© 2024 Public Radio Tulsa
800 South Tucker Drive
Tulsa, OK 74104
(918) 631-2577

A listener-supported service of The University of Tulsa
classical 88.7 | public radio 89.5
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

At the Price Tower Arts Center: "Graphic Works by Romare Bearden"

On this installment of StudioTulsa, we welcome back Scott Perkins, a curator at the Price Tower Arts Center in Bartlesville, who tells us about a fine exhibit currently on view at the Price Tower called "From Process to Print: Graphic Works by Romare Bearden." Bearden (1911-1988) is widely regarded as one of the most important African-American artists this country has produced; he made art works in a range of media and was also a gifted writer, a cherished mentor to younger generations of artists, a tireless arts advocate, and a prominent intellectual and collaborator within the artistic/cultural/literary scene known as the Harlem Renaissance. He was also, as Perkins reminds us, a social worker. Indeed, from the middle 1930s through the 1960s, he worked for the New York City Department of Social Services, creating his art at night and on weekends. Today, Bearden's collages, watercolors, oils, photomontages, and prints are held in high esteem by critics and collectors alike. The show in Bartlesville, which runs through September 2nd, includes 75+ collagraphs, etchings, aquatints, lithographs, screenprints, photo projections, and monotypes, all created over a span of nearly 30 years. This traveling exhibition was organized by the Romare Bearden Foundation; you can learn more about it here. Also on today's program, we offer an insightful and creatively executed monlogue from regular commentator Barry Friedman: "Diary of an Old Man." (And in case you're interested, the top-notch jazz music that can be heard just after our chat with Scott Perkins, and just before Barry's commentary, comes from a 1985 album called J MOOD by Wynton Marsalis. The cover for this album --- see image above --- is an illustration by Romare Bearden.)

Rich Fisher passed through KWGS about thirty years ago, and just never left. Today, he is the general manager of Public Radio Tulsa, and the host of KWGS’s public affairs program, StudioTulsa, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary in August 2012 . As host of StudioTulsa, Rich has conducted roughly four thousand long-form interviews with local, national, and international figures in the arts, humanities, sciences, and government. Very few interviews have gone smoothly. Despite this, he has been honored for his work by several organizations including the Governor's Arts Award for Media by the State Arts Council, a Harwelden Award from the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, and was named one of the “99 Great Things About Oklahoma” in 2000 by Oklahoma Today magazine.
Related Content