Romare Bearden (1912-1988) was one of the most accomplished African-American artists of the 20th century. His collages are owned by virtually every major museum in the country including The Art Institute of Chicago; The Cleveland Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Museum of Modern Art; The National Museum of American Art; and The Whitney Museum of Art, etc. Bearden was awarded the prestigious National Medal of Arts in 1987. He was also a well-respected writer, composer, and musician.
Bearden was born in Mecklenburg County (Charlotte, North Carolina area). He moved to New York as a child. However, he spent most of his summers as a child and adolescent in Mecklenburg County with his paternal grandparents and great grandparents. He also lived several summers during his high school years in Pittsburgh near the steel mills in a boarding house his maternal grandparents managed before attending New York University where he received a bachelor's degree in mathematics. Bearden lived in New York for the remainder of his life. He and his wife, Nan, often visited St. Martin in the Caribbean Islands from 1960 until his death.
Bearden learned to draw as a child in Pittsburgh from a talented friend, Edwin Bailey, who tragically died in his 20s. After graduating from N.Y.U., Bearden began to do professional illustrations for magazines like Collier's while studying art at the Art Student's League with George Grosz and, informally, with Stuart Davis, who shared Romare's love of Jazz. Between 1950 and 1951, Bearden studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.
Bearden ingeniously fused his thorough knowledge of European Art History with his love of West African sculpture (e.g. Fang; Baule), West African textiles (e.g. Ewe; Akan), and African-American Jazz, Blues, and Gospel music into rich, resonant narrative collages. These works speak meaningfully and beautifully of his heritage, his immediate experiences, and his love for great art of all cultures. He is best respected for his creative and expressive collages, collages with watercolor, and his evocative, innovative printmaking techniques.
His color-saturated, fluid Expressionist watercolors are an important aesthetic achievement. His watercolors have emotive and animated color harmonies and the white paper grounds have been adeptly used as a form of visual syncopation. These excellent watercolors have not yet received the level of recognition that they deserve.
Romare Bearden's collages and diverse works on paper will be the subject of a major retrospective exhibition of 75 works at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. in late 2002.
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Selected Permanent Collections:
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, New York
Arkansas Art Center Foundation, Little Rock
Ashville Art Museum, North Carolina
Brooklyn Museum
Butler Institute of American Art, Ohio
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
Cleveland Museum of Art
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Madison Art Center, Milwaukee
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Mint Museum of Art, North Carolina
The Museum of Fine Arts
Museum of Modern Art
Studio Museum, Harlem
Wadsworth Atheneum, Connecticut
Whitney Museum of American Art
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