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Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey
Romare Bearden (1911-1988) had a true Renaissance sensibility. He was a fine artist who also successfully turned his hand to printmaking, writing, costume and set design, as well as composing jazz music. In addition, he helped to found the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York's Cinque Gallery and the Black Academy of Arts and Letters, and was once even offered an opportunity to play professional baseball for the Philadelphia Athletics. But it is for his rich and textured collages that Bearden is best known today. In 1977, Bearden created a sequence of 20 collages based on episodes from Homer's Odyssey . It may come as a surprise to even his most avid followers that this devoted chronicler of African American culture and the Harlem Renaissance would gravitate to such a canonical text. But in the essay accompanying Romare A Black Odyssey , scholar Robert G. O'Meally argues for their thematic consistency and suggests that, in the figures of Odysseus, Penelope, Poseidon, Nausicca and others, Bearden found themes sympathetic to the African American experience. These motifs of wandering, mourning and the questing for home--considering Bearden's scores of interiors and exteriors, country and city life and depictions of family love--emerge as the central themes of all his art. Romare A Black Odyssey , the first in-depth consideration of these collages since they were originally exhibited 30 years ago, will prove a surprise to Bearden fans and newcomers alike.
- GenresArt
116 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2008
28 people want to read
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June 28, 2019
"A Picasso or a Miró will use Spanish background and culture—this is what they grew up with, it is a source of strength to them. But we must remember that people other than Spaniards can appreciate Goya, people other than Chinese can appreciate a Sung landscape, and people other than Negroes can appreciate a Benin bronze...An artist is an art lover who finds that in all the art that he sees, something is missing: to put there what he feels is missing becomes the center of his life's work." (Romare Bearden)
Between 1945 and 1948 the acclaimed African American artist Romare Bearden created four solo series of paintings based on written texts: The Passion of the Christ in the New Testament, the poem Lament for a Bullfighter by Federico Garcia Lorca, a series of poems by the 16th century French writer François Rabelais, and Homer's Iliad. He sought to visually illuminate the mythical figures represented in these works, and to give them a universal appeal and relevance to a society traumatized by war abroad and turmoil at home.
Three decades later, Bearden returned to this idea by creating a series of 20 collages based on his interpretation of the hero of The Odyssey as a black warrior/blues man who embarks on a long and trying search for home, overcoming numerous obstacles but bolstered by female lovers and mother figures who guide him to his ultimate destination, where his wife Penelope awaits him.
Bearden puts his own spin on the Greek epic, as he draws parallels with Ithaca and Harlem and with the quest of Odysseus and his men and slaves and freedmen who must navigate a migration to a place of acceptance and comfort, while many lose their way. In his view The Odyssey is a tale that that should be read and appreciated by all, and his series is an effort to extract Homer from the ivory towers of academia: "It's universal. So if a child in Benin or Louisiana...sees my paintings of Odysseus, he can understand the myth better."
In this companion catalog that was shown in several galleries and museums, including the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University, where I saw it, the exhibition's curator Robert G. O'Malley, the Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, significantly enhances the viewer's understanding and appreciation of Bearden's overall effort, in an essay at the beginning of the book, and in his subsequent interpretations of each collage, as a full page image of each work is paired with O'Meally's comments about it, and the artist. I gained a new appreciation for the series thanks to O'Meally's insight, and those who were unable to see this exhibition in person would have almost the same experience by reading this excellent catalog, which is a worthwhile addition to the written word about this essential artist.
Between 1945 and 1948 the acclaimed African American artist Romare Bearden created four solo series of paintings based on written texts: The Passion of the Christ in the New Testament, the poem Lament for a Bullfighter by Federico Garcia Lorca, a series of poems by the 16th century French writer François Rabelais, and Homer's Iliad. He sought to visually illuminate the mythical figures represented in these works, and to give them a universal appeal and relevance to a society traumatized by war abroad and turmoil at home.
Three decades later, Bearden returned to this idea by creating a series of 20 collages based on his interpretation of the hero of The Odyssey as a black warrior/blues man who embarks on a long and trying search for home, overcoming numerous obstacles but bolstered by female lovers and mother figures who guide him to his ultimate destination, where his wife Penelope awaits him.
Bearden puts his own spin on the Greek epic, as he draws parallels with Ithaca and Harlem and with the quest of Odysseus and his men and slaves and freedmen who must navigate a migration to a place of acceptance and comfort, while many lose their way. In his view The Odyssey is a tale that that should be read and appreciated by all, and his series is an effort to extract Homer from the ivory towers of academia: "It's universal. So if a child in Benin or Louisiana...sees my paintings of Odysseus, he can understand the myth better."
In this companion catalog that was shown in several galleries and museums, including the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University, where I saw it, the exhibition's curator Robert G. O'Malley, the Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, significantly enhances the viewer's understanding and appreciation of Bearden's overall effort, in an essay at the beginning of the book, and in his subsequent interpretations of each collage, as a full page image of each work is paired with O'Meally's comments about it, and the artist. I gained a new appreciation for the series thanks to O'Meally's insight, and those who were unable to see this exhibition in person would have almost the same experience by reading this excellent catalog, which is a worthwhile addition to the written word about this essential artist.
October 14, 2014
This exhibit was one of the most exciting that I have seen in years. The book is about as good as it gets - beautiful reproductions of ALL of the amazing works in the exhibit along with and informative text. His take on the Odyssey is original and while from a black cultural perspective it is one that anyone on life's journey can relate to.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews