Select Collection | Prints of Romare Bearden by GreenHill

SELECT COLLECTION PRINTS OF ROMARE BEARDEN Art © Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Greenhill 200 North Davie Street, Box No.4 Greensboro, NC 27401 www.greenhillnc.org Published in conjunction with the exhibition Select Collection | Prints of Romare Bearden April 15, 2014 - June 22, 2014 Greenhill Art ÂŠ Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY ÂŠ 2013 Greenhill All rights reserved. This publication is protected by copyright. No part of this publication may be repoduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the copyright holder. Works Appraised by Sharon Campbell, ASA Campbell Fine Art Research and Appraisal Marketing and Public Relations Support provided by SMSi Marketing Companies Sandra Miller Jones & Lafayette Jones Cover and Book Design: Lauren Gordon, Marketing & Design Specialist, Greenhill

SELECT COLLECTION PRINTS OF ROMARE BEARDEN APRIL 15, 2014 - JUNE 22, 2014

Introduction

Greenhill is honored to present Select Collection | Prints of Romare Bearden. With this exhibition and sale, Greenhill celebrates one collector, Lou Milano and his extraordinary collection, and one artist, Romare Bearden, who helped define 20th century contemporary art.

with a catalogue of works in the hundreds. The exhibition and art sale at Greenhill will provide the viewer with a sampling of some of his most important lithographs, serigraphs and etchings, including his highly acclaimed works The Family, Carolina Morning, Mecklenburg Autumn and The Train.

Mr. Milano became a collector of Romare Bearden’s work in 1985 when he walked into Jerald Melberg’s Charlotte gallery and found himself in an exhibition space full of Bearden collages and prints. With that fateful step into the gallery, he was hooked on Bearden and bought out the entire show. Over the years Lou became an avid collector and scholar of Bearden’s work—he knows the stories, went to New York to meet the artist and is a walking encyclopedia on Bearden prints. Now, it is time for Lou to pass this collection on to a new generation of collectors; because of Greenhill’s mission, he chose us to be his partner. We are honored to be entrusted to show his remaining collection and to help sell these incredible works.

Greenhill is the only non-collecting organization dedicated to presenting, promoting and advocating for contemporary visual art and artists of North Carolina. The mission of Greenhill is to promote the visual arts of North Carolina by engaging a broad community of artists, adults and children through dynamic exhibitions and educational programs and providing a platform for exploration and investment in art. Since its founding in 1974, the organization has presented and sold artwork of over 9,850 visual artists and engaged nearly one million visitors through free access to The Gallery, The Shop & ArtQuest, the award-winning education program for children & families. Greenhill is located in downtown Greensboro in the Greensboro Cultural Center.

Romare Bearden was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1911; he left for New York City with his parents in 1914 but came back to his home state often to visit his grandparents. For Greenhill, Select Collection | Prints of Romare Bearden symbolizes Bearden at home, and we hope it means Bearden in your home. North Carolina left an indelible mark on Bearden’s work which you will see this through many of the works offered through Select Collection | Prints of Romare Bearden. Bearden was a prolific artist,

We hope you enjoy this catalogue and will visit the exhibition, running April 15 – June 22, 2014. In the following pages you will see the 45 works that will be on exhibit. Starting on page 51 you will find the entire list of works available for sale, instructions for pre-purchases, a glossary of terms and terms of sale. Enjoy, and please contact Greenhill if you have any questions. Best, Laura Way, Executive Director

Prints of Romare Bearden Romare Bearden explored the art of printmaking extensively and enthusiastically late in his career. He worked with master printmakers to bring his concepts to life in lithographs, screenprints, etchings, monoprints, and aquatints. Examining the wide array of his prints will assist the connoisseur in understanding the experimentation, adaptation, and improvisation found in his oeuvre. The subjects of his prints often echo works he originally conceived in paint or collage. And, they reflect the rituals, motifs and themes important to him—memories of his southern childhood (Mecklenburg Autumn, 1979), the pulse of music (The Jazz Series, 1979), the importance of family (Mother and Child, c.1980), the beauty of the Caribbean (Tropical Flowers, 1971-72), trains (Carolina Memory, 1970-72), cameos of domestic life (Quilting Time, 1979), and aspects of African-American history (Slave Ship, 1977)— allowing his ideas to reach a broader audience. In an undergraduate course at New York University in the 1930s, Bearden was introduced to printmaking. However, he did not actively engage the process until significantly later. His initial use of reproductive techniques comes in the form of photocopies of works of art (his own and those of earlier artists) used as source 1 material or visual aids. In 1964 he exhibited his Projections series at Cordier & Ekstrom gallery in New York. These works, created using the photostatic method, transformed and enlarged his small-scale collages, and initiated a new phase of artistic activity. The majority of Bearden’s prints date to the 1970s; in this period

Romare Bearden 1911-1988 he avidly explored the possibilities printmaking offered, working with master printmakers, notably Robert Blackburn (assisted by Mohammad Khalil and Kathleen Caraccio) at The Printmaking Workshop in New York, and Joseph Kleineman.2 The first exhibition devoted solely to Bearden’s prints was held in 1981. Prints offered Bearden the opportunity to reinvigorate familiar subjects in diverse media. A motif found in many of his works is that of the train. Trains represent memories of Bearden’s childhood home in North Carolina, his family’s migration north, the passage of time. Trains unite, but also fracture, and demarcate both the past, and the possibility of the future. For many African-Americans, including Bearden’s father Howard, they were a source of employment, and they reference the “underground” railroad.

