"The Block" is a tribute to Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City that nurtured both the life and work of artist Romare Bearden. Although he was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden spent part of each year in New York throughout his childhood. In 1940 he established his first studio in Harlem, at 306 West 125th Street, in the same building as the artist Jacob Lawrence and the poet­novelist Claude McKay. During the 1940s Bearden was active in the Harlem cultural community as part of the informal artists' organization known as the 306 Group and as a member of the Harlem Artists Guild.

Each of the six panels of "The Block" presents an aspect of life in Harlem, depicting such neighborhood institutions as the Evangelical church, the barbershop, and the corner grocery store. Bearden took artistic license in revealing the private moments of tenement life as well as the exuberant humanity that existed in the prototypical city block. His concern with social issues reflects the influence of the German artist George Grosz, with whom Bearden had studied at the Art Students League in the 1930s. The "Cubist" character of Bearden's cut-paper collage, a technique with which he is associated, resulted from formal experimentation, the documentary impulse of Dadaist photomontage, and Bearden's own modern vision, which matured during the 1940s and 1950s.

The original installation of this work included a tape recording of street sounds to enhance the viewer's visual experience of the work, but even without this accompaniment the vitality of the scene is palpable.

Signature: .1: signed U.R. (in pen): Romare Bearden .4: signed U.L.: Romare Bearden .5: signed L.L. (in red pencil): Romare Bearden

New York: Andrew Crispo Gallery, November 17-December 30, 1977;
Twelve Americans - Masters of Collage. No. 13 (ill. no paginations), listed as Collection of Sherwood Publishers, New York.

Charlotte, North Carolina: Mint Museum, October 12, 1980-January 4, 1981; Jackson, Mississippi: Mississippi Museum of Art, January 30-March 29, 1981; Baltimore Museum of Art, April 30-June 14, 1981; Richmond,
Virginia: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, June 30-August 9, 1981; Romare Bearden: 1970-1980. No. 9, p.50 , illus. in color, checklist no.50, p.100.
Note: MMA participated only in Mint and Baltimore museums.

New York: Bronx Museum of the Arts, February 1-March 24, 1985; Brooklyn: Long Island University, April 5-June 2, 1985; Queens: June 15-
August 24, 1985; Staten Island Museum, September 6-October 20, 1985;
Manhatten: City College of New York, October 25-December 13, 1985.
The Artist Celebrates New York: Selected Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (This exhibition circulated at the above locations in the five boroughts of New York City). Pamphlet/poster foldout with chat labels on each artist and a separate leaflet essay by Lowery S. Sims).

M. Bunch Washington. The Art of Romare Bearden, The Prevalence of Ritual, Harry N. Abrams, NYC, 1972. p.194, (plate 81, illustrated in a color foldout).

Grace Glueck. New York The Painted City. Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Books, 1992, pg. 10-11, illus.