Gospel Song
1969
40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
Romare Bearden
United States
(Charlotte, NC, 1911 - 1988, New York, NY)
Object Type:
Collage
Medium and Support:
Mixed media on board
Credit Line:
Marion Stratton Gould Fund
Accession Number:
1970.18
Location: Not currently on view
Gallery labet text 2013
Influenced by the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Bearden was friendly with the writer Langston Hughes and jazz musicians Duke Ellington and Fats Waller. He was fascinated by jazz, trying his hand at songwriting for a short time. Bearden’s work bears parallels to the rhythms, intervals, variations, and improvisational devices of music. He stated, “I paint out of the tradition of the blues.”
Bearden was a pioneer of the collage style, explaining “The medium I used was chosen intentionally because assemblage forges a variety of contrary images into one unified expression.”
Bearden was a founding member of the 1960s Harlem art group, Spiral, formed “for the purpose of discussing the commitment of the Negro artist in the present struggle for civil liberties.”