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Born in Charlotte, N.C., Romare Bearden (1911–1988) moved with his family to Harlem as a young child, part of the Great Migration of African Americans from the inhospitable South to greater opportunity in the North. Throughout his career, Bearden created images of the lives of travelers on their way to and from home, a theme no more powerfully explored than in Black Odyssey, his 1977 series of 20 collages based on episodes from Homer's epic tale The Odyssey.

CATTLE OF THE SUN GOD by Romare Bearden, 1977. In 2007-08, New York’s DC Moore Gallery restaged the original showing of the artist’s collages but included his watercolors (miniature variations of his collages), examples of his mid-1940s drawings based on Homer’s other epic, The Iliad, and other relevant work. Its show greatly increased the resonance and power of the original 20 collages.

Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey, a new SITES exhibition of intellectual and artistic heft, further expands DC Moore Gallery’s 2007-08 presentation. More emphatically than either earlier exhibition, Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey underscores the fact that this tale of the dislocated but heroic traveler’s search for a way home is Bearden’s own most pervasive and important artistic theme. The addition of a collage from Bearden’s 1968 series, Cotton Field, invites the viewer to consider the artist’s Homeric collages not as rarified explorations of Western antiquity but as evocations of familiar seekers of a welcoming place to stay.

Serving as curator of this powerful new show is Robert G. O’Meally, Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. The latest publication of this prolific author, Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey, will be available for purchase by museum venues.

An ambitious program of talks, panels, and performances that explores many of the themes raised by the exhibition is envisioned to accompany the exhibition at each location.

Contents Approximately 50 works on paper (collages, watercolors, and drawings), text panels, labels

Supplemental Companion book, brochure, educational and promotional resources

Participation Fee $40,000 per 12-week booking period, plus prorated shipping

Size 300 running feet, est.

Crates To be determined

Weight To be determined

Category Art

Security High

Shipping
$6,000, Prorated

SITES Contacts
Marquette Folley, 202.633.3106 (Content/design)
Shavonne Harding, 202.633.3138 (Scheduling)

Tour Begins
October 2012

Opening	Closing	Host Institution	Status
10/13/12-	1/13/13	Reynolda House Museum of Art, Winston-Salem, NC	Booked
2/2/13-	4/28/13	Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN	Booked
5/18/13-	8/11/13	Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX	Booked
8/31/13-	11/24/13	Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI	Booked
12/14/13-	3/9/14	Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta, GA	Booked
3/29/14-	6/22/14	Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH	Reserved
11/12/14-	2/28/15	Columbia University, Wallach Art Gallery, New York, NY	Reserved

Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey
Full-color exhibition prospectus; Developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, 2009.

>>Free Download

Romare Bearden Exhibition Prospectus, 2009

Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey; DC Moore Gallery, 2008; $35.10; Hard Cover.

Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey is the first in-depth consideration of this artist's compelling collages since they were originally exhibited more than 30 years ago. The book proves to be a surprise to Bearden fans and newcomers alike. (Amazon review)

Book cover of Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey

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