Sadly however just a year later he was diagnosed with a terminal illness and knowing that his time was limited there was one more show and sale of his work in 1996 in Penzance.

Max Barrett died in June 1997 at his home near Trencrom Hill where he had lived for many years and filled a field with his sculptures. For such a strong character it is only fitting that he has the last word on his life and his work:

“Art is like food. It’s life. It’s a basic truth. Art reflects life, in all its moods. You have to trust your instincts and you’ll get it right. It might be a chord from a tune or a birdsong. You don’t need to know about it cerebrally, but you can still get it right. I try to work with things that have love in them and then get a song and dance out of them.”

Seeing Max Barrett’s work:

There are three pieces that I have found on public display outside in Cornwall (but if anyone knows of more please let me know!), they are:

‘Gentle Wave’ – this is at Land’s End – sadly it has been badly scratched with graffiti over the years, but this doesn’t detract too much from the gentle flowing lines and tactile smoothness of the surface.

‘In Praise of Fisherfolk’ – also known as ‘Girl with Fish’ – this one is still on the harbourside in Hayle but again very sadly it is showing some serious deterioration due to exposure to the elements.

‘Meeting Place’ – this is by far the largest work and can be seen beside the roundabout on Treyew Road near Sainsbury’s garage. There is a little enclosure that you can reach by hopping the traffic islands, or walking up from the station direction.

Further Reading:

Trencrom – A Fort with a View

Terence Coventry’s clifftop Sculpture Park – a hidden treasure on the Lizard

Neville Northey Burnard – Cornish Sculptor

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