ROMARE BEARDEN (1911 - 1988) Memories (The Train).
Color aquatint, etching and photo engraving, 1974. 455x560 mm; 17 7/8x22 inches, full margins. One of a small group of monotypes with unique coloring, printed from the key plate, and aside from the edition of 125. Signed, titled and numbered 1/1 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by the artist and Robert Blackburn, New York. Published by Transworld Art, New York.
When Romare Bearden was commissioned to make The Train, he and Bob Blackburn created a new combination of etching and photo engraving to re-create the appearance of his collage. One of Bearden's best known and innovative prints, The Train was then described by John Loring in Arts Magazine as one of the ten most important prints of our time. The print is based on the same-titled collage also from 1974, which is in turn based on the photomontage collage Mysteries, one of the artist's earliest works from 1964. Other experimental printings from this matrix are a series entitled 12 Trains (see Gelburd/Rosenberg p 14). Not in Gelburd/Rosenberg.
