DC Moore to Exhibit Rare Works by Romare Bearden at Miami Basel

For the Survey Sector of Miami Basel 2016, DC Moore Gallery will exhibit a group of rare photographic works byRomare Bearden (1911-1988), widely recognized as one of the most innovative artists of the 20th century. The presentation will center on an important series of Projections, photostatic enlargements from 1964, complemented by a small group of collages from the same decade.

Bearden's art entered a decisive new phase during the turbulent decade of the 1960s. The massive March on Washington, DC, in July 1963-where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his historic "I Have a Dream" speech-marked a new stage in the ongoing struggle for civil rights in the United States. In New York City, Bearden and several artists, including Hale Woodruff, Charles Alston, Norman Lewis, and Merton Simpson, formed Spiral as a forum for their participation in the civil rights movement, and as a way to develop exhibition opportunities for themselves and younger African American artists.

According to a well-known account, when one of the members of Spiral proposed that they do a joint project, Bearden suggested that they work together on a collage. He had been experimenting with photomontage, and felt that it was an ideal medium for collaboration. While the group effort never materialized, he launched wholeheartedly into collage, which he soon developed into a series of photostatic enlargements that he called Projections.

The twenty-one collages that Bearden used for his Projections of 1964 are relatively small in size, composed almost entirely of images cut from magazines and newspapers. When blown up as Projections, they become powerful black-and-white photographic images that resonate with an immediacy that reflects the churning and often clashing cultural currents of the time. Rooted in Cubism and Dada collage, they are characterized by bold fragmentation and fractured forms, irregular scale and proportion, and the complex layering of motifs.

First exhibited at Cordier & Ekstrom gallery in New York in October 1964 to widespread critical acclaim, the Projections were then shown at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington one year later. They have lost none of their potency today, and in fact, Bearden's innovative use of Cubist technique, American themes, and journalistic overtones is highly relevant to contemporary practice in photography. They remain eloquent testaments to urban street life, jazz and blues performance, and memories of the rural South-all themes that would remain central to Bearden's art for the rest of his career.

For more information regarding our presentation at Art Basel Miami Beach, please contact Rachel Johnson atrjohnson@dcmooregallery.com

Art Basel Miami Beach Public Hours

December 1: 3:00 - 8:00 PM

December 2: 12:00 - 8:00 PM

December 3: 12:00 - 8:00 PM

December 4: 12:00 - 6:00 PM

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