Romare Bearden’s collages flip the script of The Odyssey at the Chazen Museum

One of Romare Bearden?s earliest journeys left an imprint on his artistic imagination. When he was a toddler, his family, like many other African American families, moved from the South to New York City?s Harlem neighborhood. Bearden?s new home became a gathering place for Harlem Renaissance icons such as Langston Hughes and Duke Ellington, who fostered his love for storytelling and jazz. A homeward voyage is also the focus of Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey, 50 works from the late 1970s visiting the Chazen Museum of Art from the Smithsonian Institution (through Nov. 24).