Romare Bearden in Black-and-White: Photomontage Projections, 1964
WCMA, Williamstown
November 28, 1998 - January 24, 1999
The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) is presenting "Romare Bearden in Black-and-White: Photomontage Projections, 1964," an exhibition organized and circulated by the Council for Creative Projects, Lee, Massachusetts and New York, New York. Twenty-four works which signal the artist's departure from pure abstraction and his subsequent progression to collage are shown.
In 1963, Romare Bearden (1914-1988) helped organize Spiral, a group of African American artists concerned with the social and political issues of the times. Particularly influenced by the Civil Rights Movement, Romare Bearden proposed that Spiral create a collaborative collage mural using an extensive picture file that he had assembled. When the group's interest in the project waned, Romare Bearden used the materials to create his own photomontage works which he then photographically enlarged and called "projections." The pieces reflect themes from his life--his childhood spent in the South and in Pittsburgh, biblical themes, jazz and blues music, and urban life in Harlem. This body of work from 1964, which has not been shown collectively in over 30 years, highlights these issues that Romare Bearden was to explore for the remainder of his long and successful career as an artist.
Romare Bearden once stated, "I think that the way to escape from reality is to get to the heart of it; confronting it, moving to the core is the only way." Accordingly, he chronicles events through his photomontage projections in a candid, unwavering manner suggestive of documentary photographs, while simultaneously instilling them with a sense of chaos and fragmented reality.
Some of these pieces were exhibited at WCMA in 1969. It was at that time that the museum purchased The Prevalence of Ritual- Baptism, which is included in the current show. Romare Bearden had a direct impact on the students at Williams College: not only did he present a lecture in 1969, but he also taught a Winter Study course on African American art in January of 1970.
An illustrated catalogue with essays by Gail Gelburd and Thelma Golden accompanies this exhibition.
WCMA - WILLIAMS COLLEGE MUSEUM OF ART
15 Lawrence Hall Drive, Ste 2, Williamstown, MA 01267
