CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- To commemorate its 30th anniversary, Jerald Melberg Gallery is hosting a celebratory exhibition showcasing works of art by every artist the gallery currently represents including Romare Bearden, Charlotte's celebrated native son. His collage, Three Folk Musicians, one of the most iconic and important works Bearden made, will be on view at the gallery through April 26, 2014.
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"Bearden's largest work, Three Folk Musicians, has been included in more than twenty museum exhibitions across the Unites States including the National Gallery of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art," said Melberg, who has represented Bearden's artwork for three decades. "The work has not been on the market in 40 years, and has rarely been seen in private galleries."
Three Folk Musicians shows two guitarists and a banjo player in front of a full-moon night sky and a shack, themed in Mecklenburg County. It plays homage to two things: a very early Bearden painting titled Folk Musicians and the iconic and internationally known painting by Picasso, Three Musicians, in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. The curator of Bearden's 2003 retrospective at the National Gallery of Art called this collage Bearden's masterpiece.
When Melberg opened his gallery in 1984, one of the first artists to join his roster was Romare Bearden. "During my years as curator of the Mint Museum, we formed a bond and trust grounded in our love of art and each other," said Melberg. "When I asked him if he would be interested in joining my stable of artists as I opened my own gallery, without pause he replied, 'I was going to be greatly disappointed if you didn't ask.'" Bearden, best known for his collage and photomontage techniques, died in 1988.
Jerald Melberg Gallery's anniversary exhibition showcases works of art by every artist the gallery currently represents including Wolf Kahn, Robert Motherwell, Romare Bearden, Hans Hofmann and Esteban Vicente. On Saturday, February 22, the exhibition will open to the public at 10 am, with a panel discussion with gallery artists Brian Rutenberg, Thomas McNickle, Charles Basham, Wolf Kahn and Michael Mahnke, representing Robert Motherwell's estate. The exhibition will remain on view through April 26, 2014.
ABOUT
Jerald Melberg Gallery represents artists from all geographic regions throughout the United States, as well as Argentina and Spain. Equally diverse as where the artists live are the types and styles of art they create. Among these are artists of such stature as Romare Bearden, the master American collagist of the twentieth century; Wolf Kahn, considered by many to be the premier living American landscape painter; and Robert Motherwell (1915-1991), one of the leaders of the American Abstract Expressionist movement.
SOURCEJerald Melberg Gallery
