Romare Bearden. Pardon Me - But Could You Direct Me to the Oceanic Dredging Company?

Romare Bearden

Pardon Me - But Could You Direct Me to the Oceanic Dredging Company?

1935

Ink, gouache, and pencil on paper

Not on view

In the 1930s Bearden began making cartoons to earn an income. He drew illustrations and penned texts for his college newspapers, as well as contributed drawings to well-known publications like The Crisis, The Afro American (Baltimore), and Collier’s, among others. While some of the cartoons were humorous, others were more critical in nature. Bearden recognized the democratic potential of the cartoon, a medium with the capacity to reach large audiences, and it allowed him to speak to the political, social, and racial injustices of the period.

Gallery label from

2024

Medium Ink, gouache, and pencil on paper
Dimensions 17 1/2 x 12 1/4" (44.5 x 31.2 cm)
Credit Gift of Mr. and Mrs. George Elcaness
Object number 427.1974
Department Drawings and Prints

Explore more

Licensing

Artwork or archival images

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA's collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

Audio and film clips

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit Circulating Film and Video Library.

Text from a publication or the archives

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA's archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].

Feedback

This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please fill out this feedback form.