The Woodshed

Romare Bearden

1969 · Cut and pasted printed and colored papers, photostats, cloth, graphite, and sprayed ink on Masonite · Modern and Contemporary Art

Inspired by the memories of his family in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Bearden created domestic scenes that reflect the strength of Southerners under challenging circumstances. Here, a family of four gathers in a run-down shed for a meal and some music. United by everyday rituals, they are also brought together by Bearden's carefully structured format of rectangles and squares. As the artist noted in 1969, such compositions were influenced by his study of seventeenth-century Dutch paintings by Johannes Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch: "I came to some understanding of the way these painters controlled their big shapes, even when elements of different size and scale were included within those large shapes….When I begin a work now…I try only to establish the general layout of the composition. When that is accomplished, I attempt ever more definite statements, superimposing other materials over those I started with."

Artist

Romare Bearden

Date

1969

Medium

Cut and pasted printed and colored papers, photostats, cloth, graphite, and sprayed ink on Masonite

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

George A. Hearn Fund, 1970