Hofstra University Museum of Art: Romare Bearden: Storyteller

HOFSTRA UNIVERSIT Y MUSEUM

Front cover credit:

Romare Bearden (American, 1911-1988) Homage to Mary Lou (The Piano Lesson), 1984, lithograph, Edition: 97/100, 29 ¼ x 20 ¼ in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, Gift of Dr. Dorothy Cohen, HU91.1 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY © 2018 Hofstra University Museum All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the Hofstra University Museum.

HOFSTR A UNIVERSIT Y MUSEUM

January 23 – August 17, 2018 | Emily Lowe Gallery

Funding has been provided by Sterling National Bank and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Foreword

The Hofstra University Museum is proud to present this visual gathering of stories by the revered artist Romare Bearden. These works of art are part of the Museum’s rich collection of art from around the world, past and present.

They represent the narratives that shape us, reflect our very being, and connect us to one another.

As Karen T. Albert, deputy director and chief curator of the Museum and curator of this exhibition, describes in her essay, Bearden was the consummate Renaissance man. His stories were woven from the fabric of his experiences as a 20th-century American artist, activist, athlete, author, soldier, scholar, museum founder, friend, and mentor.

For nearly six decades, Bearden created works of art that continue to resonate with us today. We recognize his themes of family, ritual, personal memory, and sense of place, and his emphasis on African-American culture. Bearden’s inspirations were encyclopedic, crossing continents, centuries, and cultures, and embracing literature, history, music, and visual art. He drew inspiration from many art traditions: blues and jazz music, traditional African sculpture, European old masters, Chinese landscapes, and Mexican and American contemporary art.

While his work references his personal history, stories of the African-American experience, and the biblical stories and myths of the past, he was able to combine these diverse narratives to create imagery that is both universal and personal. In studying art history, Bearden began using Photostats – black and white reproductions – of old master European works of art. Drawn by the realization that all the figures were white, Bearden began transforming the images, substituting the white figures with black figures, and merging his African and African-American background with the cannons of Western culture. And so, his storytelling and his art took on a new form and a new cause.

The stories presented here, familiar and new, are made visible by the genius of this singular American artist. Bearden’s vocabulary is that of art: line, shape, space, color, and texture, which he magnificently employs to tell his tales. He used collage as his distinct technique for exercising this vocabulary, a technique that provided structure for his visual improv. Collage enabled him to experiment with composition, constructing dense and rich images using bold colors, shapes, and forms that he fractured, rotated, and layered onto the page to convey the story. Notice, for instance, his figures in The Family, how the faces and hands are clearly individual elements of varied sizes, color, and shades, tumbled together with breaks and rhythms that unify into one.

Never still, Bearden was always experimenting, working in oil, gouache, watercolor, drawing, and printmaking.

Printmaking allowed Bearden to further explore approaches to his art, re-working the collages into prints and adding another dimension to his work. We are pleased to present a number of prints in the exhibition that reveal this process of experimentation; other works that engage us in the artist’s re-telling of classic stories and of his own memories. His work inspires us to look and listen closely, to reflect and ask questions about our expectations and assumptions about art, intent, and universality, and to embrace the powers of creativity in telling the stories that need to be told. Enjoy these works by Romare Bearden, and be nourished, instructed, and inspired.

We are grateful to the following donors for the gifts of Romare Bearden prints: Dr. Dorothy Cohen, Richard Cohen, Carole and Alex Rosenberg, and Robert Savin. The generous support of the Rosenbergs over many years is particularly appreciated. In his essay for this catalog, Alex’s memories and personal perspective on Bearden provide a more intimate view of the artist.

Nancy Richner

Director, Hofstra University Museum

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I Still Hear Their Voices: Romare Bearden (excerpt from an unpublished manuscript)

If one seeks an example of a life where talent and faith triumphed over a history of adversity, Romare Bearden is an obvious choice. Being African-American and choosing a career as an artist was not the surest route to success in the United States when Bearden began his career. At that time, very few African-Americans had reached national status as artists or had even attained a level of success in other fields that would allow them an income sufficient to support themselves and their families.

Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden’s memories of his youth in Mecklenberg County never left him and were his greatest source of artistic inspiration. I met Bearden and we became fast friends during the early 1970s. Because of his early financial and artistic struggles, Bearden developed into a person with great social awareness. His statement, “I can’t divorce myself from the inequities that are around me,” succinctly sums up his philosophy.

