In 1945 Golgotha was exhibited as part of the series of eleven watercolors titled The Passion of Christ in Bearden's first major New York gallery show. His knowledge of Cubism is apparent in the flattened space and angular forms, and the areas of bright color framed by black outlines reveal his admiration for the stained-glass windows of medieval churches. Golgotha was also directly influenced by Duccio's fourteenth-century altarpiece in the Siena cathedral. Bearden borrowed Duccio's overall composition of the Crucifixion scene as well as the poses and gestures of the figures that watch from the base of the cross.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Golgotha
Artist:Romare Bearden (American, Charlotte, North Carolina 1911–1988 New York)
Date:1945
Medium:Watercolor and ink over traces of graphite on paper
Dimensions:19 13/16 × 25 9/16 in. (50.4 × 64.9 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Bequest of Margaret Seligman Lewisohn, in memory of her husband, Sam A. Lewisohn, 1954
Object Number:54.143.9
Inscription: Signed (lower right): Bearden
Sam A. and Margaret Seligman Lewisohn, New York (1945–his d. 1951; purchased in 1945 from the artist through the Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York); Margaret Seligman Lewisohn, New York (1951–d. 1954; her bequest to MMA)
Washington, D.C. G Place Gallery. "The Passion of Christ," opened June 10, 1945.
New York. Samuel M. Kootz Gallery. "First New York Exhibition, Romare Bearden: The Passion of Christ," October 8–27, 1945, no. 10.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Lewisohn Collection," November 2–December 2, 1951, no. 99.
Brooklyn. Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. "Selected Works by Black Artists from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 14–June 14, 1976, unnumbered cat.
Durham. Museum of Art, North Carolina Central University. "Heralds of Life: Artis, Bearden, and Burke," November 4–30, 1977, no. 4.
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, The Arsenal. "Selected Works by Black Artists from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 7–March 30, 1979, no catalogue.
Detroit Institute of Arts. "Romare Bearden: Origins and Progressions," September 16–November 16, 1986, no. 1.
Bronx Museum of the Arts. "Romare Bearden: Origins and Progressions," December 11, 1986–March 1, 1987, no catalogue.
New York. Studio Museum in Harlem. "Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden, 1940–1987," April 14–August 11, 1991, no. 8.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "African-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 15–May 4, 2003, extended to July 6, 2003, no. 24.
"Many Art Shows to Open This Week." New York Times (October 8, 1945), p. 10.
Edward Alden Jewell. "Negro Art Shown in Two Exhibits." New York Times (November 6, 1945), p. 26, states that all of the works included in Exh. New York 1945 were sold.
Associated Press. "He's Series Artist." Washington Post (October 28, 1945), p. B6, notes that Sam A. Lewisohn was one of the purchasers of works from Exh. New York 1945.
Jane Watson. "9000 Enter GI Arts Contest." Washington Post (June 17, 1945), p. B6.
Ben Wolf. "Bearden—He Wrestles with Angels." Art Digest 20 (October 1, 1945), p. 16.
"In the Art Galleries." New York Herald Tribune (October 14, 1945), p. C7.
E [dward]. A [lden]. J [ewell]. "Among the Local Shows." New York Times (October 14, 1945), p. X7.
Nora Holt. "Romare Bearden Wins High Praise for Exhibition, 'The Passions of Christ'." Amsterdam News (October 27, 1945), p. 6.
"The Passing Shows." Art News 44 (October 15–31, 1945), pp. 28–29.
"Gallery Previews." Pictures on Exhibit 7 (October 1945), p. 26.
Romare Bearden. "Rectangular Structure in My Montage Paintings." Leonardo 2 (January 1969), pp. 11–12, mentions "The Passion of Christ" series.
Lowery S. Sims. Selected Works by Black Artists from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. [New York], 1976, unpaginated.
Calvin Tomkins. "Profiles: Romare Bearden. Putting Something Over Something Else." New Yorker 53 (November 28, 1977), p. 61, discusses "The Passion of Christ" series.
Norman E. Pendergraft. Heralds of Life: Artis, Bearden, and Burke. Exh. cat., Museum of Art, North Carolina Central University. Durham, 1977, pp. 12, 14, no. 4.
Avis Berman. "Romare Bearden: 'I Paint out of the Tradition of the Blues'." Art News 79 (December 1980), p. 65, discusses "The Passion of Christ" series.
Lowery S. Sims inRomare Bearden: Origins and Progressions. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1986, pp. 13–14, 45, no. 1, discusses the works included in Exh. New York 1945.
Michael Brenson. "A Collagist's Mosaic of God, Literature and His People." New York Times (January 11, 1987), p. H33.
Matthew S. Witkovsky. "Experience vs. Theory: Romare Bearden and Abstract Expressionism." Black American Literature Forum 23 (Summer 1989), pp. 259–60, discusses "The Passion of Christ" series.
