Black Artist Bios / Romare Bearden

Romare Howard Bearden was born on September 2, 1911 and died in New York City on March 12, 1988, at the age of 76. His outstanding and world renouned art work was a reflection of his African American culture, wide scope of interests, music, drama, history, literature and world art. Bearden was also know as a humanist, who spent much of his life helping and supporting other artists.

He started is education at Lincoln University, transferred to Boston University and graduated from New York University (NYU), graduating with a degree in education. While at NYU, Bearden took extensive courses in art and was a lead cartoonist and then art editor for the monthly journal The Medley.

He also attended the Art Students League in New York and later, the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1935, Bearden became a weekly editorial cartoonist for the Baltimore Afro-American, which he continued doing until 1937.

After becoming a member the Harlem Artists Guild, Bearden embarked on his lifelong study of art, gathering inspiration from Western masters like Duccio, Giotto and de Hooch to Cezanne, Picasso and Matisse, as well as from the African art styles of sculpture, mask compostion and textiles, Byzantine mosaics, Japanese prints and Chinese landscape paintings.

Between the mid-1930s and 1960s, Bearden was a social worker employed with the New York City Department of Social Services, working on his art at night and on weekends. His work was finally recognized with his first solo exhibition in Harlem in 1940 and his first solo show in Washington, DC, in 1944.

Bearden such an outstanding artist that many of his works were exhibited during his lifetime throughout the United States and Europe. Bearden's work consists of collages, watercolors, oils, photomontages and prints are that are snapshots of his life in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Harlem.

In 1954, Bearden married Nanette Rohan, with whom he spent the rest of his life. In the early 1970s, he and his wife established a second Home on the Caribbean island of St. Martin, where his wife was from. From this point on, much of his work reflected the island's lush landscapes.

Romare's work and personality had international appeal. Among his many friends, Bearden had close associations with such distinguished artists, intellectuals and musicians as James Baldwin, Stuart Davis, Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, Joan Miró, George Grosz, Alvin Ailey and Jacob Lawrence.

In 1964 Bearden becamethe first art director of the newly established Harlem Cultural Council. He also founded several important art venues, such as The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Cinque Gallery.

 Initially funded by the Ford Foundation, Bearden, along with other artists opened Cinque to support other younger minority artists. Bearden was also one of the founding members of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters in 1970.

Romare Bearden had a prolific and distinguished career as a Black Artist. He taught himself much by playing with many different mediums and artistic styles. He is best known for his richly textured collages, two of which appeared on the covers of Fortune and Time magazines, in 1968.

He extended his talents as a costume and set designer for theatrical production including his wife Nanette Bearden's Contemporary Dance Theatre.

Romare received many awards in his life time, some of which are Honorary doctorates 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.

You can still see Romare Bearden's admire his Afrocentric Artwork at 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.