“Understanding Race” Theme Semester
UMMA Dossiers for Teaching
Essay by Ángela Pérez-Villa
Includes links to resources for K–12 teachers
GO2004.34.114
Romare Bearden
United States, 1911–1988
Black Enterprise, 1978
Screenprint
Gift of Dr. James and Vivian Curtis, GO2004.34.114
The artist
Romare Bearden was an African-American artist who belonged to a well-educated and
economically successful black family from the South. In 1914, Bearden and his parents
moved from North Carolina to New York City, a place where his interests in the study of
art, his intellectual curiosity, and his talent would all coalesce by the time he entered
adulthood. In Harlem, the vibrant community of artists that surrounded Bearden
influenced his artistic views and style. Bearden was like a sponge, soaking up ideas about
art from many sources. His relationships with other young black artists inspired Bearden
to engage not only with masters of Western European art such as Pablo Picasso, but also
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“Understanding Race” Theme Semester
UMMA Dossiers for Teaching
Essay by Ángela Pérez-Villa
Includes links to resources for K–12 teachers
GO2004.34.114
with different expressions of African art and the work of his contemporaries in the United
States. In addition, Bearden enriched his artistic work through his analytical reading and
critical writing about the social dynamics that shaped the black artistic community in the
United States.
Between the 1940s and 1960s, Bearden bluntly opposed the “negro artist” label through
his writing because, in his view, it inextricably linked art with racial identity, limiting
artistic creativity and exposure.1 In a context in which legal racial segregation condemned
African-Americans to unequal social conditions, Bearden claimed it was not “necessary
that the Negro artist mirror the misery of his people.”2 In this way, Bearden rejected
protest art and favored the idea that “art celebrates a victory,” an idea that guided his him
even as he search for ways to artistically contribute to the Civil Rights Movement in the
mid 1960s. Bearden developed a unique collage technique that placed black people and
culture at the center of his creations. Black people’s depictions, Bearden said, did not
represent protest images. In the words of Sharon F. Patton, Bearden’s collages “attempted
not only to create an autobiography, and historical narrative about black life, but also to
show the humanity of black people.”3
Technique
By the late 1960s, his photomontages of disparate human subjects in urban and rural
settings received critical praise. Bearden’s collages often combined flat areas of color
with patterned areas cut from photographic magazine illustrations. The personal and
culturally specific content of his collages was grounded in the social realism of the 1930s
and 1940s while the design owed to the abstract art of the 1950s.4 In describing
Bearden’s collage style and technique, art critics have often agreed on the jazz-like
rhythm—Bearden was a jazz devotee—each piece creates for the viewer through the
juxtaposition of figures of all sizes and the narratives they present. One critic observed
that Bearden’s “creative response to things that ‘happened’ as an artwork unfolded in
time constituted an explicit parallel to the kind of improvisation that drives a jazz
performance.”5 Bearden was also known for his work in a wide array of media that
included watercolor, drawing, monotype, and edition prints. His prints have received
particular attention in the last few years as more contemporary artists and scholars have
shown interest in understanding how Bearden extended his artistic imagination beyond
the collage and experimented with the print medium.
Object information
Romare Bearden, “The Negro Artist’s Dilemma,” Critique (Nov. 1946): 16-22.
Myron Schwartzman, Romare Bearden: His Life and Art (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1990), 132.
3
Sharon F. Patton, African-American Art (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 189.
4
Ibid.
5
Sally Price and Richard Price, Romare Bearden: The Caribbean Dimension (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2006), 25.
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2
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“Understanding Race” Theme Semester
UMMA Dossiers for Teaching
Essay by Ángela Pérez-Villa
Includes links to resources for K–12 teachers
GO2004.34.114
Black Enterprise magazine ran a Bearden print on the cover of its June 1978 issue
entitled “The Nation’s Leading Black Businesses.” Bearden’s print, titled Black
Enterprise, shows two black faces in profile at the sides, looking at a tilted rectangle
divided into five sections. Each section depicts important aspects defining black
economic and cultural life in the United States at the time.
For example, the images in three of the sections seem to be directly related to the themes
covered in the magazine issue. One juxtaposes the image of a gas-drilling rig to one of a
construction site, which resonates with the magazine’s analysis that construction and oil
related enterprises were beginning to make the top ten list of black-owned businesses.
Similarly, a group of black men dressed in business attire are shown having a job meeting
against the background of a five-dollar bill. This seems to illustrate a key theme in at
least two of the magazine’s articles about the viability of minority enterprise by
strengthening the training of black employees and agents working at black-owned banks
and life insurance companies – institutions that had historically performed important
economic and social functions for the black community.
On the right side of the rectangle is a globe that intersects the rectangle, perhaps
suggesting the connection between different black enterprises and the international
sphere. Even though none of the magazine articles mentioned the arts and music industry,
Bearden included an image of black jazz musicians juxtaposed with an image of a sound
recording studio.
Teaching ideas
1. General introduction
Show students the digital image of Romare Bearden’s Black Enterprise from the UMMA
collection and ask them the following questions:
-
What do you see in this print?
How do you think the images relate to each other?
How do these images portray African-Americans? In what ways do they attempt
to undermine racial stereotypes?
After discussing these questions, show students Bearden’s
print as it appeared on the Black Enterprise magazine cover
and ask:
-
Who do you think is the audience of this magazine?
Does the business magazine cover change your
perception of the print? Why or why not?
3
“Understanding Race” Theme Semester
UMMA Dossiers for Teaching
Essay by Ángela Pérez-Villa
Includes links to resources for K–12 teachers
GO2004.34.114
2. In Women’s Studies and other classes that touch on issues of women, race, and/or art
in the U.S., students can be encouraged to look and interpret Bearden’s print and
magazine cover through a gender perspective by asking:


How is “black enterprise” imagined and portrayed in this illustration?
Is it gendered? Why or why not?
Use other works by Bearden that portray black female faces and bodies for contrast. This
could generate discussions around issues of racial/physical representations of men and
women, masculinity, and sensuality. Some examples are: Patchwork Quilt (1970), The
Intimacy of Water (1973), Mamie Cole’s Living Room (1978), Artist with Painting and
Model (1981).
3. Bearden lived and produced his art through periods of significant social and political
upheaval in the U.S. Students can compare his art from the Harlem Renaissance (a period
of creativity and solidarity) with his work from the 1960s (a period of social conflict.) In
what ways does Bearden’s art evolves in these historical periods?
4. In classes about contemporary American history and culture, students can discuss this
illustration in the specific economic context of the U.S. in the late 1970s.
5. K-12 TEACHERS: Visit
http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/bearden/index.shtm for a biography of, literary
sources for, method used by, and lesson plans about Romare Bearden.
Resources
Bearden, Romare. “The Negro Artist’s Dilemma,” Critique (Nov. 1946): 16-22.
Patton, Sharon F. African-American Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Price, Sally and Richard Price. Romare Bearden: The Caribbean Dimension.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.
Romare Bearden Foundation. Accessed DATE.
http://www.beardenfoundation.org/index2.shtml .
Schwartzman, Myron. Romare Bearden: His Life and Art. New York: H.N. Abrams,
1990.
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