In Bearden’s art, trains are often seen running through the background—in Carolina Memory (Tidings) (1970-72), Conversation (1979), Memories (c.1974), Pepper Jelly Lady (1975), and above all The Train (1974). This image is one much transmuted by Bearden, over the course of a decade: it is first a photostat (Mysteries, 1964), then a collagraph (Mysteries, 1974), then a collage (The Train, 1974), then an etching/ aquatint. The complex process employed—a plate cut-up like a jigsaw puzzle, viscosity printing, and aquatints to replicate watercolor— was developed and master-printed by Kathleen Caraccio.3 Bearden’s capacity for repeating and reinventing themes and motifs—while always making them seem fresh and inspired—became a hallmark of his career. Mary Lee Corlett explained that the 1964 Projections and related collages served as starting points for many collagraphs of the 1970s and other prints, describing his process as “compositional reinvention.”4 This great improvisational ability may relate to his love of jazz. Perhaps Bearden’s most celebrated print is The Family (1975), an aquatint and photo engraving. It was produced for An American Portrait, 1776-1976, a collection printed to commemorate the Bicentennial. Critics lauded it as one of the highlights of the publication, and it solidified Bearden’s growing reputation in the realm of printmaking. 5

Bearden also created prints for commercial purposes. Roots (1977), was an image commissioned for the cover of TV Guide. It

was seen in the homes of millions of Americans in January 1977, connected to the broadcast premiere of the miniseries Roots: The Saga of an American Family (based on Alex Haley’s book). Bearden first created a collage, then transformed the image of a profile head, the African continent, and a slave ship, into a lithograph. The result is a bold representation of the essential elements of the story, captured in visual form and disseminated widely through a popular periodical. The celebrated Odysseus Suite, represented in Select Collection | Prints of Romare Bearden by the screenprint Circe Into Swine (1979), is another excellent example of Bearden’s desire to rework and renovate images. In 1977 Bearden created a series of collages re-envisioning the journey of Odysseus in an African-American context. He then explored the theme in a complementary series of watercolors, and subsequently a set of prints. Close scrutiny reveals the subtle changes Bearden made between images to elicit fresh responses to a timeless story. Scenes of domestic life are found throughout Bearden’s work. Falling Star (1979) is one such example, executed in collage, lithograph, and watercolor, likely all in the same year. Each version shows a woman in profile, in a domestic setting; through an open door we see a window revealing a falling star. While all have the same composition and key elements, colors and details differ slightly. Corlett has described the relationship between Bearden’s works, not

as one image copied from another, but each as “a potential touchstone for another” and states that the key is “the insight revealed by the themes and structures he chose to revisit and the manner in which he reinvented them.”6 She also relates his method to the call and response tradition in the African-American church, and musical improvisation. 7 Perceiving these approaches aids the viewer in comprehending the almost-ritualistic repetition employed by Bearden, and how each individual work offers new meaning.

and then in various print techniques, extensively reinventing familiar subjects, reveals the breadth of his talent. He had a continuous ability to improvise, never ceasing to find unexplored potential in existing works.

The Jazz Series (1979) comprises lithographs reflecting Bearden’s lifelong interest in music. Select Collection | Prints of Romare Bearden includes a large number of prints from this series: Bopping at Birdland (Walking Bass), Brass Section (Jamming at Minton’s), Introduction for a Blues Queen (Uptown at the Savoy), Louisiana Serenade, Out Chorus (Rhythm Section), Stomp Time (Solo Player), and Tenor Sermon. Each lithograph exudes the pulsating rhythm of musicians, instruments, and vibrant performances. The working proofs (labeled bon à tirers) give insight into the working process behind the creation of the prints; they reveal the sinuous lines and bold forms of the compositions without color.

1 Sarah Kennel explores Bearden’s varied and extensive use of reproductive images in “Bearden’s Musée Imaginaire” in the exhibition catalog The Art of Romare Bearden, ed. Ruth Fine (Washington DC: National Gallery of Art, 2003), 138-155.

Romare Bearden once said, “You can’t always do things the same way.”8 Critics and art historians have come to see this statement as an explanation for the tremendous variety he established throughout his long career. His ability to work extensively in paint and collage,

Alison Fleming Associate Professor of Art History Chair, Department of Art + Visual Studies Winston-Salem State University _______________________________________

2 For details on the master printers Bearden worked with see Mary Lee Corlett, “Impressions & Improvisations: A look at the prints of Romare Bearden” in From Process to Print: Graphic Works by Romare Bearden (San Francisco: Pomegranate, 2009), 9-38. 3 Caraccio described the creation of The Train, and her working relationship with Bearden, in an interview transcribed in From Process to Print, 116-119. 4 Corlett, “No Star is Lost at all: Repetition Strategies in the Art of Romare Bearden” in Romare Bearden: Southern Recollections (Charlotte NC: Mint Museum, 2011), 116-117. 5 The Family, and its positive critical reception, is discussed in detail by Corlett, 2009, 16-17. 6 Corlett, 2011, 107 and 120. 7 Corlett, 2011, 121. 8 As quoted by Carroll Greene in Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1971), 4.