Vision & Activism

The exhibition Romare Bearden: Vision & Activism, will be on view in the Main Gallery of the Susquehanna Art Museum at The Marty and Tom Philips Family Art Center from June 9 to September 23, 2018. Museum members are invited to a special opening preview on Friday, June 8 from 5:00 – 7:00pm.

This exhibition examines how an American artist agitated for social change through the power of his art and writing.  For over fifty years Romare Bearden (1911-1988) depicted, defined, and celebrated the life that surrounded him.

“… it is not my aim to paint about the Negro in America in terms of propaganda. It is precisely my awareness of the distortions required of the polemicist that has caused me to paint the life of my people as I know it-as passionately and dispassionately as Brueghel painted the life of the Flemish people of his day.”

       -Romare Bearden from “Rectangular Structure in My Montage Paintings,” (1969)

To say he had a unique perspective, and heightened skills at expression, only begins to consider his genius. He lived through tumultuous and exciting times of change in this country.  He was involved in political action in and outside of the studio. Whether he worked in text, painting, collage, printmaking, or commissioned publications and murals, he chose to reflect his concerns and experiences in his creations.  This means in his art you see war, struggle and strife, but also ritual, music, and family joy.

Originally curated by Diedra Harris-Kelley, C. Daniel Dawson, and Robert G. O’Meally, as “Artist as Activist” (NYC 2011) this exhibition has been revised and updated for the present tour. Organized by the Romare Bearden Foundation, with generous loans from the Estate of Nanette Bearden, and the DC Moore Gallery, New York; Exhibition Management by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA.