Romare Bearden (American, 1911-1988)
Gathering, c. 1964
Collage on paperboard
Image: 8 3/8 x 5 5/8 in., Framed : 21 3/4 x 18 in.
Signed to lower right, “Romare Bearden”
Provenance
Acquired from Jerald Melberg Gallery in 1995
Private Collection, NC
Exhibition History
Charlotte, NC The Mint Museum of Art Charlotte's Own: Romare Bearden August 24-October 27, 2022
Charlotte, NC The Mint Museum of Art Romare Bearden: Southern Recollections September 2011 - January 2012; Tampa, FL, Tampa Museum of Art, January 2012- May 2012; Newark, NJ; Newark Museum of Art, May 2012 - August 2012.
Literary References:
Romare Bearden: Southern Recollections, Hanzal, Carla M., et al, pg. 66
1964 marked a turning point in Romare Bearden’s career as he debuted his first collages—what would become his most mature and defining medium—at the Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery in New York. Shifting from painting and drawing to cut and layered photographs, magazines, and painted paper, Bearden’s collages captured the fragmented yet cohesive nature of African American identity. Influenced by his involvement with the Spiral collective and the Civil Rights Movement, his work from this period explored the intersections of rural Southern roots, urban Harlem life, and African American mythology. The success of the exhibition established Bearden’s distinctive artistic voice and cemented collage as the foundation of his legacy.
