ROMARE BEARDEN (1911 - 1988)
Mysteries.

Collagraph printed in brown on cream wove paper, circa 1970. 370x440 mm; 14½x17⅜ inches, wide margins. Signed in pencil, lower left.

This scarce collagraph is an interpretation of the subject depicted in the same-titled 1964 Bearden photostat collage in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Art historian Ruth Fine linked these experimental works to his early collaboration with Bob Blackburn - "The collagraph process grows directly from collage, the reason Blackburn saw it as a useful approach for Bearden. The name suggests the method: 'collage prints.'" Bearden would later revisit this composition with Blackburn to produce his 1975 color etching The Train. Fine p. 60; Gelburd/Rosenberg 19.