Collage of various printed color papers, mounted on masonite board, circa 1978. 381x279 mm; 15x11 inches. Signed in ink, lower left.
Provenance: Richard A. Long, Atlanta; thence by descent to his estate.
With--ROMARE BEARDEN (after). The First New World Festival of the African Diaspora, offset color lithograph poster, 1978. 546x394 mm; 21 1/2x15 1/2 inches.
In this striking collage, Bearden shows his skillful hand - the cutting and layering of the various shaped papers that make up the plumed headress form a tight, almost abstract composition.
Richard Long also wrote an unpublished paper on Pan Africanism in Brazil entitled The First New World Festival of the African Diaspora - referenced in the 1993 study Pan Africanism in the African Diaspora: An Analysis of Modern Afrocentric Political Movements by Ronald W. Walters. This collage was then apparently used as the maquette for a poster issued by an Atlanta travel agency.
