Looking at Art and Racism: Changing people's belief of the world using Art, Series One Day Six

 

      

                  

          Empress of the Blues by Romaire Bearden

Day 6, Empress of the Blues by Romaine Bearden

Romaire Bearden was known as "Romie " to his friends and family. He was born in Charlotte North

Carolina in 1912 but moved when he was young to Harlem NY. His parents were politically active and

W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, and Romie's cousin Charles Alston were among the

artists and activists that visited the Bearden's home.

It was the time of the Harlem Renaissance, a time of great promise after the Great Migration from the

south (which occurred from 1916-1970. It was a time where artists encouraged each other. A time when

even though African Americans still struggled to have their work shown in galleries because of racism

and had to have a fulltime (often menial) job to support their art. It was a time they believed in

themselves and each other and the possibility of change. It was sweet when listening to Faith Ringgold

last night to hear her too, call Bearden, "Romie", for through she was born eighteen years after Bearden,

they moved in the same circles. In Faith Ringgold's quilt painting "The Harlem Renaissance dinner party

"you see the embarrassed child, Faith ( in the front left-hand corner at such a dinner party) cringing as

her, fashion designer mother shows off her latest creation to Langston Hughes W.E.B Du Bois and others.

Bearden lapped up this atmosphere! He was a talented musician as well as an artist and had to choose

which path to take. He even wrote a song called " Sea Breeze " which became a hit.

R Romaire Bearden's funeral procession

He first learned to draw as a child from a sickly friend called "Eugene" who made drawings (on paper

bags) of the inside of houses and the activities within each room. Bearden met Eugene on one of many

visits to Pittsburgh where his grandmother lived. Eugene taught him all he could until he died, not long

after they had met. Bearden was mainly self-taught. He did study at Lincoln, Boston, and New York

Universities, but most of what you see in his paintings come from, his heart.

Bearden started as a painter but then moved into collage, as his main medium. He saw collage as a visual

equivalent to music. He uses it in the "Empress of the Blues. he also uses in this work, two sets of

complementary colors: purple and yellow, and red and green to give drama to the piece and make the

piece sing. The angle of the horn players and his use of stylized shapes gives movement and action to the

piece. Bearden wanted to show " The life of my people as I know it."He knew the ingenuity many blacks

used to survive, he wanted to capture this "making a way out of no way" which he saw also in the Blues,

in Spirituals, and in Jazz. His collages were made up of cut-up magazines, cut-up paintings, or whatever

was at hand. His paintings show the" very great sense of self" that Hale Woodruff was so impressed by

and found in African art.

So African Americans saw in the North a hope, a chance of rising up above segregation. By the 1960's it

became clear that African Americans still had a lot to fight for in terms of equality and although major

steps were taken to change this, major steps still need to occur.

Romare Beardon

In 1974, Bearden looks back to his childhood, to a time of hope for the future. In listening to Faith

Ringgold last night, her hope is now! Throughout her career, she has documented the ongoing fight for

African Americans to truly achieve equality, and even now at 89, she ponders what statement she can

make of and for today. Her life has been devoted to activism and using her art to find a new way.

This fight is hard, it will not happen overnight, it requires a whole new way of thinking for most white

Americans. It requires soul searching and honesty that is going to be uncomfortable at times. But we

have started the journey and are finally, I believe heading in the right direction. We can not get distracted

or complacent on this journey, this time. It is not a fight by one race for equality, but a fight by the whole

race to recognize they/we are not complete without it. Faith Ringgold uses the symbol of the little

African American girl flying to freedom. It can no longer be a dream or hope, we all need to take every

step we can to make it a reality!

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