In 1973, because of my respect for him and his art, I commissioned him to make an etching edition for me. At that time, African-American art still had a very limited market – few African-Americans had enough money to buy art and monied whites weren’t as yet interested in the work of artists of color.

Together with Bob Blackburn, the great African-American printmaker, Bearden created an excellent print, The Train, which broke new ground in printmaking. Using screens set before portions of Bearden’s collages, they made a black and white photo of the image. This process, using differently designed meshes, overlaid each time, created a final photo so complicated that only a person involved in the process could guess how it had been made. A photoengraved etching plate was then made, and Bearden created two aquatint plates to supply the color contrast required to make the print attractive.

When I asked Bearden the meaning of the emphasis on the train, he explained that a train was one of the most important things in the lives of African-American children in the rural South. Each train had a name which they knew; as it passed they could dream about and associate with the images of the cities to which the train was going, cities they had never seen. Shortly thereafter, when I asked him to define his art, he again tied his answer to The Train. He answered by quoting a statement of his own, printed in the monograph written about him: “I work out of a response and need to redefine the image of man in terms of the Negro experience I know best.”

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The print certainly did “work” visually, so well that John Loring, shortly thereafter, writing in Arts Magazine, referred to it as one of the 10 most important prints of our time. Bearden and Blackburn had invented a new printmaking method. Because everything they did was new and previously untested, the considerable amount of proofing needed to finally arrive at a state and stage that satisfied both the artist and the technician made this one of the most costly prints I ever produced. But it was surely worth the cost and anxiety it caused me while I waited for a finished proof I approved, for when completed, one of the first purchase orders was unsolicited – from the Museum of Modern Art, New York. (The Train is now in the MoMA’s permanent collection.)

I was so happy with the reception The Train received from the few people who understood what Bearden had accomplished that I asked him to use the same technique in making another print for me. Bearden and Jacob Lawrence were the two I had chosen to represent African-American artists in the American Portrait, and for this publication he created what many consider to be his best print, The Family.

He came to dinner one night. The conversation was the usual – art and artists – until Bearden quietly began to talk about his youth as an African-American child in Charlotte. His words became submerged in the poetry of his voice, producing a mesmerizing effect on his dinner companions. I remember a pleasant sadness, everyone in tears, and my not wanting the spell he cast over us to ever end.

Several months later he died, and my wife Carole and I were invited to a memorial service to be held for him at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. There, in death, Bearden was given the honor he had never received during his life. The enormous church was filled with the famous and non-famous who came to honor a person born a poor black in the South, who lived to become a great man in New York. It seemed the entire AfricanAmerican cultural world was not only present, but in charge of honoring Bearden that day, while the white art community sat humbly among them paying homage to this art world giant. His art hung on the walls of the cathedral, and I felt his presence in his works, each of which contained at least a little of his soul.

It was Romy’s death, more than that of any other artist, which finally forced me to acknowledge my mortality. While sitting in the cathedral, waiting for the memorial services to begin, I counted 20 close artist friends with whom I could never again share a day or an idea, but who would probably have been sitting with us honoring Bearden had they been alive.

Bearden was a fine man and a great artist who, like others, was not prepared for greatness. He kept no detailed records of his activities. The retrospective of his prints and the planned catalog of his prints, which I organized with Dr. Gail Gelburd, have put me in an uneasy mood. There is no way for me to be certain we were able to include all his prints. But, even if we failed – and I fear we did – it remains a great honor for me to have shown and described what was then believed to be his entire print work.

Alex J. Rosenberg, ScD November 2017

Alex J. Rosenberg is an art dealer, appraiser of fine art, and teacher – beginning his art career as a printmaker in the late 1960s. He has published more than 600 editions of limited-edition prints. Over the years, he and his wife, Carole, have made important contributions to the Hofstra University Museum’s permanent collections.

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Curator’s Statement

Romare Bearden: Storyteller and Printmaker

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Romare Bearden (American, 1911-1988) was a multitalented artist. He was a visual artist, author, and songwriter who drew from his personal experience to illustrate the broader experience of African-Americans, telling stories that connected the past to the 20th century. Delving into his personal experiences for insight, Bearden told stories through images that had a purpose. He merged his artistic expression with his cultural heritage to provide social commentary.

Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden moved with his family in 1920 to Harlem, New York. Their household was a meeting place for many artists and writers of what has become known as the Harlem Renaissance. Based primarily in that neighborhood during the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance witnessed a resurgence of art, dance, literature, and music by African-Americans, including such notable figures as Aaron Douglas, W.E.B. Du Bois, Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Augusta Savage, and Charles White. Bearden was particularly fascinated by jazz and worked in a similar improvisational manner. This valuable foundation in literature and music remained with him throughout his lifetime.

Bearden completed his formal education in 1935, earning a degree in education from New York University. While working as a case worker for the New York City Department of Social Work, he continued to study art, including time at the Art Students League with artist George Grosz, and had his first solo exhibition in 1940. With assistance from the G.I. Bill, in 1950 Bearden traveled to Paris, where he studied philosophy at the Sorbonne. He interacted with many European artists, such as Constantin Brancusi, Georges Braque, and Henri Matisse, and was influenced by modernist ideas of Cubist space and Fauvist color. Upon his return to the United States, Bearden continued his work in the visual arts along with songwriting and, in 1961, began a long-standing relationship with the Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery in New York City. Since the 1960s, his work has been exhibited at galleries and art institutions, nationally and internationally, culminating in a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1971.

Bearden, along with artists Charles Alston, Norman Lewis, and Hale Woodruff, was a founding member of the Spiral Group. An African-American artist’s collective active from 1963 to 1965 in New York City, the Group examined the relationship between art and social activism. The Group’s name referred to the Archimedean spiral which moves from a starting point outward in all directions while continuing to move forward. The Group did not have a common style but, rather, encouraged experimentation and individualistic approaches. One issue they debated was whether a figurative style or more radical abstraction was more effective to illustrate the African-American experience. Although active for only a brief time, the Spiral Group encouraged discussions about such issues as philosophy, creativity, and artistic freedom, especially as they addressed the artist’s role in social change. After the March on Washington in 1963, the Group’s meetings took on a more activist role.

Bearden’s mature style developed over many years as he worked through modes of social realism, figuration, and abstraction. In the 1960s, he focused on his unique collage method, which combined historical and present-day imagery with a modernist concern for space and form. To create his collages, Bearden mixed together a variety of media: paint, colored paper, fabric, pencil, and magazine photographs. He often photocopied elements, such as faces and hands, and then manipulated and reassembled them. The collage work legitimized the use of common materials to fine art. His subject matter typically merged references of the rural American South and African ancestry (textiles and masks) with the cosmopolitan urban North. Using collage allowed Bearden to assemble, layer, and juxtapose contradictory images into a unified whole.

Bearden’s experimental and improvisational style can be seen in his printmaking work. In the late 1960s, he began a collaboration with the Printmaking Workshop, a nonprofit studio run by his longtime friend, the artist and master printer Robert Blackburn (1920-2003). Throughout his career, Bearden worked at the Workshop and with other printers to complete more than 100 prints using various techniques, often combining different printmaking methods

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and developing new processes to create images resembling his collages. Bearden viewed printmaking as an outlet for experimentation and as a way to reach a larger audience, since prints are created in multiples and allow many individuals to own the same image. Determining the exact number of his prints can be difficult, since many of his works were not created as full editions. (An edition refers to the number of impressions of a particular image produced; it can appear on the print as a fraction such as 5/25, meaning the fifth one made of the 25 works in the edition.) Many of the prints on view in this exhibition tell the story of the print and the printmaking process. An artist will often pull proofs at various stages during the development and production of a print, providing a glimpse into the artist’s creative process and revealing the evolution of the final image. Bearden’s working style was very improvisational and intuitive.

After running a print through the press, he would often add collage elements or watercolors, or make changes to the ink color, creating a unique image. Through the generosity of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, the publisher of many of Bearden’s prints, the Hofstra University Museum is fortunate to be able to exhibit several prints at various stages of the process, providing insight into the artist’s printmaking process. Many of the prints in the exhibition are not part of an edition but rather exclusive, unique impressions given to friends, as seen by the notations “For Carole” and “For Alex” on the print.

To create The Train, which was based on a 1964 collage, Bearden and Blackburn combined intaglio printing techniques, which used etching and photoengraving to recreate the appearance of the original collage. They utilized a series of photographs and mesh screens to produce the photogravure plate, which was manipulated and reassembled to print the color image. Prints made with multiple colors require separate plates, stones, or screens for each color.

