Tomorrow I May Be Far Away

1967

Romare Bearden

Artist, American, 1911 - 1988

Made with mostly square or rectangular pieces of patterned paper in shades of asparagus and moss green, sky blue, tan, and ash brown, a man with brown skin sits in the center of this horizontal composition with a second person over his shoulder, in the upper left corner of this collage. The man’s facial features are a composite of cut-outs, mostly in shades of brown and gray, as if from black-and white photographs, and he smokes a cigarette. He sits with his body angled slightly to our right and he looks off in that direction, elbows resting on thighs and wrists crossed. His button-down shirt and pants, similarly collaged, are mottled with sky blue and white. One foot, on our right, is created with a cartoonish, shoe-shaped, black silhouette. The paper used for the other foot seems to have been scraped and scratched, creating the impression that that foot is bare. A tub, made of the same blue and white paper of the man’s suit, sits on the ground to our left, in the lower corner. The man sits in front of an expanse made up of green and brown pieces of paper patterned with wood grain, which could be a cabin. In a window in the upper left, a woman’s face, her features similarly collaged, looks out at us. One dark hand, large in relation to the people, rests on the sill with the fingers extended down the side of the house. The right third of the composition is filled collaged scraps of paper patterned to resemble leafy trees. Closer inspection reveals the form of a woman, smaller in scale than the other two, standing in that zone, facing our left in profile near a gray picket fence. She has a brown face, her hair wrapped in a patterned covering, and she holds a watermelon-sized, yellow fruit with brown stripes. Several blue birds and a red-winged blackbird fly and stand nearby. Above the woman and near the top of the composition, a train puffs along the top of what we read as the tops of trees. The artist signed the work in black letters in the upper right corner: “romare bearden.”
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Much like Edith Johnson’s 1929 classic song “Good Chib Blues,” Romare Bearden’s intricate collage tells a story through repetition and rhythm. Here, clippings in shades of green, blue, tan, and brown create a powerful composition based on the artist’s childhood memories of rural North Carolina. A large man seated in the center leans against a structure reminiscent of a sharecropper’s cabin. One woman peers out from the window nearby while another tends to chickens in the yard. The title, based on the song’s lyrics, suggests Bearden’s bittersweet ties to the South: “Aah, tomorrow I may be far away/Oh, tomorrow I may be far away/Don’t try to jive me, sweet talk can’t make me stay.”


Artwork overview

  • Medium

    collage of various papers with charcoal, graphite and paint on paper mounted to canvas

  • Credit Line

    Paul Mellon Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 116.8 x 142.2 cm (46 x 56 in.)

  • Accession

    2001.72.1

  • Copyright

    © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

More About this Artwork

Wendy MacNaughton's pen and ink illustration of artist Romare Bearden

Article:  Drawing with Scissors with Romare Bearden

Wendy MacNaughton takes us on a journey to meet the legendary Harlem artist known for his collages — and reflect on our own homes and families.


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York); (Dintenfass Gallery, New York); Estate of Robert Lang, Rye, New York; James D. Julia, Maine; (Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York); purchased 2001 by NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2001

  • African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VIII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, 2001, cat. 24.

2004

  • The Art of Romare Bearden. National Gallery of Art, Washington; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Dallas Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2003-2004, no. 50.

2012

  • "Romare Bearden: Southern Recollections", Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL, 2012.

2021

  • Afro-Atlantic Histories, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, 2021-2024 (shown only in Houston and Washington).

Bibliography

2003

  • The Art of Romare Bearden. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2003: 44, no. 50.

2011

  • Hanzal, Carla M. et al. Romare Bearden: Southern Recollections (Mint Museum Randoph, Charlotte, NC, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL, The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ 2011-2012) Charlotte and London: 2011.

2016

  • National Gallery of Art. Highlights from the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Washington, 2016: 334, 335, repro..

Inscriptions

upper right: Romare Bearden

Wikidata ID

Q64629655


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