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Subjects: Biography

Bearden's memories of daily experiences within his community plus subjects that derive more broadly from his African-American cultural heritage formed the basis for his artistic production, most clearly expressed in two series. Profile/Part I, The Twenties consists of twenty-eight collages first exhibited in 1978, and Profile/Part II, The Thirties includes nineteen collages first exhibited in 1981. Within this most personal body of work, however, Bearden's imagination and his concern with classical artistic structure are equally important to his memories.

In his 1969 essay "Rectangular Structure in My Montage Paintings," he stated that "...it is not my aim to paint about the Negro in America in terms of propaganda....[I] paint the life of my people as I know it as passionately and dispassionately as Brueghel painted the life of the Flemish people of his day....my intention...is to reveal through pictorial complexities the richness of a life I know."

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1. The Visitation, 1941
2. Profile Part II, The Thirties: Artist with Painting and Model, 1981
3. Reclining Nude, c. 1977