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Max Schmeling Barrett (25 May 1937 - 15 June 1997) was a Cornish sculptor.

Early life
Barrett was born in Penzance in 1937. His father was Tommy Barrett, a Cornish boxer who was a welterweight champion of the West of England in the 1930s.

Before he took up sculpture in 1972, Barrett was a steeplejack, steel erector and amateur boxer. He had also trained as an engineer in the Royal Navy during his National Service, settling in Southampton for a period before returning to Penwith in the 1960s.

Career
Barrett took many local commissions. In the 1970s, he created Waves, a sculpture commissioned for the St Ives September Festival which he carved in the parish churchyard. In 1982, the St Ives September Festival again commissioned Barrett and he made Gentle Wave, a sculpture at Land's End. In 1993, Barrett donated a sea bird sculpture to Cornwall Council's art collection for schools to coincide with the collection's exhibition at the Royal Cornwall Museum from January to April 1994 in a show called From Great Beginnings. He also carved Meeting Place, a 10-ton 3-metre-tall granite sculpture, for Sainsbury's in Truro, which opened in July 1994; he was part of a two hour long BBC Radio Cornwall feature on the supermarket's opening.

Barrett rejected the orthodox artistic community and refused to work with organisations or committees which he thought "promoted mediocrity"; because of this, he often struggled financially. Barrett was friends with other artists in Penwith such as Ponckle, Sven Berlin,

Barrett's art has featured in several exhibitions including at the Belgrave St Ives, He was also part of the Inspiration in Stone exhibition at the Cornwall Geological Museum, Penzance. Barrett's last exhibition, Final Show of Work, was put on in 1996 at the Acorn Theatre, Penzance after Barrett discovered he was terminally ill. The exhibition was also a sale and Barrett accepted any reasonable offers for his work.

https://cornwallartists.org/cornwall-artists/max-schmeling-barrett https://issuu.com/belgravestives/docs/st_ives_2020_single_pages_revised https://artuk.org/discover/artists/barrett-max-19371997