Romare Bearden in Black-And-White

Published to accompany a travelling exhibition of his work, this volume is devoted to the photomontages of Romare Bearden (1914-1988), and considers their relation both to the rest of his oeuvre and to African-American art and culture. Bearden began creating these works in 1963 by incorporating images from magazines and other sources into montages and then photostatically enlarging them. These "projections", as he called them, marked his turn from pure abstraction to the medium of collage, which grew out of his concern with civil-rights issues. The catalogue reproduces in colour all 25 photomontages, and complements them with essays. It also includes previously unpublished poems by Bearden and an interview with his friend and collaborator, Albert Murray.