“Art is always made from other art,” Romare Bearden once said, “and you just have to find your place.” Bearden continually reinvented his work over his six-decade career. He first gained acclaim in the 1940s for his figurative drawings and abstract paintings. In the 1960s he began making collages, a practice that he would continue to innovate through the end of his life.
Though as a younger man Bearden bristled at the expectation that his work should reflect his race and identity, he ultimately came to embrace the subject of Black American life. References to the experiences of Black communities across the United States can be found throughout his work. Thematic through lines include religious and spiritual practices, the movement and sounds of trains linked to the migration of millions of Black Americans from the South to the North, and musical traditions. This installation draws from MoMA’s holdings of Bearden’s work across mediums and includes archival materials from his 1971 retrospective exhibition at the Museum.
Organized by Esther Adler, Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, with Rachel Rosin, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints & Curatorial Affairs.
