American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists

This work will be included in the forthcoming Romare Bearden Digital Catalogue Raisonné, currently being prepared under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc.

Provenance:

The Artist.

Acquired directly from the above.

Private Collection, New York.

Lot Note:

Romare Bearden started experimenting with the collage medium in the 1960s and by the end of the decade, it had become ubiquitous in his practice. The early 1970s also coincided with significant recognition from the art world with several important exhibitions of his work. Concerned with the African American experience and the Civil Rights movement more broadly, Bearden sought to instill elements of ritual, spirituality and tradition into contemporary depictions of Black life.

The present work, portraying a nude woman accompanied by a dove, is an explicit reference to the Greco-Roman myth of Aphrodite/Venus. But the bird also signals a connection to the spiritual realm, evoking of the magic often associated with conjure women. The stark verticality of the work reinforces the ethereal feel of the composition, hinting at a beyond, or an escape toward the social justice African American artists like Romare Bearden championed through their art. Here, Bearden intertwines Western mythical traditions with ancestral and enduring African rituals to offer an allegorical glimpse at the rich, complex, and multiform experience of African Americans, a cultural palimpsest echoed by the thoughtful assembling of paint and paper at work in a collage.

Framed: 18 1/4 x 3 5/8 in.

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