American artist Romare Bearden (1911-1988) created this collage in 1974. It pays tribute to singer Bessie Smith (1894-1937), who was nicknamed "Empress of the Blues."
Empress of the Blues
- Publication Label
- African American Art is a rich part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's collection, which is the largest and one of the finest in the United States. The museum began acquiring work by African American artists in the 1960s, some in depth — such as Henry Ossawa Tanner, William H. Johnson, and Alma Thomas. Many of the social, political, and cultural movements that came to define the twentieth century in America and captured the imagination of artists — such as the Jazz Age, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights movement — were rooted in African American communities.
- Smithsonian American Art Museum: Commemorative Guide. Nashville, TN: Beckon Books, 2015.
- Data Source
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Artist
- Romare Bearden, born Charlotte, NC 1911-died New York City 1988
- Date
- 1974
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase in part through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
- Medium
- acrylic and pencil on paper and printed paper on paperboard
- Dimensions
- 36 x 48 in. (91.4 x 121.9 cm.)
- Type
- Collage
