Romare Bearden (September 2, 1911 - March 12, 1988) is an African-American artist. He works with many types of media including cartoons, oil, and collages. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, educated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Bearden moved to New York City after high school and went on to graduate from NYU in 1935. He began his artistic career by creating scenes from South America. Later, he tried to express the humanity he felt lacking in the world after his experience in the US Army during World War II on the European front. He then returned to Paris in 1950 and studied the History of Art and Philosophy at the Sorbonne in 1950.
Bearden's early work focused on unity and cooperation within the African-American community. After a period during the 1950s when he painted more abstractly, this theme reappeared in the 1960s collage work, when Bearden became a founding member of the Harlem-based art group known as Spiral, formed to discuss the African-American Artist's responsibility in the struggle for civil rights.
Bearden is a writer or co-author of several books, and is a songwriter who co-wrote the classic jazz "Sea Breeze", recorded by Billy Eckstine, a former high school classmate at Peabody High School, and Dizzy Gillespie. His lifetime support for the emerging young artists took him and his wife to create the Bearden Foundation to support young and newcomers. In 1987, Bearden was awarded the National Medal of Arts. His work is in the lead collage of the New York Times to portray Bearden as "the nation's leading collagist" in his 1988 obituary.
Video Romare Bearden
Education
Bearden was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Bearden family moved him to New York City as a toddler, and their home soon became a meeting place for the great Harlem Renaissance figures. His mother, Bessye Bearden, plays an active role with the New York City Board of Education, and also serves as the founder and president of the Colorful Women's Democracy League. Bessye Bearden is also a New York correspondent for The Chicago Defender , an African-American newspaper. Young Romare Bearden travels frequently, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and visits family members in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In 1929 he graduated from Peabody High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He then enrolled at Lincoln University, the first South University University and University of the United States founded in 1854. He then moved to Boston University where he served as art director for Beanpot, a Boston University student humor magazine. Bearden continued his studies at New York University (NYU), where he began to focus more on his art and less on athletics, and became a major cartoonist and arts editor for the monthly journal of the Society of Euclean Society, Medley . Bearden studied art, education, science and mathematics, graduated with a degree in science and education in 1935. He continued his artistic studies under the German artist George Grosz in the Art Students League in 1936 and 1937. During this period he supported himself as a politician cartoonist for African-American newspapers, including Baltimore Afro-American, where he made weekly cartoons from 1935 to 1937.
During his career, Bearden received the following honorary doctorates: Pratt Institute, New York, 1973; Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, 1975; Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore, 1976; North Carolina Central College University, Durham, 1977; and Davidson College, North Carolina, 1978.
Maps Romare Bearden
Careers as an artist
Bearden grew up as an artist not by learning how to create new techniques and media, but with the experience of his life. His early paintings were often a scene in South America, and his style was heavily influenced by Mexican muralists, especially Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. In 1935, Bearden became a caseworker for the Harlem office in the New York City Department of Social Services. Throughout his career as an artist, Bearden worked as a case worker to supplement his income. During World War II, Bearden joined the United States Army, serving from 1942 to 1945. After serving in the army, Bearden joined the Samuel Kootz Gallery, an avant-garde commercial gallery in New York, where he produced paintings in "a expressionistic, linear, semi-abstract style. "He would return to Europe in 1950 to study philosophy with Gaston Bachelard and art history at the Sorbonne under the auspices of GI Bill. Bearden then traveled throughout Europe to visit Picasso and other artists.
This completely changed his art style when he began to produce an abstract representation of what he regarded as human; special scene from Passion of the Christ. He has evolved from what Edward Alden Jewell, a reviewer for the New York Times, called "a debilitating focus on regionalist and ethnic concerns" for what is known as a stylistic approach that participates in the post-war American art goals avant-garde. His works are exhibited in Samuel M. Kootz's gallery until his work is considered not abstract enough.
However, during his success in the gallery, he produced Golgotha, a painting of the Passion of the Christ series (see Figure 1). Golgotha ​​is an abstract representation of the Crucifixion. The eyes of the performers are drawn into the middle of the first image, where Bearden has made the body of Christ. The body parts are distilled into an abstract geometric shape, but still too realistic to be abstract concretely; this work has the feel of early cubism. The body is in a central position and yet in stark contrast to the crowd highlighted. Crowds of people on the left and right, and packed in a large scope of bright purple and indigo colors. The background of the painting is depicted in lighter gem tones dissected in linear black ink. Bearden uses these colors and contrasts due to the abstract influence of time, but also to their meaning.