The colors are printed sequentially, carefully and exactly placed on top of each other to produce the final image, a process called registration. The train, referred to in the title, can be seen in the upper left of the image. The subject matter of the print refers to everyday life and the larger ideas of migration and segregation. Beginning in the early 20th century, there was a mass movement of African-Americans, known as the Great Migration, from the rural South to the industrialized cities of the Northeast and Midwest. Often traveling by train, they sought better jobs and living conditions. For Bearden, trains were an important presence in the rural South, as they connected families and transported them in many directions.

The Family was also created by using multiple photographic transparencies to create a base printing plate. The patterns and textures were produced using additional plates, including the use of aquatint, an etching technique that results in a watercolor-like appearance. Bearden printed – or “pulled” – numerous proofs of this image. He worked by hand, adding and subtracting elements including changes in color. One print on view (HU91.22) includes his handwritten notes, such as “face OK here” and “blue,” commenting on the color and design of the print. The daily life of an African-American family was a typical subject matter for the artist. In The Family, preparations for a meal are underway and, along with the rural, domestic setting, Bearden has added a female nude that is separated from the family group by a wall. The addition of such elements and the seemingly arbitrary changes in scale add to the mystery and surreal quality of the image.

On occasion, Bearden created print editions to raise funds for his wife’s dance company, the Nanette Bearden Contemporary Dance Theater, as he did with Homage to Mary Lou/The Piano Lesson. This lithograph was based on a collage titled The Piano Lesson completed in 1983 and was one of many works Bearden completed on the themes of memory and music. Bearden translated the collage into a 24-color lithograph which emphasized his bold use of color. Lithography is a process where the artist draws with a greasy crayon or paints with a liquid tusche directly on a stone or plate, capturing the hand of the artist. The print was commissioned by the Theater in honor of Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981), a jazz pianist and composer. In the image, the piano teacher hovers closely over the student, intimately involved in the lesson. The collage was also the inspiration for Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson’s play The Piano Lesson.

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Bearden’s imagery captured many aspects of African-American daily life. References to the Bible and religious traditions in lithographs such as Pilate and Three Women (Easter Sunday) emphasized the importance of spirituality within his community. In these prints, and many others, the way the figures are portrayed and the inclusion of areas resembling African textiles and patterns are reminiscent of his collage works. Bearden also employed the screenprinting process to create some of his prints. Screenprinting, a process that uses a type of stencil, can produce large areas of saturated, flat color. In Mother and Child, he combined printing methods to create the final image. The solid color rectangles of the background are screenprinted, while the figures in the foreground were created using a photolithographic technique. Bearden’s mother and child images emphasize the importance of family and often invoke the religious icon of the Madonna and child.

Bearden also drew inspiration from classical literature. In the series titled the Odysseus Suite, he reinterpreted scenes from the journeys of the Greek poet Homer’s hero. The Greek warrior Odysseus left his home to fight in the Trojan War, which lasted 10 years. He spent the next 10 years confronting violence and temptations before finding his way home to Ithaca and his wife, Penelope. Bearden portrayed the story using black figures, connecting the universality of the ancient Greek idea of finding one’s way home to 20th-century African-American life. The hero – whether a Greek warrior or an African-American man – faced many challenges and struggles during his travels and triumphed over them all to discover his path home. Bearden equated the African-American experience with the ancient tale to address the shared humanity of people from all backgrounds.

The gracefully drawn black calligraphic figures in the Odysseus Suite are reminiscent of the human forms depicted on ancient Greek vases and Matisse’s paper cut-out figures. Originally conceived as collages and watercolors, the images were translated by Bearden into screenprints exploiting the medium’s characteristic saturated colors and flatness. The six screenprints from the Odysseus Suite in the exhibition illustrate various events along the hero’s journey back to Ithaca. Odysseus Leaves shows a group of figures, mostly women, sending him off to join the battle for Troy. The Fall of Troy depicts the aftermath of the battle, as the sacked city burns and the Trojan horse stands to the right of the image. Odysseus continues his voyage home encountering Circe, who initially turns his crew into pigs. After Circe and Odysseus become lovers, she transforms them back into human form and they spend a year on her island. Circe advises Odysseus about the route to Ithaca and instructs him and his crew to plug their ears in order to sail safely past the Sirens. As seen in Siren’s Song, Odysseus had his crew lash him to the mast so he alone could hear their song. Their travels include a stop at Thrinacia, the island of the Sun, as depicted in Cattle of the Sun God. At the island, while Odysseus lies in spell-induced sleep, his crew yields to hunger and feasts upon the cattle of the Sun God. In anger, the god Zeus kills the crew and Odysseus continues on alone. In Home to Ithaca, the warrior Odysseus, holding a shield and spear, finally returns triumphant.

