Circe

c. 1977

Romare Bearden

Artist, American, 1911 - 1988

The black silhouette of a nude woman reclines on a sienna-brown surface with a bright magenta-pink pillow overhead, while another clothed, woman with black skin holds a bowl in this abstracted, horizontal collage. The scene is created with pieces of paper, each in a single, flat, saturated color. On the sienna-brown surface, presumably a bed, the woman lies on her stomach. One arm reaches overhead and wraps around the vibrant pink pillow. The other elbow is bent so her hand is behind her back. Her eye is indicated with a white sliver, and her mouth is open. Narrow white bands cross her neck, wrist, and upper arm of the bent arm. The hand behind her back is cobalt blue. One foot hooks over the end of the bed, pinning a piece of fabric against the edge. The paper here is the only one with a pattern, and it is checked in white, apricot orange, and sea green that together form nested diamonds against a denim-blue background. The second woman stands beyond the bed, facing our left in profile. A few swipes of white paint create an eye and a hairline against the black silhouette of her body. She wears a smoke-gray garment with a magenta-pink collar. There is a row of gray diamonds within a magenta band near her knees. A green cloak or cape hanging from her shoulders has a yellow band along the bottom hem, at hip height. She holds a gray bowl in front of her with both hands. An emerald-green band runs behind her, with charcoal and smoke-gray squares alternating along what reads as the back wall. A stylized window to the left has a pale gray curtain, and the view opens onto a baby-blue field with a black sailboat. To our left, a tall, nickel-gray rectangle stacked on a darker gray one is bordered by a buttercup-yellow band. The area immediately under the bed is a stripe of cobalt blue, and another sienna-brown band spans the entire width of the composition along the bottom edge. On it, a cream-white vase with a round body and tall neck sits to our left. The vase has a dark band across the body near the neck, and two across the middle. A crimson-red rectangle bordered with the checked, diamond pattern sits to our right.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    collage of colored papers over graphite on paper mounted to pressed board

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Regina Slatkin

  • Dimensions

    overall: 15.4 x 21.7 cm (6 1/16 x 8 9/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1991.169.1


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Mrs. Charles E. Slatkin [1909-1999]; gift 1991 to NGA

Associated Names

Wikidata ID

Q64629643


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