Bearden intended not to focus on Christ but he wanted to imitate the emotions and actions of the crowds that gathered around the Crucifixion. He worked hard to "portray myths in an attempt to convey universal human values ​​and reactions". According to Bearden himself, the life, death, and resurrection of Christ are the greatest expression of human humanism, not because of the real existence of Christ but the idea of ​​him living from others. This is why Bearden focuses on the body of Christ first, to illustrate the mythical idea, and then to highlight the crowd, to show how the idea is passed on to men.
Although it seems that Bearden emphasizes the biblical interpretation of Christ and the Crucifixion, he actually focuses on spiritual intentions. He wanted to show ideas of humanism and thought that the eye could not see, but "must be digested by the mind". This corresponds to the time he produced this image, like other famous artists who made significant avant-garde avant-garde representations of historical events, such as Robert Motherwell's warning about the Spanish Civil War, Jackson Pollock's investigation of Northwest Coast Indian art Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman's about Bible stories, etc. Bearden uses this art form to describe mankind over a period of time when he does not see human existence through war. However, Bearden stands out from this other artist because his works, including Golgotha, are a bit too realistic for the moment, and he was expelled from Sam Kootz's gallery.
Bearden turned to music, wrote the hit song Sea Breeze , recorded by Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie; this is still considered a classic jazz. In 1954, at the age of 42, he married Nanette Bearden, a 27-year-old dancer who became an artist and critic. The couple eventually created the Bearden Foundation to help young artists.
In the late 1950s, Bearden's work became more abstract, using layers of oil paint to produce hidden effects. In 1956, Bearden began to study with a Chinese calligrapher, whom he called by introducing him to new ideas about space and composition in painting. He also spent much time studying the famous European paintings he admired, especially the works of Dutch artists Johannes Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch, and Rembrandt. He began exhibiting again in 1960. Around that time the couple established a second home on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten. In 1961, Bearden joined Cordier and Ekstrom Gallery in New York City, who would represent him for the rest of his career.
In the early 1960s in Harlem, Bearden was a founding member of an art group known as Spiral formed "for the purpose of discussing the commitment of Negro artists in this struggle for civil liberties, and as a discussion group to consider general aesthetics problems." The first meeting was held in the studio Bearden on July 5, 1963 and attended by Bearden, Hale Woodruff, Charles Alston, Norman Lewis, and James Yeargans, Felrath Hines, Richard Mayhew, and William Pritchard. Woodruff is responsible for naming the Spiral group which suggests the way in which Archimedes spirals rise upward as a symbol of progress. Over time the group expanded to include Merton Simpson, Emma Amos, Reginald Gammon, Alvin Hollingsworth, Calvin Douglas, Perry Ferguson, William Majors, and Earle Miller. Group styles range from Abstract Expressionist to social protest painters.
Bearden collage work began in 1963 or 1964. Bearden made a collage by first combining cut images from magazines and colored papers, which would often be changed with the use of sandpaper, bleach, graphite or paint. Bearden will then enlarge this collage through the photostat process. Building on the momentum of the successful exhibition of his photostat pieces at Cordier and Ekstrom Gallery in 1964, Bearden was invited to perform a solo exhibition at Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., which enhanced his public profile. Bearden's collage technique changed over the years and in the future, he would use blown photostat photos, silk-screened papers, colored paper, and billboard pieces to create a large collage on canvas and fiberboard.
In 1971, the Museum of Modern Art held a retrospective exhibition by Bearden.
Initial work
His early work demonstrated the importance of African-American unity and cooperation. For example, The Visitation implies the importance of black community collaboration by describing the intimacy between two black women holding hands. However, not only because of the message conveyed, but also the Bearden vernacular realism represented in the work of making The Visitation worthy of attention; Bearden describes the two figures in The Visitation realistically but does not completely follow pure realism by distorting and exaggerating some parts of their bodies to "convey a feeling of subjective experience or disposition." Bearden's quote also shows his supportive view of vernacular realism: "Negro artists [...] should not be satisfied just by recording a scene as a machine, he must enter wholeheartedly into the situation he wants to convey."
