?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 12,000 - $ 18,000
ROMARE BEARDEN (1911 - 1988) Group of 4 early collages.
Each colored wove papers, 1958-59. Each 178x178 mm; 7x7 inches. Untitled (Blue and Brown on Black). Initialed in pencil, upper right. * Untitled (Ultramarine and Green on Blue). Initialed and dated 58 in pencil, lower right. * Untitled (Black on Red). Initialed and dated 58 in pencil, lower left. * Untitled (Blue, Green and Veridian on Black). Initialed and dated 58 in pencil, lower left.
Provenance: acquired at Christie's, New York, January 17, 2008; private New York collection.
These striking, colorful collages are a very early group of works by Bearden, clearly inspired by Matisse. Bearden experimented with collage well before his seminal series of photomontage in 1964. Unlike some of his earliest known collages, including the more painterly Harlequin, 1956, these "cut-outs" are simple designs of bird-like forms made only with paper. In other early collages dated to 1961, Bearden used colored papers cut-outs to construct fanciful circus scenes. Fine pp. 26-28.
