Some Drink! Some Drink!

Primary Romare Bearden (Charlotte, North Carolina, 1911–New York, New York, 1988)

NationalityAmerican, North America

Date1946

MediumOil on masonite

DimensionsFramed: 34 x 40 1/4 in. (86.4 x 102.2 cm)
Canvas: 24 13/16 x 31 7/8 in. (63 x 81 cm)

Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Michener Acquisitions Fund, P1969.7.1

Keywords

Rights Statement

IN COPYRIGHT

Collection AreaModern and Contemporary Art

Object numberP1969.7.1

On View

On view

Locations

exhibition BMA, Gallery, B3 - Huntington Gallery

Label Text

Web Comments

Sharp, black outlines and geometric flashes of color punctuate a stark white background in Romare Bearden’s Some Drink! Some Drink!. One of his early ventures away from representational social realist painting to abstraction, Bearden uses ambiguous shapes, forming a whirl of color, line, and figures. The subject, one of a series of paintings by Bearden, comes from the stories of French writer François Rabelais. During this period of his career, Bearden frequently drew inspiration from such diverse sources as the Bible, literature, Old Master painting, and cubism. Bearden's early works were realistically painted urban scenes, but after World War II, he began experimenting with abstraction. The shift from realism to abstraction was natural for Bearden who emphasized the creative process and energy of art more than realism as a means to express his ideas