Romare Bearden Caribbean Landscape 1979 Signed Screenprint Edition of 200

Artist: Romare Bearden
Title: Caribbean Landscape
Medium: Screenprint in Colors on Arches Paper
Sheet Size: 14.75" x 29.75"
Year: 1979
Edition: 40/200
Inscription: Signed and numbered on front right edge '40/200 Romare Bearden'
Documentation: Gallery certificate of authenticity
Provenance: Collection of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, New York
Literature: Gelburd/Rosenberg 98

"Caribbean Landscape" (1979) is a vibrant screenprint in colors by Romare Bearden, an artist whose work reshaped the trajectory of modern American art through his synthesis of abstraction, figuration, and cultural narrative. Created during the later period of his career, this composition reflects Bearden's sustained engagement with the Caribbean, a region that profoundly informed his visual vocabulary. Through rhythmic patterning, luminous color relationships, and layered spatial construction, the work conveys both the physical atmosphere of the tropics and a broader meditation on memory, migration, and diasporic identity.

Bearden's Caribbean imagery emerged from his extended stays in St. Martin beginning in the late 1960s. There, he absorbed the region's architecture, vegetation, and coastal light, translating these observations into compositions that balance structural geometry with expressive chromatic intensity. In "Caribbean Landscape", flattened planes of color intersect with architectural and organic forms, suggesting village structures, lush terrain, and expansive sky. The composition exemplifies Bearden's ability to merge modernist formal strategies with culturally specific subject matter, resulting in imagery that is at once rooted in place and universally resonant.

This impression is number 40 from an edition of 200. The work is a screenprint in colors on Arches paper, with the sheet measuring 14 3/4 inches high by 29 3/4 inches wide. It is signed and numbered on the front right edge, inscribed "40/200 Romare Bearden". The print was created in 1979 and is accompanied by a gallery certificate of authenticity. Its provenance includes the Collection of Carole and Alex Rosenberg, New York. The work is documented in the catalogue raisonné as Gelburd/Rosenberg 98.

"Caribbean Landscape" stands as a compelling example of Bearden's mature printmaking practice, demonstrating his command of color, structure, and narrative suggestion. Through its synthesis of regional inspiration and modernist abstraction, the work affirms Bearden's enduring role as a central figure in twentieth-century American art.

About Romare Bearden

Romare Bearden (1911–1988) was a leading American artist whose work significantly shaped twentieth-century modern art through his innovative approach to collage, painting, and printmaking. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and raised in Harlem, New York, Bearden developed a visual language that explored African American life, history, music, and spirituality with both narrative clarity and formal sophistication. His practice bridged modernist aesthetics and cultural storytelling, establishing him as one of the most influential African American artists of his generation.

Bearden studied at New York University and was deeply engaged with the intellectual and artistic circles of the Harlem Renaissance. Throughout his career, he drew inspiration from jazz and blues, classical literature, biblical themes, and everyday scenes of urban and Southern life. Although he began primarily as a painter, Bearden is best known for pioneering large-scale collage compositions in the 1960s, combining photographs, magazine clippings, colored papers, and painted passages into layered works that redefined the possibilities of the medium. His collages are widely recognized as landmark contributions to modern collage art and African American visual culture.

In addition to collage, Bearden produced lithographs, etchings, screenprints, watercolors, and oil paintings. His printmaking practice expanded the accessibility of his imagery and remains highly regarded in the market for modern American prints. Works such as The Block, Prevalence of Ritual, and Come Sunday exemplify his recurring exploration of ritual, community, and memory within African American experience.

Bearden exhibited extensively during his lifetime and received numerous honors, including the National Medal of Arts. His work is held in major museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Today, Romare Bearden art remains central to discussions of modern American art history, African American art, and twentieth-century collage. His legacy endures through the continued scholarly study, museum exhibitions, and strong collector demand for his original works and limited edition prints.