Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations
Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations
Mint Museum Uptown
February 11 – May 21, 2023
Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations examines the impact of Pablo Picasso’s rich artistic practice on Romare Bearden and his work. The exhibition is divided into four sections: Bulls & Bullfights; Music & Rhythm; Doors & Windows; and Line & Color. Each section will feature works by Pablo Picasso and Romare Bearden.
While various aspects of Bearden’s engagement with Picasso and Cubism have been occasionally explored, this is the first museum exhibition organized to explore the parallels between the artists. The works in the exhibition are drawn from the Mint’s deep holdings of Bearden’s art, as well as from both private and museum collections.
More about the exhibition
Bearden was an ardent scholar of art history who saw many examples of Picasso’s work in New York in the 1940s. Bearden wrote about various aspects of Picasso’s work during that time and also met Picasso in Paris in the 1950s. The influence of Cubism, and of Picasso’s work in particular, can be seen across Bearden’s career, from his early oils and watercolors of the 1940s in which his subjects are presented in abstracted planes of color. In the 1950s, Bearden’s experimentations with pure abstraction and Cubism can be seen at play. Bearden’s later collages reveal the impact of various aspects of Picasso’s work, ranging from the way in which he constructed pictorial space to his use of silhouetted figures and African masks.
Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds and Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations is generously presented in Charlotte by Bank of America, the City of Charlotte, Duke Energy, Mecklenburg County, M.A. Rogers, Ann and Michael Tarwater, North Carolina Arts Council, and Moore & Van Allen. Additional generous support is provided by: Leigh-ann and Martin Sprock; Robin and Bill Branstrom, Sally G. Cooper, Laura and Mike Grace, Marshelette and Milton Prime; Posey and Mark Mealy; Chandra and Jimmie Johnson; Marty and Weston Andress, Mary and Walt Beaver, Betsy and Alfred Brand; toni and Alfred Kendrick, Beth and Drew Quartapella, Rocky and Curtis Trenkelbach, Charlotte and John Wickham; Mary Lou and Jim Babb, and Jo Ann and Joddy Peer. The Mint Museum is supported, in part, by the Infusion Fund and its generous donors. Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds is organized by the American Federation of Arts with guest curator Laurance Madeline. The exhibition is generously supported by Monique Schoen Warshaw. Additional support has been provided by Lee White Galvis, Clare E. McKeon, and Stephanie R. La Nasa. Support for the accompanying publication provided by Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund. Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations is organized by The Mint Museum.
