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The Romare Bearden mural that has served for nearly 30 years as a backdrop to the drama of Berkeley city politics is going on a two-year tour with the National Gallery of Art as the centerpiece of a Bearden retrospective. 

From behind the City Council dais, the 11-foot-by-16-foot mural has presided over the polemics, compromise and exhortation from which Berkeley’s laws and policies are forged. In the mid-1970s, the city chose for its logo the section of the mural that depicts four men of different races. The ubiquitous logo appears on all city-owned vehicles, business cards, pamphlets and letterhead.  

One of City Manager Weldon Rucker’s first official actions — after City Council confirmed him in 2001— was the enhancement of the logo’s colors so it more accurately represented the image on the mural. Rucker said the mural, which is a collage of painted and photographic images of local people and landmarks, captures Berkeley’s diversity.  

“A great many changes were taking place in Berkeley when Bearden was here. It was the aftermath of the Free Speech Movement, the civil rights movement was going strong, there were anti-war protests and the unions were gaining influence,” said Rucker, who met Bearden when he was researching the mural. “He was able to capture Berkeley, the old and the new, in a snapshot.” 

National Gallery of Art curators regard Bearden, who died in 1988 at the age of 77, as one of the most important American artists of the 20th century. The curators have been planning the retrospective for the last two years and recently decided to make the mural, titled “Berkeley, The City and its People,” the centerpiece of the retrospective. 

“The gallery gave the city high marks for working with a well-known African-American artist and integrating his interpretation into the fabric of city life and image,” Civic Arts Coordinator Mary Ann Merker said.  

Museum curators will dismantle the mural, which consists of five panels, and ship it to Washington, D.C., for the Sept. 15 opening of the retrospective at the National Museum of Art. Afterward the retrospective will travel to Dallas, Atlanta, San Francisco and New York. The mural is scheduled to return home in 2005. 

The museum is also making a 30-minute documentary about the mural and its place in Berkeley’s civic identity.  

Bearden first attended New York University with the intent of becoming a doctor. He received a degree in science in 1936 but later decided to study art at the New York Arts Student League. 

Art historians consider Bearden, along with artists Hale Woodruff, Charles Alston and Norman Lewis, to be part of the African-American Vanguard of Abstract Expressionists of the 1940s and 1950s. In 1963, Bearden co-founded the Spiral Group, a collection of African-American artists who limited the colors in their works to black and white as a symbol of racial conflict. Bearden was enjoying a high degree of success when the Berkeley Civic Arts Commission approached him about creating a mural.  

In 1971, City Council Chambers’ backdrop was a black-and-white, aerial photograph of Berkeley adorned with two portraits, one of President George Washington and the other of President Abraham Lincoln. 

According to Carl Worth, who was civic arts director at the time, the council wanted to liven up the chambers a bit.  

“The council had gone through a transformation,” he said. “There were two newly elected African-American councilmembers and the council had a more egalitarian point of view. They wanted a mural that would reflect that.” 

Worth said he attended a Bearden exhibit at the Berkeley Art Museum in 1971 and immediately thought Bearden’s style and subject matter would be ideal for the council’s chamber wall.  

The Civic Arts Commission reached an agreement with Bearden to create the mural for $16,000 (it was recently appraised at $1.25 million). Bearden and his wife, Nanette, spent 10 days in Berkeley taking pictures, sitting in on community meetings and getting to know the locals.  

“They attended two local church services and a Buddhist service,” said Worth, who acted as Bearden’s tour guide, secretary and driver during his stay. “They also went to a City Council meeting, a Housing Commission meeting and an Asian Youth Alliance meeting.” 

Bearden then returned to New York to work on the mural, which was completed and installed in December 1973.  

The unveiling of the mural was not without controversy. There were those who criticized aspects of the mural such as the reversed depiction of the Bay Bridge. Others thought it inappropriate for a New York artist to receive such a high-profile commission when there were so many local artists. 

Peter Selz, former UC Berkeley art professor and former director of the Berkeley Art Museum, organized the Bearden exhibit in 1971. He said the city is lucky to have the mural. 

“At the time, the council simply wanted to add a picture of an important black person to the two presidents that were up there.” he said. “The Bearden mural was a much better idea.”