“From Process to Print: Graphic Works by Romare Bearden” at the Chicago Cultural Center
CHICAGO, IL.- The Chicago Cultural Center hosts the exhibition “From Process to Print: Graphic Works by Romare Bearden”, an exhibition of over 75 lithographs, etchings, collagraphs, collagraph plates, screen prints, drypoints, monoprints, and engravings drawn from Bearden’s three decades of graphic work. Possibly best known for his collage works, Bearden often worked and reworked his original images into astounding prints, pushing the process with experimental techniques, sizes, and colors and weaving a rich tapestry of references informed by his African-American cultural experiences.
Romare Bearden, "Out Chorus", 1979-80. Etching and aquatint, 12 3/8 x 16 ¼ inches. Courtesy: Romare Bearden Estate. ©Romare Bearden Founcation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, New York
“From Process to Print: Graphic Works by Romare Bearden” will be on view in the Sidney R. Yates Gallery on the fourth floor of the Chicago Cultural Center from April 17 to June 27, 2010.
The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to examine Bearden’s print making process; to learn about his collaborations with master printmakers; and to understand how key themes and motifs like trains, family life, rituals, urban scenes, jazz, and mythology extended his artistic imagination from collage into other media. Included are prints based on collages like the Odysseus Series and Piano Lesson that he reworked in several media through changes in technique, scale, and color. Also included are two important photoengraving series, “The Train” and “The Family”, and the extraordinary limited edition 12 Trains.
Romare Bearden (1911-1988), an American artist of African-American heritage, was honored during his lifetime and posthumously with numerous prestigious awards, publications, and exhibitions. Along with representation in important public and private collections, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts and honored with a groundbreaking retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery of Art. A master collagist, Bearden is celebrated today as a preeminent, highly prolific artist of exceptional and multifaceted talents and interests. He was a jazz aficionado, an author of scholarly books, a song writer/lyricist, as well as an arts activist and humanist. Bearden incorporated a rich montage of influences from American, African, Asian, and European art and culture and took inspiration from memories and experiences of the rural South, the urban North, and the Carribean.
Also on exhibit in the Chicago Cultural Center’s first floor Michigan Avenue Galleries are “Jon Fjortoft: Photographs” from April 5 through June 27, 2010, and Pride of Paper/Orgullo en Papel: Arte Papel Oaxaca & Kiff Slemmons from April 12 through July 3, 2010. The Project Onward Gallery is showing “ Islands in the Stream: Autism and Art” from April 13 to May 30, 2010 . The exhibition “Christine Tarkowski: Last Things Will Be First and First Things Will Be Last” continue in the Chicago Rooms through May 2, 2010 .
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