In 1942, Bearden produced the Factory Workers (gouache on a suitcase on brown kraft paper mounted on the board), commissioned by Forbes magazine to accompany the article titled The Negro's War . The article "examines the social and financial costs of racial discrimination during wartime and advocates for full integration of the American workplace." Factory Workers and their companions Folk Musicians serve as a prime example of Mexican mural influences played in Bearden's early work.
Collage
Bearden has struggled with two artistic sides of himself: his background as "a student of literature and artistic tradition, and being a black man involves a very real, figurative and concrete experience", which is battling with the mid-twentieth century "exploration of abstraction". His frustration with abstraction prevailed, as he himself described the focus of his painting as coming to the plateau. Bearden then turned into a completely different medium at a very important time for the country.
During the 1960 civil rights movement, Bearden began experimenting again, this time with a collage form. After helping to find a group of artists to support civil rights, Bearden's work became more representative and more socially conscious. He uses clippings from magazines, which in itself is a new medium because glossy magazines are quite new. He uses these glossy pieces to incorporate modernity in his works, trying to show how not only African-American rights are moving forward, but also the conscious social arts. In 1964, he held an exhibition which he called Projection , in which he introduced his new collage style. These works are very well received, and this is generally regarded as his best work.
There have been many Bearden museum exhibitions since then, including a 1971 show at the Museum of Modern Art entitled Prevalence of Ritual , a very valuable printout exhibit titled A Graphic Odyssey showing works of the last fifteen years of his life, and the 2005 National Gallery of Retrospective Art entitled The Art of Romare Bearden . In 2011, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery showcased the second show of the artist's work, Romare Bearden (1911-1988): Collage, Hundred Years Celebration, the intimate grouping of 21 collages produced between 1964 and 1983.
One of the most famous series, Ritual Prevalence , mostly concentrated on South African-American life. He uses this collage to show his rejection of the Harmon Foundation (a New York City art organization) that emphasizes the idea that African-Americans should reproduce their culture in their art. Bearden finds this to be a burden for African artists, as he sees this idea creating an emphasis on reproducing something that already exists in the world. He used this new series to speak out against this restriction on Black artists, and to emphasize modern art.
In this series, one section titled Baptism . Bearden is influenced by Francisco de ZurbarÃÆ'¡n, and is based on the Baptism on the ZurbarÃÆ'¡n The Virgin Protectress of the Carthusians. Bearden wanted to show how the water to be poured on a baptized subject always moves, giving it a whole collage of flavors and a sense of temporal flux. This is a direct connection with the fact that the rights of African-Americans are constantly changing, and the society itself is in a stream of time when it creates this image. Bearden wanted to show how nothing was corrected, and represented this idea throughout the picture: not only were subjects who were baptized to have water poured from above, but the subject would also be immersed in water. Every aspect of the collage moves and will never be the same more than once, which is in harmony with society at that time.
In "The Art of Romare Bearden", Ruth Fine describes her themes as "universal". "A man who reads a lot of his friends are artists, writers, poets, and other jazz musicians, Bearden mine their world and also his own for various topics to explore.He takes his picture of the daily rituals of African American rural life in the south and urban life in the north, combining American experience with personal experience and with the literary themes of religion, myth, music, and everyday human rituals. "
A mural by Romare Bearden at the Gateway Center subway station in Pittsburgh is worth $ 15 million, more expensive than a cash-strapped transit agency, which raises the question of how it should be treated once it is removed before the station is destroyed. "We do not expect that much," said Port Authority of Allegheny County spokesman Judi McNeil. "We do not have the tools to be caretakers of such precious objects." That would cost more than $ 100,000 per year to ensure a 60-foot plot mural of 13 feet, McNeil said. Bearden paid $ 90,000 for the project, entitled "Pittsburgh Recollections." It was installed in 1984.
Before his death, Bearden claimed his collection pieces helped him deliver the past into the present: "When I bring these memories, they are present for me, because after all, the artist is a kind of charm in time."