Romare Bearden was a prolific artist who experimented with different mediums and artistic approaches before focusing on his unique collage style. The collage technique allowed him to densely layer many references, creating overlapping meanings. His experiments in printmaking broke new ground, allowing him to recreate his imagery in multiples and make his work available to a wider audience. Bearden created art that related his personal journeys with those of universal heroes and connected them to the African-American experience.

Karen T. Albert

Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Hofstra University Museum

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Resources for further study The Romare Bearden Foundation. http://www.beardenfoundation.org/index2.shtml John Dorfman. “The Storyteller.” Art & Antiques Magazine. October 2012.

Gail Gelburd, editor, Alex Rosenberg. A Graphic Odyssey: Romare Bearden as Printmaker.

University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.

Mark M. Johnson. “From Process to Print: Graphic Works by Romare Bearden.” Arts & Activities.

February 2010, Volume 147 Issue 1, p. 19-21.

Theresa Leininger-Miller. “Harlem Renaissance.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 23 Oct. 2017. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T2094335>.

Dennis Raverty. “Bearden, Romare.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.

Web. 23 Oct. 2017. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T2085630>.

Deborah Wye, Artists and Prints: Masterworks from The Museum of Modern Art, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2004, p. 221 (Moma.org 10/4/17).

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Works of Art

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Conjunction, 1979 Lithograph, edition 86/300, 18 7/8 x 15 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Robert Savin, HU86.132 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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The Family, 1975 Aquatint, etching, and photoengraving, edition HC 7/25, 19 5/8 x 25 3/4 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU91.24 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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The Family, 1975 Aquatint, etching, and photoengraving with pencil notations, 19 1/2 x 26 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU91.22 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

The Family, 1975 Aquatint, etching, and photoengraving with handcoloring, 20 3/16 x 25 5/8 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU91.21 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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The Family, 1975 Aquatint, etching, and photoengraving with handcoloring and collage, 19 3/4 x 25 1/2 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU86.177 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

The Family (Dinner Time), 1975 Etching and photoengraving with collage, edition AP 2/12, 19 1/2 x 26 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU86.239 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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Firebirds, 1979 Lithograph, edition 291/300, 21 3/4 x 15 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU88.30 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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Homage to Mary Lou (The Piano Lesson), 1984 Lithograph, edition 97/100, 29 1/4 x 20 1/4 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Dr. Dorothy Cohen, HU91.1 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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Mother and Child, 1977 Screenprint and photolithograph, edition 76/150, 24 x 18 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU91.27 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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Olympics, 1976 Screenprint, 37 7/8 x 23 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU86.206 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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Pilate, 1979 Lithograph, edition 82/300, 22 x 15 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU88.31 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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Three Women (Easter Sunday), 1979 Lithograph, edition 272/300, 20 5/16 x 15 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU91.19 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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The Train, 1974 Aquatint, etching, and photoengraving, primary proof, 17 5/16 x 24 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU91.25 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

The Train, 1974 Aquatint, etching, and photoengraving with handcoloring, working proof, 22 1/4 x 29 3/4 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU86.176 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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The Train, 1974 Aquatint, etching, and photoengraving with handcoloring, 17 3/4 x 23 1/2 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU86.215 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

The Train, 1974 Etching and photoengraving on Fabriano board, color proof, 18 x 23 3/4 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU91.26 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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Cattle of the Sun God from the Odysseus Suite, 1979 Screenprint, 18 1/4 x 22 1/4 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Richard Cohen, HU99.16.1 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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Circe into Swine from the Odysseus Suite, 1979 Screenprint, 18 5/8 x 23 1/2 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Richard Cohen, HU99.16.2 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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The Fall of Troy (Troy, the Burning of Troy) from the Odysseus Suite, 1979 Screenprint, edition AP 1/12, 18 x 24 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Richard Cohen, HU99.16.4 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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Home to Ithaca from the Odysseus Suite, 1979 Screenprint, 15 x 24 1/8 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Richard Cohen, HU99.16.6 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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Odysseus Leaves from the Odysseus Suite, 1979 Screenprint, edition XII/LXXV, 18 1/4 x 24 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Richard Cohen, HU99.16.5 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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Siren’s Song from the Odysseus Suite, 1979 Screenprint, edition AP 1/12, 18 x 24 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Richard Cohen, HU99.16.3 Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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Works of Art

ROMARE BEARDEN: Storyteller All works are courtesy of the artist.

