Romare Bearden

Romare Bearden grew up in Harlem, New York, but he was exposed to various urban and rural areas such as North Carolina, Pittsburgh and even St. Martin, an island in the Caribbean. These experiences influenced his works, but the most influential area was Harlem. His piece "The Block" shows a somewhat literal interpretation of a city block, yet transfigured to be more figurative, with aspects of a collage and mixed media woven into the image. His family was culturally involved with current artisans of the time, including famous musicians, artists, poets and writers (among them Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Langston Hughes, Aaron Douglas and W. E. B. DuBois. It must have been very inspirational for him to interact with such intellectual creative artists, and he was very lucky to have those experiences to relate to in his works. He was unique as an artist of his time who did not learn from the WPA program, but his family was able to fund his schooling and expose him to culture that equally inspired artistry.

One interesting fact I learned about Romare Bearden is how he listened to jazz music as inspiration for his images, drawing from the silences in the timing of notes, finding rhythm and balance to apply to his paintings. This was very unique to me, I had never heard of this type of reference before. However, once I had read this, I went back to the image of "The Block" and re-assessed it, and could sort of see how that applied to this work. The way he placed each building and separated buildings from one another but tied them in together to create one mural panoramic image of a street block was balanced and yet haphazard at the same time;kind of like jazz. It creates a business and movement, while drawing the eye across the page so to speak, while simultaneously showcasing images that are jumping out at the viewer. I like the description in the essay that reads "the documentary and the fantastic weave together", because it is a wonderfully intuitive way to explain Bearden's works, specifically his piece "The Block".

Bearden believed that it was the calling of the Negro artist to study present day life and devote oneself to it, to portray it and yet transform it into an imaginative, figural, whimsical world. It shows pure creativity the way he portrays this in his pieces. Bearden's work is not traditional fine art; his collage style contradicts the elegance and formal technique of fine art. He uses this technique to show layers and metaphorical ideas and concepts that prove his intricate thought-process of developing the pieces.

Another piece by Bearden that is very different in subject matter and juxtaposition yet similar in style and combination of literal and figural representation is the image "He Is Arisen". The textbook compares it to stained-glass, which I had trouble picturing because I think of stained glass as being brightly-colored and translucent. However, I see the reference in that the shapes of the figures created by triangles and elongated figures creates similar shapes to stained-glass pieces, and the subject matter is the same as most church building windows; images of Christ and illustrations of religious passages. The religious context appears to be personally relevant and spiritually reflective of his upbringing and experience. He explained that he wasn't intending to portray a literal interpretation of the story of Christ, but rather to explore the concept and enhance the spiritual entity but portraying the subject non-representationally. The figures all connect, some melding together to form the figure of Christ, while the kneeling figure in front of Christ are translucent and Christ can be seen through their images.There is a sense of oneness in the piece, as though all the figures are puzzle pieces that combine to become one image, strength in numbers.

Bearden drew inspiration from a variety of cultures, religions, artistic styles and even historical times. He painted both religious scenes and urban streets; he as influenced by African sculpture and jazz music. This incorporation of multiple styles and cultures creates a new identity in his works, while still depicting a definite portrayal of black identity. In a sense, they embody Bearden himself, as he himself personifies the ideas present in his pieces.

Assignment 8 readings

This week I learned a lot about specific artists such as Jacob Lawrence and William Johnson, and I was particularly intrigued by Lawrence's artwork. I actually enjoyed reading about all of this week's artists in the textbook, which I found visually appealing and historically informative. Each artist represented similar themes, but portrayed them very differently. I interpret the works differently than the artist probably intended, since i don't share their history or experience during this time, but I appreciate their technique and artistic expression of these ideas.

Hale Woodruff's mural scenes are very busy, vibrant and chaotic. His figural representation makes the bodies appear to be sculpted, with careful dramatic shading and muscular exaggeration. The emphasis is on the body and severe facial expressions to represent emotion and evoke passionate feelings in the piece, which is appropriate for this narrative piece.

The black and white/greyscale piece of Robert Blackburn and Dox Thrash portray their figures differently, with less emphasis on the exposed flesh of the body and the intense facial expressions, but more focus on the clothed body and physical motion, such as in the way the arms create motion and facilitate movement. The shading is more gradual in Blackburn's piece and more exaggerated in Thrash's piece. The image creates a statement about a hard working man, dedicated to his job but at the same time having no identity, like a machine. His face is in shadow and his eyes are deep black holes, demonstrating anonymity.

William Johnson's piece "Going to Church" is an informative narrative and reference to the social lives of African-Americans in this era, especially interesting because it utilizes simple forms and elementary geometric shapes to create an accurate narrative that becomes a unified piece. The piece seems controversial because it's lack of intricate figures and formal artistic technique imply an untalented artist; it kind of looks like a child's drawing. Yet it is similar to the work of Jacob Lawrence, with the bright colors and generalization of figures.

Lawrence is my favorite artist of this week's readings, and I found the website extremely informative and interesting. Each piece was linked with textual embellishment which related all of his pieces to the historical events and personal experiences that led the artist to portray these themes and create the images in that particular context. The organizations described in the textbook were familiar to me because I studied them in high school and in college history classes, but this specific focus on art programs I found most interesting.

The one concept of this week's reading that i had trouble with was Greenberg's essay on Kitsch. I had a hard time understanding Kitsch as it applied in the essay, but I understand what it is, especially as it applies today in our media-infused culture. The language Greenberg used was difficult to comprehend and his terminology was hard to follow, but the essay read interestingly and it was very thought-provoking for me.

Easter weekend

This weekend was busy and hectic for me, I had a friend go to the hospital on Friday because she was having complications with her pregnancy, and she ended up spending the entire Easter weekend in the hospital-but she delivered her baby on Easter Sunday! So that was really exciting, and now they have a fun story to tell every Easter about what the Easter bunny brought them (a baby boy!). But up until Sunday we were on edge, getting hourly updates from her boyfriend about her health status and progression of the pregnancy. On Saturday, my boyfriend and I dyed Easter eggs with the kids I babysit for, and they got overly enthusiastic about dying the eggs. The older child, Heather, got so excited about the colors that she dropped her egg inside a cup of the dye and held it down with her fingers instead of the egg holder, so of course she ended up with dark purple stained fingers for the next 3 days. The only other funny story that happened to me over the weekend was my mom made us get up early for church, but my sister and I hate waking up early for boring church so we pretend to be asleep til she comes in &forces us to get up. This year, she tricked us &told us church was earlier than it really was, so we got up and got ready and ended up being there almost on time haha. I didn't get to take alot of pictures over the weekend, but here is a picture of the easter eggs my boyfriend and I dyed, and a picture of the baby.