Romare Howard Bearden was one of America’s pre-eminent artists.

Success, in the form of artistic recognition and financial reward, came early and, subsequently, the art establishment chose him as it’s favorite Black artist and gave him influence and power, which he used to help younger artists.

President Carter honored him and nine other visual artists in 1980 and President Reagan awarded him the National Medal of Arts in 1987. His works are in the collections of exvery major museum in New York City as well as more than a dozen across the country. He was a member of the American Institute of Arts and Letters and was on the board of the New York State Council of the Arts.”

“For his 1981 retrospective exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, the catalogue noted that from 1970 to 1980, Mr. Bearden made 342 collages, 128 oils on paper, 24 drawings, 25 prints, 5 tapestries, 4 murals and mosaics, and illustrations for film and theater, magazine covers, book jackets, banners and quilts. He also created one of his larger works, “The Block”, a piece that is 48 inches high and 216 inches long and owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”

Mr. Bearden began as a cubist in the strict sense of the word, breaking forms, using color accomplement rather than to describe the form. In the mid to early l930’s, his work was more figurative but he had an acute sense of the underlying abstractness. By the early l960’s Romare Bearden was one of two black artists who regularly showed their work in the increasing number of art galleries in New York City. The other was Jacob Lawrence.

“I was an abstract expressionist or a pop artist,” he once said in an interview.  “I believe that it was because I had something unique to say about the life that I knew best.  I took an art form that was different.  What I had to say took a little different form that most of the paintings around; I used the collage.  Especially in some of the earlier collages that I did, I chose some of the photographic materials for a certain reason.  I wanted to give an immediacy, like a documentary movie.”

Mr. Bearden, who was born on September 2, l912, in Charlotte, N.C., grew up in Harlem and in Pittsburgh. A multitalented man, Mr. Bearden tried his hand at songwriting and baseball. Twenty Bearden compositions were recorded, including “Seabreeze,” by Billy Eckstine and Oscar Pettiford.  In college at Boston University, he was a pitcher on the varsity baseball team.

He also pitched summers for the Boston Tigers, an all-black team.  He was told that because he was light-complexioned enough to pass for white he could play in the major leagues. (Elton Fax, in his book, “Seventeen Black Artists,” described Mr. Bearden as “black by choice.”)  In college, he majored in mathematics, preparing for medical school to fulfill his mother’s hopes that he become a doctor.  He started drawing in college, made cartoons for the Afro-American, a black weekly newspaper, and the attraction of art triumphed.

 

Romare Howard Bearden was born September 2, 1912 in Charolette, N.C. He spent most of his children in Harlem, N.Y. and Pittsburgh, Pa. In 1936, he joined the infamous “306 Group”. That same year he enrolled in The Arts Students League from 1942 to 1945. In 1950, he decided to go Paris and study philosophy  parttime at the Sorbonne on the G.I. bill. He also received five honorary doctoral degrees. President Carter honored him and nine other visual artist in 1980 and 1987 President Reagan awarded him the National Medal of Arts. His work is in the collections of every major museum in New York City as well as more than a dozen across the country. He was a member of the American Institute of Arts and Letters and also served on the board of the New  York State Council of the Arts. He was a member of the “Spiral” group, which was a project that helped to reassess their responsibility as artist to society. He co-authored “Six Black Masters in American Art”and “A History of African-American Artists”with Harry Henderson.

 

Romare Howard Bearden was one of America’s pre-eminent artists.

Success, in the form of artistic recognition and financial reward, came early and, subsequently, the art establishment chose him as it’s favorite Black artist and gave him influence and power, which he used to help younger artists.

President Carter honored him and nine other visual artists in 1980 and President Reagan awarded him the National Medal of Arts in 1987. His works are in the collections of every major museum in New York City as well as more than a dozen across the country. He was a member of the American Institute of Arts and Letters and was on the board of the New York State Council of the Arts.”

“For his 1981 retrospective exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, the catalogue noted that from 1970 to 1980, Mr. Bearden made 342 collages, 128 oils on paper, 24 drawings, 25 prints, 5 tapestries, 4 murals and mosaics, and illustrations for film and theater, magazine covers, book jackets, banners and quilts. He also created one of his larger works, “The Block”, a piece that is 48 inches high and 216 inches long and owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”

Mr. Bearden began as a cubist in the strict sense of the word, breaking forms, using color accomplement rather than to describe the form. In the mid to early l930’s, his work was more figurative but he had an acute sense of the underlying abstractness. By the early l960’s Romare Bearden was one of two black artists who regularly showed their work in the increasing number of art galleries in New York City. The other was Jacob Lawrence.

“I was an abstract expressionist or a pop artist,” he once said in an interview.  “I believe that it was because I had something unique to say about the life that I knew best.  I took an art form that was different.  What I had to say took a little different form that most of the paintings around; I used the collage.  Especially in some of the earlier collages that I did, I chose some of the photographic materials for a certain reason.  I wanted to give an immediacy, like a documentary movie.”

Mr. Bearden, who was born on September 2, l912, in Charlotte, N.C., grew up in Harlem and in Pittsburgh. A multitalented man, Mr. Bearden tried his hand at songwriting and baseball. Twenty Bearden compositions were recorded, including “Seabreeze,” by Billy Eckstine and Oscar Pettiford.  In college at Boston University, he was a pitcher on the varsity baseball team.

He also pitched summers for the Boston Tigers, an all-black team.  He was told that because he was light-complexioned enough to pass for white he could play in the major leagues. (Elton Fax, in his book, “Seventeen Black Artists,” described Mr. Bearden as “black by choice.”)  In college, he majored in mathematics, preparing for medical school to fulfill his mother’s hopes that he become a doctor.  He started drawing in college, made cartoons for the Afro-American, a black weekly newspaper, and the attraction of art triumphed.

 

Romare Howard Bearden was born September 2, 1912 in Charolette, N.C. He spent most of his children in Harlem, N.Y. and Pittsburgh, Pa. In 1936, he joined the infamous “306 Group”. That same year he enrolled in The Arts Students League from 1942 to 1945. In 1950, he decided to go Paris and study philosophy  parttime at the Sorbonne on the G.I. bill. He also received five honorary doctoral degrees. President Carter honored him and nine other visual artist in 1980 and 1987 President Reagan awarded him the National Medal of Arts. His work is in the collections of every major museum in New York City as well as more than a dozen across the country. He was a member of the American Institute of Arts and Letters and also served on the board of the New  York State Council of the Arts. He was a member of the “Spiral” group, which was a project that helped to reassess their responsibility as artist to society. He co-authored “Six Black Masters in American Art”and “A History of African-American Artists”with Harry Henderson.

 

 

ROMARE BEARDEN

1911-1988

 

 

 

 

 

419A Convent Avenue New York, NY 10019

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