MS01.01.03.B02.F23.090

Although there were few voices raised in criticism of the
activities of the Harmon Foundation, at least one member of the
Black visual arts community did have reservations about the
Foundation and its actual intent. Romare Bearden in the December
1934 issue of [Opportunity - underlined] magazine, spoke out in outrage over the
Foundation's attitude that "from the beginning had been of a coddling
and patronizing nature". 34 He was critical of the Foundation's
selection of prize winning works by Black artists and termed many of
them just mediocre replications of their European models.35 Bearden
questioned the quality of jury selection although over the years,
many distinguished artists and art historians served as jurors, such
as: James V. Herring, Laura Wheeler Waring, May Howard Jackson,
Arthur Schomburg, Winold Reiss and Meta Warrick Fuller.
After seeing the Harmon exhibitions since 1927
Romare Bearden wrote a scathing
[strike: essay] account of the exhibition services
of the Foundation outlining his
objections to the lack of standards in the
[strike: exhibition] program. Bearden's article, [strike: entitled]
"The Negro Artist and Modern Art" made
[strike: left a ] Brady [strike: equally] as suspicious of
^his actions^ as she was of Porters. 36 His
article entitled "The Negro Artist's Dilemma",
^written in 1946^ , did not convince Brady that [strike: he]
Bearden was benevolant to the Black cause or
the ^untiring^ efforts of the ^Harmon^ Foundation. 35
[strike: After hearing] Nearly 30 years after Bearden's article
appeared in the Forms of Negro Life, Brady learned that
Bearden had ^again used his pen to express his concerns about
Black artists^. He wrote to Marvin Sadik, of the Bowdoin
College Museum [ ? ? ]suggesting that more Black artists