Myron Schwartzman. Romare Bearden: His Life and Art. New York, 1990, pp. 136–37, ill.
Sharon F. Patton inMemory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden 1940–1987. Exh. cat., Studio Museum in Harlem. New York, 1991, pp. 27, 30, 115, no. 8, discusses "The Passion of Christ" series.
Sharon F. Patton. "A Divine Presence in the Art of Romare Bearden." Prism 15 (1992), pp. 29–30, discusses "The Passion of Christ" series.
Lowery S. Sims. "African American Artists and Postmodernism: Reconsidering the Careers of Wifredo Lam, Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, and Robert Colescott." African American Visual Aesthetics: A Postmodernist View. Ed. David C. Driskell. Washington, 1995, p. 104, fig. 4.2.
Kobena Mercer. "Romare Bearden: African American Modernism at Mid-Century." Art History, Aesthetics, Visual Studies. Ed. Michael Ann Holly and Keith Moxey. Williamstown, Mass., 2002, p. 34, mentions "The Passion of Christ" series.
Lisa Gail Collins inAfrican-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2003, pp. 52–53, no. 24, ill. (color).
Lisa Mintz Messinger inAfrican-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2003, pp. 16, 51.
Ruth Fine inThe Art of Romare Bearden. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D. C., 2003, pp. 14, 17–18, 255 nn. 48, 50, p. 261 n. 177, discusses "The Passion of Christ" series.
Abdul Goler inThe Art of Romare Bearden. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003, pp. 192, 194–95, 268 n. 20, discusses "The Passion of Christ" series; notes that the series was exhibited in 1945 at the Galerie John Devoluy, Paris [the dates listed for the Paris exhibition in the chronology overlap with the dates of Exh. New York 1945].
Sarah Kennel inThe Art of Romare Bearden. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003, p. 142, discusses "The Passion of Christ" series.
David Minthorn. "Depression-Era Exhibit Showcases Black Artists." Herald-News (Passaic, NJ) (February 2, 2003), p. B6, ill.
Kymberly N. Pinder. "Deep Waters: Rebirth, Transcendence, and Abstraction in Romare Bearden's Passion of Christ." Romare Bearden, American Modernist. Ed. Ruth Fine and Jacqueline Francis. Washington, D.C., 2011, pp. 145–46, 148, 150–51, 155–58, 160–61, discusses "The Passion of Christ" series.
Pepe Karmel. "The Negro Artist's Dilemma: Bearden, Picasso, and Pop Art." Romare Bearden, American Modernist. Ed. Ruth Fine and Jacqueline Francis. Washington, D.C., 2011, p. 254, discusses "The Passion of Christ" series.
Bridget R. Cooks. "Romare Bearden: On View." Romare Bearden, American Modernist. Ed. Ruth Fine and Jacqueline Francis. Washington, D.C., 2011, pp. 215, 219 n. 22, discusses "The Passion of Christ" series.
Jacqueline Francis. "Bearden's Hands." Romare Bearden, American Modernist. Ed. Ruth Fine and Jacqueline Francis. Washington, D.C., 2011, p. 130, discusses "The Passion of Christ" series.
Kymberly N. Pinder. "Deep Waters: Rebirth, Transcendence, and Abstraction in Romare Bearden's Passion of Christ." Beholding Christ and Christianity in African American Art. Ed. James Romaine and Phoebe Wolfskill. University Park, Penn., 2017, pp. 153–55, 157–61, 163–65 [abridged version of Ref. Pinder 2011], discusses "The Passion of Christ" series.
Mary Schmidt Campbell. An American Odyssey: The Life and Work of Romare Bearden. New York, 2018, pp. 136–38, 143–44, 149–50, 158–59, 199, discusses "The Passion of Christ" series.
Henri Ghent. "Interview with Romare Bearden." The Romare Bearden Reader. Ed. Robert G. O'Meally. Durham, N.C., 2019, p. 57 [transcript of an interview conducted on June 29, 1968].
Kobena Mercer. "Romare Bearden: African American Modernism at Mid-Century." The Romare Bearden Reader. Ed. Robert G. O'Meally. Durham, N.C., 2019, p. 223 [reprints Ref. Mercer 2002].
Calvin Tomkins. "Putting Something Over Something Else." The Romare Bearden Reader. Ed. Robert G. O'Meally. Durham, N.C., 2019, p. 40 [reprints Ref. Tomkins 1977].
Romare Bearden. "Rectangular Structure in My Montage Paintings." The Romare Bearden Reader. Ed. Robert G. O'Meally. Durham, N.C., 2019, p. 122 [reprints Ref. Bearden 1969].
Maricelle Robles inMaking The Met, 1870–2020. Ed. Andrea Bayer with Laura D. Corey. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2020, pp. 224, 271 n. 11.
Romare Bearden (American, Charlotte, North Carolina 1911–1988 New York)
ca. 1971
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