Jammin' at the Savoy - Bearden

Jammin' at the savoy by Romare Bearden

Romare Bearden (September 2, 1911 – March 12, 1988) was an Afro-American artist. He worked with many types of media including cartoons, oils and collages. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, educated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Bearden moved to New York City after high school and went on to graduate from NYU in 1935. He began his artistic career creating scenes of the American South. Later, he endeavored to express the humanity he felt was lacking in the world after his experience in the US Army during World War II on the European front. He later returned to Paris in 1950 and studied Art History and Philosophy at the Sorbonne in 1950.

Bearden’s early work focused on unity and cooperation within the African-American community. After a period during the 1950s when he painted more abstractly, (Jammin at the Savoy) this theme reemerged in his collage works of the 1960s, when Bearden became a founding member of the Harlem-based art group known as The Spiral, formed to discuss the responsibility of the African-American artist in the struggle for civil rights.

Bearden was the author or coauthor of several books, and was a songwriter who co-wrote the jazz classic “Sea Breeze”, which was recorded by Billy Eckstine, a former high school classmate at Peabody High School, and Dizzy Gillespie. His lifelong support of young, emerging artists led him and his wife to create the Bearden Foundation to support young or emerging artists and scholars. In 1987, Bearden was awarded the National Medal of Arts. His work in collage led the New York Times to describe Bearden as “the nation’s foremost collagist” in his 1988 obituary.

In Jammin' at the Savoy you see see a large group of musicians who look really joyful to be playing music. The colors represent the bright and exiting spirit and energy that is happen on the stage while the music is being played. This painting portrays the Harlmen Renaissance.

This painting is a depiction from his life. Roman Bearden grew up with jazz. As a youngster he lived near the Savoy Ballroom, a famous dance hall in Harlem where blues, ragtime and jazz played.

Questions:

• What do you see when you first look at the picture? Bright colors, the people, the instruments.
• Identify the instruments. Which produces sound by blowing? striking? plucking?
• Bearden arranged the musicians and instruments so that they appear to be a tight unity rather than a group of isolated individuals. Where do their shapes touch? Where do the players lean or bend in the same direction.
• How do the colors make you feel? (Cool blue tones=relaxed, sad, calm. Bright warm tones: yellow, red, orange= happy or excited)
• Does the painting look realistic, or like a cartoon?

Activities:

• Have jazz playing in background.
• Have children cut out/draw their own images of people and instruments, color these images using bright colors, than place the people and instruments where they want (set up their own band)

Resources/Links