John T. Scott | New Orleans sculptor, 67

John T. Scott, 67, a New Orleans sculptor whose vibrantly colored kinetic art filtered the spirit of the African diaspora through a modernist lens, died Saturday in Houston. He had been recovering from a double lung transplant.

Mr. Scott, who fled New Orleans just before Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, was raised in the city's Lower Ninth Ward. He said that his art training began at home, when he learned embroidery from his mother. He attended Xavier University in his hometown, then Michigan State University, where he studied with the painter Charles Pollock, Jackson Pollock's brother. After completing his master's in 1965, he returned to Xavier to teach.

Mr. Scott's earliest work drew on Christian imagery and classical mythology. But by the late 1960s, his sculpture and prints focused on African, African American, Caribbean and Southern Creole cultures, reflecting their fusion in New Orleans.

In 1992, Mr. Scott was awarded a genius grant from the MacArthur Foundation. He produced several monumental site-specific sculptures for New Orleans, among them Spiritgate (1994) for the entrance court to the New Orleans Museum of Art (see more from a retrospective of his work via http://go.philly.com/johnscott).

Asked in June whether he intended to return to the city after recovering from lung surgery, he said: "That's the only home I know. I want my bones to be buried there. . . . I need New Orleans more than New Orleans needs me."

- N.Y. Times News Service