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Metadata
Artist |
Bearden, Romare |
Object Name |
Work on Paper |
Title |
Queen of the Blue Sea |
Date |
1973 |
Medium |
Varnished fabric, paper collage, ink and acrylic on paper |
Dimensions |
23 x 17 in. (58.4 x 43.2 cm) |
Accession Number |
6103.0.0 |
Credit line |
Gift of Susan and Steven M. Jacobson |
About This Work |
Romare Bearden was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1912 and grew up in New York City. In the 1920s during the Harlem Renaissance, his parents' apartment became a gathering place for artists, writers, and intellectuals. Bearden moved to Pittsburgh and lived with his grandmother from 1925 to 1929. He graduated from New York University in 1935 and became a professional artist after meeting members of the Harlem Artists Guild. The following year he joined the 306 Group, an association of Black artists in Harlem. He also enrolled at the Art Students League and had his first one-person gallery show in New York in 1945. Bearden was interested in the relationship between painting and jazz and worked in different mediums, including watercolor and oil, and experimented with different techniques, such as collage and photomontage, creating non-representational works in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1963, he formed the group Spiral with other Black artists who were interested in civil rights, culture, and politics. During the 1970s and 1980s, in works like Queen of the Blue Sea, Bearden refined his style and continued to emphasize subjects derived from African American genre and myth. Aspects of Appearance: Portraits from the Permanent Collection in Context, 2024, exhibition label. |
Legal Status |
© 2022 Romare Bearden Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY |