Michener Art Museum To Present Romare Bearden's Works Oct 29

DOYLESTOWN, PENN. - The James A. Michener Art Museum will present "Romare Bearden: Enchanter in Time," an exhibition of works on paper by one of America's great artistic innovators. This exhibition of Bearden's works on paper will be on view in the Wachovia Gallery from October 29 through February 5. The exhibition was organized by the Jerald Melberg Gallery in Charlotte, N.C., and is sponsored by Audrey Long Interior Design, Bucks County Economic Development Corporation, Bucks Country Gardens, Bucks County Herald, Bucks County Digital Printing, Charter Management Corporation, First Federal of Bucks County, GMG Insurance Company, Paganini Trattoria, Peddler's Village and Pennswood Village.

Romare Bearden (1911-1988) filled his work with the symbols and myths of the American black experience. Bearden worked in a variety of media, but was best known for the collages in which he fused elements of past and present; fragments of his boyhood in Harlem and vivid images of the American South, along with historical, literary and musical references to create rich, multilayered works that both reflect and transcend his era.

To create his collages, Bearden blended painting, magazine clippings, old paper and fabric, like a jigsaw puzzle in upheaval. But unlike a puzzle, each piece of a Bearden collage has a meaning and history all its own. Shortly before he died of cancer in 1988, Bearden said working with fragments of the past brought them into the now.

"When I conjure these memories, they are of the present to me," said Bearden. "Because after all, the artist is a kind of enchanter in time."

Bearden was born in North Carolina, and as a young man moved with his family to New York City's Harlem where he came of age during the Harlem Renaissance, surrounded by writers, artists and musicians in a time of extraordinary creative ferment. Bear-den's mother was a reporter for a leading black newspaper, and the family's circle of friends included luminaries such as Langston Hughes, W.E.B. DuBois, Duke Ellington and Paul Robeson. The Harlem of his youth was very much influenced by the mass migration of blacks moving north from the rural South, which may have contributed to his many-layered memories and visions of home.

Bearden drew from many diverse sources and influences in creating his work - from European masters to African art, history and literature, religious subjects and ritual practices, jazz and the blues, along with the landscapes and atmospheres of the places he lived - including Pittsburgh, New York City, the rural South and the Caribbean island of St Martin. From a young age, Bearden developed a passion for jazz, a form whose rhythms and intervals seems to have influenced his visual art work. His practice of employing repeated motifs, often with slight variations, echoes the "call and response" aspect of jazz.

In addition to the collages, Bearden produced watercolors, gouaches and oils, and in the 1960s, he created a number of "Projections" (or photostats), in which he used photographic techniques to enlarge some of his smaller collages. These works received considerable acclaim for their visual daring and nearly cinematic impact. Throughout his career Bearden also made forays into abstraction, usually with musical associations.

The exhibition "Romare Bearden: Enchanter in Time" consists of some 38 works on paper, spanning religious themes ("Salome and Noah," "The Third Day"), historical references ("Prologue to Troy" and "Slave Ship") and musical tributes ("Introduction for a Blues Queen" and "Bopping at Birdland"), among other subjects.

Bearden's work is included in many important public collections, and he was recently honored with a nationally touring exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He was also a noted writer and intellectual who authored several books on African American art and artists.

In conjunction with this exhibition, there will be a lecture presented by Jerald Melberg, entitled "Romare Bearden Remembered," on December 11 from 3 to 4 pm.

The James A Michener Art Museum is at 138 South Pine Street. For information, www.michenerartmuseum.org or 215-340-9800.