Museum Exhibition Catalogues, Monographs, Artist's Projects, Curatorial Writings and Essays
"Bearden's work was also engaged with encounters of the more spiritual kind; conjure was the foundation of his creative process (whether or not this tradition was the particular subject of that work). As acts of conjure, each of his works operates as a conjunction, suturing together the seeming separated among people through sound, sight and touch." Sarah E. Lewis, excerpted from New Encounters in Idea to Realization.
Published by The Museum of Modern Art. Text by Esther Adler.
Romare Bearden’s (1911–88) Patchwork Quilt (1970) is a monumental collage that proves the artist’s mastery of his signature medium. Acquired by the Museum of Modern Art the year it was made, the work has become a landmark in Bearden’s career. But his path to creating it, to embracing collage, and to making work that addresses the specifics of Black life in America in ways that are both specific and broadly accessible, was a long one. Bearden’s early career is characterized by broad experimentation with materials and visual styles, as well as major life events that led away from a visual arts practice. In this latest volume of the MoMA One on One series, curator Esther Adler explores Bearden’s search for his artistic voice, illustrated by the breadth of different works in the museum’s collection. A close reading of Patchwork Quilt, its sources and materiality, further emphasize the artist’s unwavering commitment to both his art and community, a combination that has led to his centrality in mid-20th century art.
Published by DC Moore Gallery. Text by Sarah E. Lewis, Ralph Sessions.
One of the undisputed masters of American collage, Romare Bearden (1911-1988) once described collage-making as improvisation, likening it to the creative spontaneity of jazz and blues. Highlighting this approach, Idea to Realization features a rare group of works that blend paint, photographic images and abstracted cut-paper elements. Created as maquettes for murals, mosaics, book jackets and other projects, most of these works have never before been reproduced. The publication includes the striking maquette for “Pittsburgh Recollections,” a bold modernist panorama tracing the city's development that was realized in 1984 as the famed 60-foot-long mosaic of ceramic tiles in downtown Pittsburgh. Bearden frequently collaborated with fellow artists, writers, musicians and choreographers, creating artworks for books and designing book covers, posters, costumes and stage sets, and Idea to Realization also draws attention to the important role of collaboration in Bearden's practice.
PUBLISHER
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 9 x 11 in. / 30 pgs / 14 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 7/31/2011 Out of stock indefinitely
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2011 p. 72
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9780982631652TRADE List Price: $20.00 CAD $27.95 GBP £17.50
Published by Romare Bearden Foundation. Introduction by Pamela Ford. Text by Robert G. O'Meally, Kobena Mercer, et al.
Known for his rich, complex collage works that depict large-scale themes via African-American subjects, Romare Bearden (1911-1988) drew inspiration from myriad cultural influences--from historical and modern art to music and literature. According to The New York Times' Michael Kimmelman, "His genius, aside from his poetic knack for piecing scraps of photographs and other tiny tidbits together, was to see collage as an inherent social metaphor: that its essence was to turn nothings into something, making disparate elements cohere; that it was about mixing and adding, a positivist enterprise." Based on the 2007 National Bearden Symposium, this volume examines Bearden's relationships to modernism, postmodernism and the avant garde, through his wide-ranging interests and associations with artists, intellectuals and musicians of his era--including Duke Ellington, Ralph Ellison and Stuart Davis, to name a few--as well as his practices.
PUBLISHER Romare Bearden Foundation
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 8 x 11 in. / 134 pgs / 26 color / 9 bw.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 7/31/2010 Out of print
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2010 p. 96
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9780615202914TRADE List Price: $30.00 CAD $35.00
Published by DC Moore Gallery. Foreword by Bridget Moore. Text by Robert G. O'Meally.
Romare Bearden (1911-1988) had a true Renaissance sensibility. He was a fine artist who also successfully turned his hand to printmaking, writing, costume and set design, as well as composing jazz music. In addition, he helped to found the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York's Cinque Gallery and the Black Academy of Arts and Letters, and was once even offered an opportunity to play professional baseball for the Philadelphia Athletics. But it is for his rich and textured collages that Bearden is best known today. In 1977, Bearden created a sequence of 20 collages based on episodes from Homer's Odyssey. It may come as a surprise to even his most avid followers that this devoted chronicler of African American culture and the Harlem Renaissance would gravitate to such a canonical text. But in the essay accompanying Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey, scholar Robert G. O'Meally argues for their thematic consistency and suggests that, in the figures of Odysseus, Penelope, Poseidon, Nausicca and others, Bearden found themes sympathetic to the African American experience. These motifs of wandering, mourning and the questing for home--considering Bearden's scores of interiors and exteriors, country and city life and depictions of family love--emerge as the central themes of all his art. Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey, the first in-depth consideration of these collages since they were originally exhibited 30 years ago, will prove a surprise to Bearden fans and newcomers alike.
PUBLISHER
BOOK FORMAT Hardback, 10.5 x 11 in. / 116 pgs / 68 color / 3 bw.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 2/1/2008 Out of stock indefinitely
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2008 p. 33
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9780977496594TRADE List Price: $45.00 CAD $60.00 GBP £40.00
Romare Bearden: Idea to Realization
Romare Bearden in the Modernist Tradition
Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey