Romare Bearden: Bayou Fever

This publication examines Romare Bearden’s previously unexhibited Bayou Fever series (1979), a suite of twenty-one collages that synthesize the artist’s engagement with African American folkways, religious traditions, and the cultural geography of the American South. Originally conceived for an unrealized collaboration with choreographer Alvin Ailey, Bearden’s compositional strategy—combining photographic fragments of African masks with textile elements in his costume designs—generates a sophisticated dialectic between theatrical spectacle and ritual significance. His manipulation of the collage medium enabled him to juxtapose personal memory, cultural history, and sacred tradition into a uniquely powerful meditation on African American experience that bridges the vernacular and the avant-garde.

Published by DC Moore, New York, 2017

Essay by Robert O’Meally

Designed by Joseph Guglietti

Softcover/hardcover, fully illustrated, 55 pages

_{Artworks © The Romare Bearden Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, NY}