Color lithograph, 1984. 740x513 mm; 29 1/4x20 1/4 inches, full margins. Arches watermark. Signed and numbered 42/100 in pencil, lower right. Printed by JK Fine Art Editions, New York, with the blind stamp lower left. A very good impression with bright colors. Gelburd/Rosenberg GG#113.
This tour-de-force of color lithography reinterprets Bearden's 1983 collage The Piano Lesson with elements of collage and improvisation. Bearden and master printer Joseph Kleineman even added fabric texture from some of the lace embroidery that Bearden had used in making the original. According to Mary Lee Corlett, Homage to Mary Lou is "one of Bearden's most complex lithographs," using 18 colors from 18 different plates. Corlett pp. 26-27.
