New Orleans Storyville: Ragtime Preparations

Storyville was the official red-light district of New Orleans at the turn of the twentieth century, and its houses of prostitution often featured live music. Although Bearden had never been to New Orleans when he made this print, the image of a half-dressed prostitute and a piano player in an adjoining room, may have been inspired by E. J. Bellocq's photographs, Storyville Portraits, exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art a few years earlier. Evoking the illicit nature of such places, Bearden's composition is appropriately camouflaged by the highly speckled surface and swirling brushstrokes produced by the monotype technique. In this instance, he brushed and spattered the solvent benzene onto a painted sheet of plastic, thus removing any paint it touched. He then transferred the painted composition to a piece of paper using a printing press, creating a single, unique print.