ROMARE BEARDEN (1911 - 1988) Maquette for Atlanta University Mural.
Gouache, brush, pen and ink on joined sheets of graph paper, circa 1975. 202x890 mm; 8x35 inches. Signed in ink, lower left.
Provenance: commissioned from the artist; Mr. Robert H. Jordan and Mrs. Millicent Dobbs Jordan, Atlanta, GA; thence by descent to the current owners.
With--Maquette for Atlanta University Mural, an ink drawing in a handwritten letter from the artist to the owners. 280x215 mm; 11x8 1/2 inches. Signed in ink, lower right.
In the smaller drawing, Bearden sketches out his concept for the unrealized 96 foot mural and identifies the figures. The silhouette profile on the far right was also used in a maquette for Black in America. Bearden also painted Atlanta City Scenes in 1976, a 30x90 feet mural, painted on a brick wall of the M. Kutz building, but it was destroyed when the building was demolished.
