Romare Bearden, New York, New York (Primary Title)
Ming Smith, American, born c. 1951 (Artist)
After attending Howard University in Washington, D.C., Smith moved to New York City, where she worked as both a model and photographer. In addition to joining the photography collective Kamoinge in 1972, she developed relationships with artists and musicians who became subjects in her work. Romare Bearden was an influential painter and collage artist who founded the artist collective Spiral in 1963. He attended Ming Smith’s first solo photography exhibition in the 1970s and offered her important encouragement. To make his portrait, Smith combined multiple negatives into a single image that evokes the collage process that Bearden used in his paintings. In the lower left corner, Smith shows Bearden in a moment of intense thought while the image of the artist in the upper corner alludes to the thinker’s unconscious. Together, all of the layers form a dream-like composition.
Signed by photographer recto
Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund
©artist or artist’s estate
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