I have been a Romare Bearden fan for a while. He was actually born here in Charlotte though he doesn’t really claim it. He moved to Pittsburgh and then to NYC  for his adult life. We’ve got a nice park with his name on it and a street, I think.

A local gallery in town, The Jerald Melberg gallery has one of his collections. He’s fabulous. I completely dig his patchwork, abstract collage style. I had never seen this particular piece, though. All of his others depict some sort of social experience or tradition representative of his family’s customs and rituals. He has a style that draws you in, almost like you are a part of the experience as well. 

His patchwork of experiences are variable and seem well-suited for collage. He’s got a childhood in the south. He moved to Harlem, just in time for the Renaissance. He spent time with family friends Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, and painter Aaron Douglas. He would cut headlines out of Ebony and Jet, superimpose them on his pieces, bringing the “black experience” to the masses. 

This one is markedly different, but I love it just as well. 
He once said,  “The artist has to be something like a whale swimming with his mouth wide open, absorbing everything until he has what he really needs.”

c.2020 LTAWB

#art, #artist, #collage, #romarebearden, #harlemrenaissance, #coupdecoeur