PARIS.- On the upcoming 6 and 22 June at Drouot, auction houses Ferri and Drouot Estimations will offer the works of two celebrated American painters from the 20th century: Romare Howard Bearden (1911-1988) and Norman Bluhm (1921-1999).

OMARE HOWARD BEARDEN (1911-1988)
On 6 June at Drouot, auction house Ferri invites us to discover the work of Romare Howard Bearden, an African-American painter from the 20th century, especially known for his representation of many aspects of the black culture.

Born in South Carolina in 1911, Romare Beaarden grew up in Harlem. After studying sciences, he chose the path of art, and developed an interest for modern art. Painting quickly turned into his main practice and his first solo show took place in 1940. His work stands as a vibrant testimony of the condition of black people in the United States. In 1945, Bearden exhibited a series of cubist-inspired watercolors and oil paintings.

The most emblematic of Bearden’s 7 artworks featured in this sale dates from this period. In 1950, he studied in Paris and met great artistes like Picasso, Brancusi, Lam, Braque and many others. He made a resolute shift toward abstraction when coming back to painting in 1954, which marked the beginning of a frantic period of exhibitions, awards and honorary doctorates. At the time, the quality of his work and the part he played in the promotion of black people was unanimously praised.

In the 1960s, collage became his favorite medium allowing him to combine abstract art with the codes of African-American slavery crafts. Six other works by Bearden auctioned on June 6 date from this period.

When Bearden died in 1988, the New York Times called him “the most important American collage artist”.

NORMAN BLUHM (1921-1999)
On the upcoming 22 June, auction house Drouot Estimations will feature the work of Norman Bluhm (1921-1999), an important artist from the Parisian art scene in the fifties, who was surrounded by Sam Francis, Joan Mitchell and Jean-Paul Riopelle. The four works of art which will be offered come from the former collection of Michel Robinet, the artist’s relative.

Norman Bluhm was born in Chicago in 1921. He began studying architecture and gave it up for arts. He then got into the “Academia de Belle Arte” in Florence and later settled in Paris to follow courses at the “École des Beaux-Arts”. He lived there from 1948 to 1956. He got close to Sam Francis, Joan Mitchell, Jean-Paul Riopelle and Zao Wou-Ki. Influenced by the work of Jackson Pollock and De Kooning, he progressively dedicated his work to the all-over, a technique consisting in covering the canvas and removing any depth of field. He first experimented it throughout abstract landscapes in the spirit of Sam Francis’. He then stood out by integrating a more explicit skyline in his compositions.

In 1961, he went back to live in the United States. The end of this decade was marked by his increasing interest for color and his compositions responding to a more and more asserted axial symmetry.From the eighties, his experimental work led to polyptychs representing complex shapes and colors evocating bowels. From then, he has been the subject of numerous books, and a solo exhibition took place in 2007 at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston; The Late Paintings of Norman Bluhm.