Calm Sea 1987

Editor: This is Romare Bearden’s "Calm Sea" from 1987. It’s a mixed-media collage, and it definitely has a dreamlike quality, between the watercolor washes and the cut-out figures. What draws your eye in this piece? Curator: The birds immediately suggest the idea of passage, transition. White doves, in particular, are a charged image: messengers of peace, symbols of the Holy Spirit in Christian iconography, but also evocative of mourning. The woman, a dark silhouette, carrying what appears to be a patterned bag. Do you get a sense of where she's going? Editor: Not really, honestly. I find her a little mysterious. The landscape feels almost… indeterminate? Curator: Indeterminate is interesting, yes. Water often serves as a visual metaphor for the subconscious. How might her positioning, in relation to these hovering birds, speak to her psychological state? Editor: I hadn't thought of the water that way! Maybe the birds represent different emotional states or thoughts swirling around in her mind, some of which bring peace, others… perhaps loss, since you mentioned mourning. The collage elements disrupt a clean narrative, for sure. Curator: Exactly. Collage disrupts, and allows the artist to bring different images from varied sources, recombining them to evoke a sense of fragmentation and fractured memory. The silhouette against the expressive, almost violent washes in the landscape – that creates a powerful tension. And what about the "calm" sea? Do you see it that way? Editor: Well, now that you mention the landscape and washes, “calm” feels almost ironic, or perhaps it's more of a… wishful thought? I guess I walked in just seeing the surface, but you’ve helped me dig into all these fascinating layers of meaning. Curator: I am glad I could share some ideas for interpretation. Each image builds upon prior images in ways that inform not only our feelings, but our entire cultural and historical worldview.