ABOUT THIS BOOK

The Romare Bearden Reader brings together a collection of new essays and canonical writings by novelists, poets, historians, critics, and playwrights. The contributors, who include Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, August Wilson, Farah Jasmine Griffin, and Kobena Mercer, contextualize Bearden's life and career within the history of modern art, examine the influence of jazz and literature on his work, trace his impact on twentieth-century African American culture, and outline his art's political dimensions. Others focus on specific pieces, such as A Black Odyssey, or the ways in which Bearden used collage to understand African American identity. The Reader also includes Bearden's most important writings, which grant readers insight into his aesthetic values and practices and share his desire to tell what it means to be black in America. Put simply, The Romare Bearden Reader is an indispensable volume on one of the giants of twentieth-century American art.

Contributors. Elizabeth Alexander, Romare Bearden, Mary Lee Corlett, Rachel DeLue, David C. Driskell, Brent Hayes Edwards, Ralph Ellison, Henri Ghent, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Harry Henderson, Kobena Mercer, Toni Morrison, Albert Murray, Robert G. O’Meally, Richard Powell, Richard Price, Sally Price, Myron Schwartzman, Robert Burns Stepto, Calvin Tomkins, John Edgar Wideman, August Wilson

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Robert G. O’Meally is Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature and the Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University.

REVIEWS

"Jazz music, politics, and black culture are the primary themes ofBearden's paintings and collages, while his writing-including the eight examples in this collection-lay bare his aesthetic values and practices. Essays by twenty contributors, from scholar Robert G. O'Meally to novelists Toni Morrison and Ralph Ellison, contextualize Bearden's oeuvre and assess his impact on twentieth-century African American culture."

-- Art in America

"The varied voices here make this a go-to resource for constructing Bearden's enigmatic, seductively structured art. . . . This is the finest overall consideration of Bearden's ouevre yet, and a fulsome tribute to a justly revered artist."

-- Douglas F. Smith Library Journal

"Relatively few titles provide in-depth explorations of the intellectual lives of African American artists. This reader does so in a comprehensive–and compelling–manner, and should be considered an important addition to art and literary criticism collections, useful for artists, musicians, writers, and others."

-- Lynora Williams ARLIS/NA

"A valuable resource for scholars and anyone interested in Romare Bearden, art history, art techniques, the Harlem Renaissance (which Bearden calls the Black Renaissance because not all participants were in Harlem), and black US history.… O'Meally draws together the major themes of Bearden scholarship, providing a useful jumping-off point for insight into Bearden and his work."

-- P.A. Mullins African Arts

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments ix
"Pressing on Life Until It Gave Back Something in Kinship": An Introductory Essay / Robert G. O'Meally 1
Part I. Life and Times
Putting Something over Something Else / Calvin Tomkins 31
Interview with Romare Bearden / Henri Ghent 54
Part II. Writings
The Negro Artist and Modern Art / Romare Bearden 87
The Negro Artist's Dilemma / Romare Bearden 91
The Journal of Romare Bearden: 1947 to 1949 / Romare Bearden 99
Rectangular Structure in My Montage Paintings / Romare Bearden 121
The Twenties and the Black Renaissance / Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson 133
The 1930s: An Art Reminiscence / Romare Bearden 156
Humility / Romare Bearden 162
Encounters with African Art / Romare Bearden 164
Part III. Reflections on a Layered Legacy
Bearden: Black Life on Its Own Terms / August Wilson 175
Abrupt Stops and an Unexpected Liquidity: The Aesthetics of Romare Bearden / Toni Morrison 178
The Genius of Romare Bearden / Elizabeth Alexander 185
The Art of Romare Bearden / Ralph Ellison 196
Bearden / Ralph Ellison 204
Between the Shadow and the Act / John Edgar Wideman 209
Romare Bearden: African American Modernism at Mid-Century / Kobena Mercer 217
Bearden Plays Bearden / Albert Murray 236
The Political Bearden / Brent Hayes Edwards 256
Circe in Black: Homer, Toni Morrison, Romare Bearden / Farah Jasmine Griffin 270
Conjure and Collapse in the Art of Romare Bearden / Rachael Delue 281
Changing, Conjuring Reality / Richard Powell 296
Romare Bearden's Li'l Dan the Drummer Boy: Coloring a Story of the Civil War / Robert Burns Stepto 307
Impressions and Improvisations: A Look at the Prints of Romare Bearden / Mary Lee Corlett 315
Bearden's Caribbean Dimension / Sally Price and Richard Price 351
Sheer Mastery: Romare Bearden's Final Year / Myron Schwartzman 363
Romare Bearden, an Idelible Imprint / David C. Driskell 379
Selected References 389
Index 393

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