As he paged through an exhibition catalog of Romare Bearden’s artwork, August Wilson was captivated by a collage titled “The Piano Lesson.”
The image inspired Wilson to write a play with that same title. “The Piano Lesson” was the Pittsburgh-born playwright’s attempt to answer his questions about self-worth and how a family copes with its legacy. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990.
Later, Wilson explained why Bearden’s vivid collage dazzled him: “What I saw was Black life presented on its own terms, on a grand and epic scale, with all its richness and fullness, in a language that was vibrant. … I found my artistic mentor and sought … to make my plays the equal of his canvasses. [sic].”
Like all truly great artists, Bearden experimented with visual language, redefining himself and reinventing his art throughout his career. The artist’s long path unfolds in “Romare Bearden: Artist As Activist And Visionary,” an exhibition that runs through Sept. 18 at The Frick Pittsburgh in Point Breeze.
Organized by the Romare Bearden Foundation, the show of 50 artworks traces the artist’s work as a political cartoonist for Black newspapers to painting social realism. Next came canvases of Abstract Expressionism and graphic illustrations for major American magazines like Time, TV Guide and Fortune.
Bearden’s vivid artwork exalts Black women, domestic life and the power of daily rituals. An excellent example is his mosaic “Quilting Time.” His richly textured collages cemented his reputation. When he died at age 76 in 1988, The New York Times called him “one of America’s preeminent artists.”
On two occasions, Bearden lived in Pittsburgh with his maternal grandparents, Carrie and George Banks. The couple housed and fed mill workers who boarded at their Lawrenceville home. That experience exposed Bearden to the physically demanding lives of mill workers.
He graduated from Peabody High School in 1929 and attended Lincoln and Boston universities before graduating from New York University.
His world view was shaped by what he experienced in North Carolina cotton fields, New Orleans brothels, Pittsburgh’s smoke-filled neighborhoods and Harlem’s vibrant culture. As an adolescent and adult, Bearden lived with his parents in Harlem, a racially mixed neighborhood where he learned to play sandlot baseball and soaked up cabaret nightlife.
During the Great Depression, Bearden was employed as a social worker in New York City and saw firsthand how people were struggling. His first exhibition in 1940 in Harlem featured 24 works, including “Soup Kitchen.” It may remind some viewers of Vincent Van Gogh’s “Potato Eaters.” His 1942 scene “Factory Workers” illustrated a Forbes Magazine story about discrimination against Black workers during World War II.
An ardent advocate for fellow Black artists, Bearden encouraged, documented and preserved their work. In 1963, with three colleagues, Bearden founded Spiral, an arts collective. Six years later, Bearden and two colleagues founded the Cinque Gallery. He also co-founded the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Bearden’s artistic breakthrough came in October 1964. That’s when the 53-year-old artist exhibited nearly two dozen billboard-sized, black-and-white photographic enlargements of collages.
The images featured a woman in the act of conjuring and Black people on city streets or in cotton fields. The pictures were disturbing but also joyful, an examination of the ceremonies and traditions of Black culture.
Four years later, Bearden’s mesmerizing portrait of New York City Mayor John Lindsay, his hands thrown up in frustration, appeared on Time Magazine’s cover on Nov. 1, 1968. Bearden also illustrated the 1977 cover of TV Guide for the broadcast of Alex Haley’s groundbreaking series “Roots.”
Every day, Pittsburgh transit riders see Bearden’s mural “Pittsburgh Recollections” in Downtown’s Gateway T station. Commissioned in 1984, the large artwork was preserved and rebuilt when the station was replaced.
This exhibition gives Western Pennsylvanians a chance to appreciate and discover this multifaceted, multitalented artist. One summer, Bearden pitched against Satchel Paige when the future MLB Hall of Famer played for the Pittsburgh Crawfords. He also co-wrote “Seabreeze,” a jazz standard that became a 1954 hit for crooner Billy Eckstine, Bearden’s high school classmate.
Not only is Bearden’s work captivating but his philosophy, as he summarized it, is beautiful: “Do everything in your power not just to protest a failed world, but to depict one where community responsibility and love are real.”
Marylynne Pitz (mlpitz27@gmail.com) is a Pittsburgh-based arts journalist.
First Published: July 15, 2022, 10:00 a.m.
