Romare Bearden’s Mother and Child (1971) is a striking collage that reimagines traditional depictions of the Madonna and child through a modern Black lens. Created as part of the Conspiracy: The Artist as Witness portfolio, the work uses cut paper and layered textures to highlight maternal strength and quiet resistance. The mother’s poised gaze and protective embrace speak to everyday acts of care as powerful forces of endurance and love. With influences from Renaissance painting, African art, and modernist abstraction, Bearden affirms Black motherhood as sacred and central.