Mother and Child, from the portfolio CONSPIRACY: The Artist as Witness

Inscriptions

Inscribed, in graphite, along lower left edge: Rom/are/Bear/den/AP

Label

Romare Bearden’s Mother and Child echoes Renaissance depictions of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus. Like many of Bearden’s works, this modern-day Madonna celebrates maternal love, with the female figure’s hand prominently clasped around and protecting the infant in her arms.

Mother and Child is part of a portfolio published by the New York Center for Constitutional Rights to raise money for the legal defense of the Chicago Seven, who were arrested in 1968 for inciting rioting and using anti-Vietnam War rhetoric. Artists such as Bearden and Alexander Calder donated their works to the movement, engaging in dialogue surrounding US involvement in the war. During his lifetime, Bearden was both an artist and activist, having worked for years as a welfare case worker for underrepresented minorities. He broke many barriers in the art world and was one of the first black contemporary artists to be exhibited in major New York museums.

From the 2019 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 97, Black Bodies on the Cross, curated by Victoria McCraven '19, Homma Family Intern

Course History

SART 31/SART 72, Painting II/III, Jennifer Caine, Winter 2020

AAAS 88.19, Contemporary African-American Artists, Michael Chaney, Summer 2021

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 97, Black Bodies on the Cross, Victoria McCraven, Class of 2019, Homma Family Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 9, 2019-January 4, 2020.

Lower Jewett Corridor, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 29-October 5, 1975.

One cent Life and Related Prints, Lower Jewett Corridor, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 8-February 23, 1975.

Publication History

Swan, Stephanie. "The Mother's Voice", Dartmouth College, 1990.

Victoria McCraven, A Space for Dialogue 97, Black Bodies on the Cross, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2020.

Provenance

David R. Godine, Boston, Massachusetts; given to present collection, 1972.

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Subjects