Watercolor and ink on paper
Bearden began to move away from figurative painting in the mid 1940s. Featuring bold, black contour lines and geometric shards of color, his series The Passion of Christ nevertheless retains some figurative elements: a raised arm is visible at right, and a group of religious worshippers at lower left. He Is Arisen was Bearden’s first work to enter a museum collection; MoMA purchased it the same year it was made. In response to a questionnaire about the work, Bearden wrote: “My concern is with those universals that must be digested by the mind and cannot be merely seen by the eye.”
2024
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Romare Bearden
American, 1911–1988 25 works onlineRomare Bearden was 53 years old in 1964, the year he made his first series of collages. By that point in his life, he had already had several careers.
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Romare Bearden
Gallery 416Bearden continually reinvented his work over his six-decade career. He first gained acclaim in the 1940s for his figurative drawings and abstract paintings.
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