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Home > Illustrations > Roots

Roots

By Romare Bearden | Created: ca.1977

Roots
Publication
  • TV Guide
Publication Date
  • January 22-28, 1977
Medium
  • Lithograph and collage
Support
  • Paper
Illustration Size
  • 23.75 x 18 in. (60.3 x 45.7 cm.)
Collection
  • Private Collection

©Romare Bearden

Romare Bearden was a visual storyteller with a graphic sensibility, as seen in his 1977 cover illustration for TV Guide. Roots, the miniseries based on Alex Haley’s 1976 novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, was airing on television at the time. It told the story of a young man who was enslaved at the age of seventeen, and traced the experiences of his descendants across seven generations. Originally created as a collage, Bearden’s illustration features a Black man remembering a past that is symbolized by the African continent and a slave ship making the trans-Atlantic passage. Both Bearden and Haley were descendants of slaves.

Genres
  • Magazine
  • Cover Art
Global Perspectives
  • North America
  • Africa
Related Time Periods
  • The Decade 1970-1980 The Decade 1970-1980

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