The Art of Romare Bearden, the Prevalence of Ritual

Presumed first printing of the first edition. Printed and bound in Japan. 13.5 x 11.25 inches. Bound in dark blue linen-like cloth hardboards, with silver lettering. A bit of sun-fading to the top and bottom edges of the cloth boards. Unbumped spine head and tail, and with generally sharp corners. A little bit of play to the front hinge; quite minor. Text block firmly bound in. Blue pastedowns/FEPs. With 230 numbered pages, all of heavy coated stock and with moderate age-yellowing at the edges. With 91 plates throughout, including many full-page, full-color plates. Plate 81 is a fold-out in four panels. A reasonably clean interior. The attractive pictorial dust jacket is unclipped; DJ with trivial rubbing only. DJ protected by a transparent Mylar over-wrapper. A Very Good Minus copy in a Very Good DJ. 7 lbs. 1 oz. Romare Bearden [1911-1988] was an American artist, author, and songwriter of extraordinary accomplishment. He worked with many types of media including cartoons, oils, and collages. Bearden's early work focused on unity and cooperation within the African-American community. After a period during the 1950s when he painted more abstractly, the theme reemerged in his collage works of the 1960s. The New York Times described Bearden as "the nation's foremost collagist" in his obituary. Bearden became a founding member of the Harlem-based art group known as Spiral, formed to discuss the responsibility of the African-American artist in the civil rights movement. Bearden was the author or coauthor of several books. He also was a songwriter, known as co-writer of the jazz classic "Sea Breeze", which was recorded by Billy Eckstine, a former high school classmate at Peabody High School, and Dizzy Gillespie. He had long supported young, emerging artists and he and his wife established the Bearden Foundation to continue this work, as well as to support young scholars. In 1987, Bearden was awarded the National Medal of Arts.…