The Return of Odysseus, one of his collectors working at the Art Institute of Chicago, exemplifies Bearden's efforts to actively represent African-American rights in the form of collages. This collage illustrates one scene in the epic Homer Odyssey, in which the hero Odysseus returns home from his long journey. When a person first sees a collage, the focal point that first catches the eye is the main figure, Odysseus, which lies in the middle of the work that reaches his wife's hand. However, if we look closely at Odysseus, he will wonder why Odysseus and his wife, as well as all other figures in the collage, are portrayed as blacks, because according to the original story, Odysseus is the king of Greece.. This is one way in which Bearden actively seeks in his collection to work to represent African-American rights; by replacing the white character with black leather, he tries to defeat the rigidity of racial and stereotyped roles and unlock the possibilities and potential of blacks. In addition, the original epic describes Odysseus as a powerful character that has overcome many difficulties, and thus "Bearden may have seen Odysseus as a strong mental model for the African-American community, which has endured its own misfortune and decline." Therefore, by depicting Odysseus as black, Bearden maximizes the effect of a potential black audience empathizing to Odysseus.
One might wonder why Bearden chose the collage technique to support the Civil Rights Movement and assert African-American rights. The reason he uses this technique is because "he feels that art describes the life of African Americans not giving full value to the individual. [...] Thus he is able to combine abstract art with real images so that people from different cultures can understand the subject "This is why the theme always exemplifies the colored people." In addition, collage techniques collect sections to create an assembled work "symbolizing uniting tradition and community."
Legacy
Romare Bearden died in New York City on March 12, 1988 because of complications from bone cancer. In their obituary for him, the New York Times called Bearden "one of America's leading artists" and "the nation's leading colloquy."
Two years after his death, The Romare Bearden Foundation was founded. This nonprofit organization not only serves as the official Bearden Estate, but also helps "to preserve and preserve the legacy of this famous American artist." Recently, they have begun developing grant programs aimed at financing and supporting young, emerging (young emerging) children, artists and intellectuals.
In Charlotte, Romare Bearden has a street named after him, cutting West Boulevard, on the west side of town. On the site, Romare Bearden Drive is surrounded by the West Boulevard Public Library branch and a row of townhouses.
Also in Charlotte at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Main Library (310 N. Tryon Street), right inside the door is one of the strongest mosaic treasures in the region - "Before Dawn". After the death of Bearden, his widow chose a collage of 12 "x 18" to be recreated in a smalti (glass tile) by Mosvatto Mosaics in Spilimbergo, Italy, for the Grand Reopening Gala (18 June 1989) from the 'new' library. He is publicly respected in a ceremony for his contribution and gladly receives much praise from the city's appreciation. The masterpiece is 9 meters wide and 13.5 feet wide.
Ground breaking for Romare Bearden Park in Charlotte, takes place at 9 am on September 2, 2011 and the park finishes open in late August 2013. It is located in a 5.2-acre package located in the Third Ward between Church and Mint Streets and Martin Luther King Boulevard and 4th Street. At one point in his childhood, the artist lived near a new park at the corner of MLK Boulevard and Graham Street. The design of the park is based on the work of public artist Norie Sato. His concept was inspired by Bearden's multimedia collage where he used his memories, experiences, and traditions as the basis for his work.
DC Moore Gallery currently represents the Estate of Romare Bearden. The first exhibition of his works in the gallery was in September 2008. In 2014-2015, Columbia University hosts a major Smithsonian Institution travel exhibition of Bearden's works and a series of lectures, readings, performances, and other events celebrating the artist. On display at the Miriam Gallery and Ira D. Wallach on the Columbia Morningside campus, as well as at Columbia's Global Center in Paris and Istanbul, "Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey" focuses on Bearden's collage cycle and watercolors completed in 1977 based on Homer's epic poetry , The Odyssey, about the ten-year trip Odysseus came home to Ithaca after the fall of Troy.
In 2017, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond announced the acquisition of the Romare Bearden collage "Three People's Musicians" as part of the museum's permanent collection. Collages showing two guitar players and banjo players are often quoted in art history books and will be shown at VMFA for the first time in February at the Mid to Late 20th Century Galleries museum.
Works published
Romare Bearden is the author of:
- Lil Dan, Drummer's Son , New York: Simon & amp; Schuster, 2003
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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