Complexities of Collage Bearden Exhibit Breaks Ground With Largest Collection of Work by Carolyn Cosmos According to his friends and fans, 20th-century artist Romare Bearden was a generous man. He would have been pleased then with the ample retrospective of his work now being shown at the National Gallery of Art. Bearden, who died in 1988, is noted for his complex collage techniques and inventive narrative works that depict his origins in the rural South, industrial Pittsburgh and New Yorkís Harlem. His art deals with both particular subjectsóthe black experience in Americaóand universal themesóroots, mobility, ritual practice, change, family life and dislocated isolation. ìThe Art of Romare Beardenî is the first one-person retrospective ever given to an African American artist at the National Gallery of Art and is the largest exhibition of Beardenís art ever to be shown. About 130 pieces reflect the wide range of his artwork and were selected from more than 2,000 completed pieces in the Bearden canon. The East Wing exhibit thus covers all of the Bearden bases and provides a little something for aficionados and novices alike: an exhibit of firsts and rarely seen works as well as a feast of family fare a nd educational introduction. The show features Beardenís famed collages made of clipped bits taken from magazines, newspapers, photographs and art reproductions, which were then reworked, with odd juxtapositions, into angular patterns. Bearden, who was influenced by Pablo Picasso and his use of African art, converted his cutouts into intricate, crazy quilt pieces resembling cubist art. The artist also worked in paint, ink and other materials, often incorporating them into his collages. His images typically depict black Americans in rural and urban settings using scenes from African art, especially masks, as well as narrative and historical allusions. Many provide visual versions of jazz and blues compositions or depict musical scenes. For the Aficionado For those familiar with Bearden, the exhibit offers the chance to see pieces from private collections brought to Washington by curator Ruth Fine. This includes ìThe Family,î an early painting influenced by Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, which has never been previously exhibited or reproduced. Similarly, in the last gallery are illustrations for ìLiíl Dan, the Drummer Boy: A Civil War Story,î a childrenís book Bearden wrote and illustrated that was recently rediscovered and published last year. While in California, Fine found an almost unknown 1974 Bearden piece: a large collage that includes images from the civil rights movement. Titled ìBerkeleyóThe City and Its People,î the collage is being shown for the first time outside of the City Council building in Berkeley where it was commissioned and installed. The exhibit also includes the only known Bearden sculpture. ìMauritiusî is a wonderful piece of dark and light wood and bright paint that depicts an early Christian martyr from Africa. It is paired with a textile collage titled ìCaptivity and Resistanceî that shows the 1839 slave ship rebellion aboard the Amistad. Like the blues music that echoes throughout Beardenís work, these two pieces are celebratory while at the same time grim, portrayingóthrough texture, color, rhythm and narrative forceóbeauty and heroism in the most desperate of circumstances. In addition, the show offers a chance to explore Beardenís continuing experiments with technique in his lesser-heralded and sometimes dismissed later works, including his Caribbean-inspired landscapes, which appear in the final galleries of the exhibit. For example, in pieces such as ìOf the Blues: At the Savoy,î Bearden began using spray paint. Supplementing the ìadditiveî collage process, he also began scraping and sanding surfaces and painting them with color-removing turpentine, explained Marcie Hocking, an academic intern who worked with curator Fine on the exhibit. This developed into ìcollage paintingî and late experiments with monotype, which were painted images pressed onto paper from plastic. Mainstream Delights Mainstream highlights include some of the works that put Bearden on the map. Showcased in the second gallery are ìTrain Whistle Blues: Iî and ìTrain Whistle Blues: II,î collages consisting of cutout imagesómany of African American faces staring straight at the viewerówith rural references and train imagery. Also of note is an intricate and densely imaged work titled ìSermons: The Walls of Jericho.î It includes tightly tiled cutouts of African masks, numerous faces and images of classical Greek and Roman architecture arranged in a circular pattern. The biblical title refers to an African American gospel song and possibly civil rights battles. In the ìMecklenburg Memoriesî gallery, viewers will find the blues-inspired collage ìTomorrow I May Be Far Away.î In this striking work, a somber man next to a woman in a field stares straight out into the room. The picture evokes the Great Migration to the urban north that many southern American blacks, including Beardenís parents, undertook in the first half of the 20th century. In ìThe City and Its Musicî gallery, the exhibit presents more of Beardenís music-inspired works, such as ìThe Blues,î a piece that relies on colored paper, paint and ink as well as cutouts to depict jazz players and singer Billie Holiday with a flower in her hair. Bearden not only presents images of jazz players, instruments and Harlem club scenes, he explicitly incorporates traditional African American ìcall-and-responseî features and the rhythms of jazz, translating them into colorful echoes and repeating shapes. Family Fare There is a clear attempt to make the Bearden exhibit accessible to those less familiar with his art. The best place to start is, oddly enough, in the last gallery with a 12-minute video introduction. Itís a family-friendly undertaking for those whose children can tolerate museum trips, in which children can pick out pictures of trains or listen to tutorials on American history and modern art. A number of Beardenís works feature images of family scenes or community religious rites. There are also a few scattered nudes parents may want to be aware of, many in a gallery titled ìWomen.î There are also a variety of free films being shown and an array of CDs, books, and videos for all ages and attention spans. The scholarly exhibit catalog by Fine boasts 224 color plates and is a bargain at $35. A buffet-style brunch with live jazz will be performed at the Terrace CafÈ every weekend in conjunction with the exhibit. ìThe Art of Romare Beardenî runs through Jan. 4 at the National Gallery of Art, 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue, NW. For more information, please call (202) 737-4215 or visit www.nga.gov. Carolyn Cosmos is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.