Summertime
- Artist
- Romare Bearden, American, 1911–1988
- Date
- 1967
- Material
- Collage on board
- made in
- United States, North and Central America
- Classification
- Collages & montages
- Current Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 56 × 44 in. (142.2 × 111.8 cm)
framed: 68 3/8 × 56 1/8 × 2 1/4 in. (173.7 × 142.6 × 5.7 cm) - Credit Line
- Museum Minority Artists Purchase Fund
- Rights
- © Romare Bearden Foundation / Licensed by ARS, New York, NY
- Object Number
- 22:1999
NOTES
This work by Romare Bearden, which belongs to a small number of large-scale collages he created in the 1960s, exemplifies the artist's commitment to the African-American experience. A woman eats an ice-cream cone in front of a brownstone, a man sits on a chair, and two oversized faces peer from behind window shades. The ice cream and open windows evoke the summer's heat. The woman's pose suggests a singer holding a microphone, and the title summons Cole Porter's lyric that "the living is easy." Yet the collage's active pattern of materials, its overwhelming size, and the masklike faces it presents undermine the simplicity of the scene. Within this work, Bearden successfully creates a tension between content and formal treatment that brings to mind the over-crowded and potentially explosive inner cities of the summer of 1967.
Provenance
Cordier and Ekstrom Gallery, New York, NY [1]
by 1973 -
Jesse and Toby Shanok, East Brunswick, NJ [2]
- 1999
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
1999 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, purchased from Michael Rosenfeld Gallery [3]
Notes:
[1] Cordier and Ekstrom Gallery are listed as owners on an invoice dated June 10, 1999 from Michael Rosenfeld Gallery. Dates of ownership are not provided on this documant [SLAM document files].
[2] In a 1973 publication, Jesse and Toby Shanock are listed as owners of the work [Washington, McCleary Bunch. "The Art of Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual." New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1973.]. According to address labels on the verso of the painting, Jesse and Toby Shanok lived in East Brunswick, NJ.
[3] Invoice dated June 3, 1999 [SLAM document files]. Minutes of the Collections Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, June 3, 1999.
by 1973 -
Jesse and Toby Shanok, East Brunswick, NJ [2]
- 1999
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
1999 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, purchased from Michael Rosenfeld Gallery [3]
Notes:
[1] Cordier and Ekstrom Gallery are listed as owners on an invoice dated June 10, 1999 from Michael Rosenfeld Gallery. Dates of ownership are not provided on this documant [SLAM document files].
[2] In a 1973 publication, Jesse and Toby Shanock are listed as owners of the work [Washington, McCleary Bunch. "The Art of Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual." New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1973.]. According to address labels on the verso of the painting, Jesse and Toby Shanok lived in East Brunswick, NJ.
[3] Invoice dated June 3, 1999 [SLAM document files]. Minutes of the Collections Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, June 3, 1999.