Cattle of the Sun God from the Odysseus Suite, 1979 Screenprint 18 1/4 x 22 1/4 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Richard Cohen, HU99.16.1

The Family, 1975 Aquatint, etching, and photoengraving, edition HC 7/25 19 5/8 x 25 3/4 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU91.24

The Family (Dinner Time), 1975 Etching and photoengraving with collage, edition AP 2/12 19 1/2 x 26 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU86.239

Circe into Swine from the Odysseus Suite, 1979 Screenprint 18 5/8 x 23 1/2 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Richard Cohen, HU99.16.2

The Family, 1975 Aquatint, etching, and photoengraving with pencil notations 19 1/2 x 26 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU91.22

Firebirds, 1979 Lithograph, edition 291/300 21 3/4 x 15 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU88.30

Conjunction, 1979 Lithograph, edition 86/300 18 7/8 x 15 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Robert Savin, HU86.132

The Family, 1975 Aquatint, etching, and photoengraving with handcoloring 20 3/16 x 25 5/8 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU91.21

The Fall of Troy (Troy, the Burning of Troy) from the Odysseus Suite, 1979 Screenprint, edition AP 1/12 18 x 24 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Richard Cohen, HU99.16.4

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The Family, 1975 Aquatint, etching, and photoengraving with handcoloring and collage 19 3/4 x 25 1/2 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU86.177

Homage to Mary Lou (The Piano Lesson), 1984 Lithograph, edition 97/100 29 1/4 x 20 1/4 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Dr. Dorothy Cohen, HU91.1 Home to Ithaca from the Odysseus Suite, 1979 Screenprint 15 x 24 1/8 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Richard Cohen, HU99.16.6

Mother and Child, 1977 Screenprint and photolithograph, edition 76/150 24 x 18 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU91.27

Siren’s Song from the Odysseus Suite, 1979 Screenprint, edition AP 1/12 18 x 24 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Richard Cohen, HU99.16.3

The Train, 1974 Aquatint, etching, and photoengraving with handcoloring 17 3/4 x 23 1/2 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU86.215

Odysseus Leaves from the Odysseus Suite, 1979 Screenprint, edition XII/LXXV 18 1/4 x 24 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Richard Cohen, HU99.16.5

Three Women (Easter Sunday), 1979 Lithograph, edition 272/300 20 5/16 x 15 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU91.19

The Train, 1974 Etching and photoengraving on Fabriano board, color proof 18 x 23 3/4 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU91.26

Olympics, 1976 Screenprint 37 7/8 x 23 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU86.206 Pilate, 1979 Lithograph, edition 82/300 22 x 15 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU88.31

The Train, 1974 Aquatint, etching, and photoengraving, primary proof 17 5/16 x 24 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU91.25 The Train, 1974 Aquatint, etching, and photoengraving with handcoloring, working proof 22 1/4 x 29 3/4 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections, gift of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, HU86.176

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HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY STUART RABINOWITZ President Andrew M. Boas and Mark L. Claster Distinguished Professor of Law GAIL M. SIMMONS Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY MUSEUM NANCY RICHNER Director KAREN T. ALBERT Deputy Director and Chief Curator NICOLE BERBERENA Museum Educator ELISA BRUNO Museum Educator ELIZABETH DYSART Director of Education and Engagement RENEE B. KUROT Museum Educator KARLA ODERWALD Senior Assistant to Director PAMELA K. OLLENDORFF Coordinator of Education and Public Programs KRISTEN RUDY Collections Manager AMY G. SOLOMON Museum Educator CHARMISE WOODSIDE-DESIRÉ Communications Director GRADUATE ASSISTANTSHIP Cassandra Oswald GRADUATE ASSISTANTS Danielle Giovannitti, Meinka Hora, Matthew Howard, Tiffany Nieves UNDERGRADUATE ASSISTANTS Nicole Chevalier, Rachel Davis, Jonathan Fidis, Shaina Martin, Eiryn Sheades