Blues from the Old Country

Label TextAlthough he did not receive widespread public notice until the 1970s, Bearden’s unique artistic vision had begun to take shape nearly forty years earlier. Influenced by his contemporary Stuart Davis, Bearden created a visual analog to the fragmented, dense language of jazz. In the 1960s he began creating collages like this one, combining flat, vivid color with imagery appropriated from African-American culture. These works present his perception of everyday life in Harlem and rural North Carolina, as well as explore various aspects of 20^th-century Modernism, particularly Cubism. The subject of Blues from the Old Country is music, a critical theme in Bearden’s art. The creative process of making collages is one of construction and deconstruction, much like jazz. Bearden would tear away sections of a work, then recover the surface with new images. Of this technique, Bearden has said “Well, it’s like jazz: you do this and then you improvise.”
Published References"Romare Bearden: His Life & Art" by Myron Schwartzman, Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1991, ill. p. 239.

DimensionsOverall: 45 × 51 in. (114.3 × 129.5 cm)

Accession Number 1990.28

Classificationspainting

CopyrightARS

SignedRomare Bearden (l,l)

Portfolio/SeriesOf the Blues

ProvenanceArtist. (Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York). Mr. E.T. Meredith, III, Des Moines; Des Moines Art Center [gift of the previous, 1990]