The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of August 17, 2022

Wrapping It up at the Lafayette

1974

Romare Bearden

(American, 1912-1988)

America, 20th century

Collage, acrylic, and lacquer

Framed: 123.3 x 93.4 x 6.7 cm (48 9/16 x 36 3/4 x 2 5/8 in.); Unframed: 121.9 x 91.5 cm (48 x 36 in.)

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1985.41

© Romare Bearden Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Location

not on view

Description

Coming of age in New York in the 1930s, Bearden was immersed in the cultural revolution of the Harlem Renaissance. His home was located across the street from Harlem’s Lafayette Theatre, a hub for musicians such as Duke Ellington and Earl Hines. Bearden sought a way to translate the elements of jazz into visual art and discovered that collage was the ideal medium for capturing the spontaneity and improvisation of the genre, thus creating a lively visual rhythm.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed bottom right edge on orange background with a felt-tipped marker in a vertical orientation: rom/are bear/den

Romare Bearden

Bearden's birthdate has been given as 1911, 1912, or 1914. The Register of Deeds in Charlotte, North Carolina, his birthplace, record Bearden's date of birth as September 2, 1912.
Provenance
1985
(Cordier & Ekstrom, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1985-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Cleveland Museum of Art. Images of the Mind. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1987. Reproduced: [p. 31]
Campbell, Mary Schmidt. An American Odyssey: The Life and Work of Romare Bearden. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018. Reproduced: p. [9]; color plate section
Exhibition history

"Images of the Mind," CMA (July 7 - Aug. 23, 1987).

"Riffs and Takes, Music in the Art of Romare Bearden," North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, (Jan. 23 - April 2, 1988).

"Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden: 1940 - 1987," Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, (May 30 - July 26, 1992), National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., (Oct. 2, 1992 - Jan. 3, 1993).

National Gallery of Art (9/14/2003 - 1/4/2004) and San Francisco Musuem of Art (2/7/2004 - 5/16/2004): "The Art of Romare Bearden (1911-1988)" exh. cat. no. 71, p. 77.

MOCA Cleveland (6/9/2006 - 8/20/2006): "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art", no. 111, p. 122.

Main Gallery Rotation (Gallery 229): April 14, 2014 -

The Year in Review for 1985. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 12-April 20, 1986).

Images of the Mind. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 7-August 30, 1987).

The Art of Romare Bearden (1911-1988). National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (organizer) (September 14, 2003-January 4, 2004); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (February 7-May 16, 2004).

The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1985.41