BARRETT, Oliver O'Connor

1908 - 1987

Oliver O'Connor Barrett was born in Eltham, London on 17 January 1908, son of Frederick Cecil Barrett (25 January 1879-1974), an ironmonger, and his wife Edith Janet née Harper (1879-1929), who married at Colchester, Essex in 1903, Oliver was the elder brother of Roderic Barrett and they spent much of their time in Ipswich and Colchester. Connor, as he was known, studied at Fircroft College, Selly Oak, Birmingham but was mostly a self-taught as a sculptor and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1933 'Darkness' which he also exhibited at Birmingham Art Gallery in June the following year. He married at Letchworth, Hertfordshire in 1935, Joan Brenda Lee (15 October 1916-20 September 2000), daughter of Alice Maude Lee, and he exhibited at the Coventry and Warwickshire Society of Artists exhibition in May 1934 a wood sculpture 'Joan Brenda Barrett'. In 1939 he was living at 153 High Street, Henley-In-Arden, Warwickshire with his 23-year-old wife Joan Brenda and 3-year-old daughter Brenda Elizabeth and in January 1940 they emigrated to New York, U.S.A., where he exhibited at the New Orleans Art Center and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 1945-1948 and at Audubon Artists, New York in 1950. In New York Barrett taught as Instructor of Sculpture at the Cooper Union Art School and the Museum of Modern Art but moved around America living in New Orleans, Louisiana and Palm Beach, Florida amongst others. After 25 years in the U.S.A. in July 1965 he returned to the U.K. and in September of that year designed a 'children's continuum' at a Chelsea playground, and in 1975 he again exhibited at the Royal Academy from Colchester, Essex. Oliver O'Connor Barrett died at Ardudwy, Merionethshire in 1987. Joan Brenda Barrett died at Colchester in 2000 and their unmarried daughter Brenda Elizabeth at Ipswich on 6 January 2010. Connor Barrett was also a poet and music composer and was the author of a several books including 'Myself Emerging' (1980).

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 100 Icknield Way, Letchworth, Hertfordshire
1933 1587 Darkness - statue, carved wood
         1591 Prometheus Bound - model for a stone group, Thames House, Millbank
from 19-20 Maidenburgh Street, Colchester
1975 1290 Abraham, Isaac and the Angel - cedar sculpture

---

Works by This Artist