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Romare Bearden, American (1911 - 1988)
Romare Bearden, painter and collage maker, fills his works
with the symbols and myths of the American black experience.
Romare Howard Bearden was born on September 2, 1911, to
(Richard) Howard and Bessye Bearden in Charlotte, North Carolina, and died in
New York City on March 12, 1988, at the age of 76. His life and art are marked
by exceptional talent, encompassing a broad range of intellectual and scholarly
interests, including music, performing arts, history, literature and world art.
Bearden was also a celebrated humanist, as demonstrated by his lifelong support
of young, emerging artists.
Romare Bearden was honored during his lifetime and
posthumously with numberous prestigious awards, publications and exhibitions.
Along with representation in the importatn public and private collections he
was awarded the National Medal of the Arts and honored with a groundbreaking
retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery of Art. A master collagist,
Bearden is celebrated today as a preeminent, highly prolific artist of
exceptional and multifaceted talents and interests. He was a jazz aficionado,
and author of scholoarly books, a song writer/lyricist as well an arts activist
and an engaged humanist. Bearden incorporated into his art work a rich ontage
of influences from American, African, Asian and European art and culture and
took inspiration from memories and experiences of the rural South, the urban
North and the Caribbean.
After he served in the army during World War II, Bearden's
work appeared in several well-publicized shows. During the 1940s, he combined
African symbols, such as masks and "conjur women" with stylized
realism. In 1950, he went to Paris and enrolled at the Sorbonne. In Paris he
met James Baldwin, Constantin Brancusi and George Braque, all of whom influenced
his work. He returned to New York City in 1954.
After his stay in Paris, Bearden's work became more
abstract. He used oil paint almost as if it were watercolor, layering washes of
indistinct shape over thickened bars of woven colors. Shapes seem to float on the
surface, in part because of their softened, muted tones.
Bearden was profoundly influenced by the civil rights
movement of the 1960s. During this period he used collage to express the
rhythms of black music. Symbolic masks and faces float in interiors and
landscapes.
In 1963, Bearden began work on the "Prevalence of
Ritual" series. Prevalence of Ritual: Tidings (1973, North Carolina
National Bank Corporation), a collage of cut and torn paper with polymer paint,
is typical of the way he mingles abstract shapes and landscapes to evoke his
memories of the customs and ceremonies of the black south.
Throughout his career, Bearden has promoted opportunities
for black artists. He has served as art director of the Harlem Cultural
Council, and helped organize the Cinque Gallery. In 1969, he wrote The
Painter's Mind with Carl Holty.
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2003 The Art of Romare Bearden, retrospective exhibition
organized by the National Gallery of Art Washington, DC. Traveled to the Dallas
Museum of ARt, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum in New York and
the High Museum in Atlanta.
1991 Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden
retrospective exhibition organized by the Studio Museum of Harlem. Traveled to
the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Wight Gallery, Los Angeles, The High
Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and the National Museum of
American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
1971 Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual, on e of
Bearden's first retrospectives opened at the Museum of Modern Art, NY in 1971.
A Graphic Odyssey, an exhibition of his prints traveled for
over 6 years to museums all over the U.S. His work is included in many mportant
public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum
of Contemporary Art, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Studio Museum in
Harlem, the Mint Museum, the Detroit Institue of the Arts, and the Dallas
Museum of Art.
Among Bearden's numerous publications are: A History of
African American Artists: From 1792 to the Present, which was coauthored with
Harry Henderson and published posthumously in 1993; The Caribbean Poetry of
Derek Walcott and the Art of Romare Bearden (1983); Six Black Masters of
American Art, coauthored with Harry Henderson (1972); The Painter's Mind: A
Study of the Relations of Structure and Space in Painting, coauthored with Carl
Holty (1969); and Li'l Dan, the Drummer Boy: A Civil War Story, a children's
book published posthumously in September 2003.
Bearden's work is included in many important public
collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of
American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
and The Studio Museum in Harlem, among others. He has had retrospectives at the
Mint Museum of Art (1980), the Detroit Institute of the Arts (1986), as well as
numerous posthumous retrospectives, including The Studio Museum in Harlem
(1991) and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (2003).
Bearden was the recipient of many awards and honors
throughout his lifetime. Honorary doctorates were given by Pratt Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University, Davidson College and Atlanta University, to name
but a few. He received the Mayor's Award of Honor for Art and Culture in New
York City in 1984 and the National Medal of Arts, presented by President Ronald
Reagan, in 1987