Bibliograph

An American odyssey, the life and work of Romare Bearden, Mary Schmidt Campbell

Type

Label

An American odyssey, the life and work of Romare Bearden, Mary Schmidt Campbell

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

resource.biographical

individual biography

Illustrations

platesillustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

An American odyssey

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1019838112

Responsibility statement

Mary Schmidt Campbell

Sub title

the life and work of Romare Bearden

Summary

"One of the most important and underappreciated visual artists of the twentieth century, Romare Bearden started as a cartoonist during his college years and emerged as a painter during the 1930s, at the tail end of the Harlem Renaissance and in time to be part of a significant community of black artists supported by the WPA. Though light-skinned and able to 'pass,' Bearden embraced his African heritage, choosing to paint social realist canvases of African-American life. After World War II, he became one of a handful of black artists to exhibit in a private gallery--the commercial outlet that would form the core of the American art world's post-war marketplace. Rejecting Abstract Expressionism, he lived briefly in Paris. After he suffered a nervous breakdown, Bearden returned to New York, turning to painting just as the civil rights movement was gaining ground with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education and the Montgomery bus boycott. By the time of the March on Washington in 1963, Bearden had begun to experiment with collage--or Projection, as he called it--the medium for which he would ultimately become famous. In this biography, Mary Schmidt Campbell offers readers an analysis of Bearden's influences and the thematic focus of his mature work. Bearden's work provides a portrait of memory and the African American past; according to Campbell, it also offers a record of the narrative impact of visual imagery in the twentieth century, revealing how the emerging popularity of photography, film and television depicted African Americans during their struggle to be recognized as full citizens of the United States"--provided by publisher

Table Of Contents

Chapter 1: Origins -- Chapter 2: Harlem: the promised land -- Chapter 3: The evolution of a race man -- Chapter 4: The making of an American artist -- Chapter 5: Fame and exile: 1945-1950 -- Chapter 6: A voyage of discovery: 1950-1960 -- Chapter 7: The prevalence of ritual: part I -- Chapter 8: The prevalence of ritual: part II -- Chapter 9: Public Romare Bearden -- Epilogue: The Bearden legacy

Classification