NEU To Do: Looking Back on “Romare Bearden: Abstraction”

This week, the Neuberger Museum of Art looks back to a Fall 2017 exhibition celebrating the art and life of preeminent African-American artist Romare Bearden (1911-1988).

Though best known for the influential figurative collages he produced later in his career, prior to 2010 very little attention had been paid to the extraordinary abstractions—watercolors, mixed media collages, and stain paintings as small as under three inches high or as large as over six feet tall—that Bearden produced in the 1950s-60s.

During an inspirational meeting with Neuberger Museum director Tracy Fitzpatrick and members of the Romare Bearden Foundation team, the idea for Romare Bearden: Abstraction was born.  This exhibition became the first substantive and scholarly examination of Bearden’s “abstracting” and the roots of his later work.

Earlier this year, the DC Moore Gallery in New York City staged another installation of Bearden’s abstract work and invited Tracy Fitzpatrick to revisit the Abstraction journey with Diedra Harris-Kelley, Co-Director of The Romare Bearden Foundation, during an In Conversation artist talk.

Visit NEU To Do to listen in on their discussion, view works from the show, see installation images of the exhibition at both the Neuberger Museum of Art and the DC Moore Gallery, and learn more about the artist.

Image:  Romare Bearden (1911-1988)
Source: Romare Bearden Foundation