Romare Bearden facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Romare Bearden
Bearden in army uniform, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1944
Born	Romare Howard Bearden (1911-09-02)September 2, 1911 Charlotte, North Carolina, US
Died	March 12, 1988(1988-03-12) (aged 76) New York City, US
Known for	Painting

Romare Bearden (born September 2, 1911 – died March 12, 1988) was an American artist, writer, and songwriter. He used many different art forms, including cartoons, oil paintings, and collages. Bearden was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. He spent his childhood in New York City and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He finished his studies at New York University in 1935.

Bearden started his art career by painting scenes of the American South. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he wanted his art to show more human kindness. He went back to Paris in 1950 to study art history and philosophy at the Sorbonne.

Bearden's early art focused on bringing the African-American community together. In the 1950s, he painted more abstract works. But in the 1960s, he returned to this theme in his famous collages. The New York Times called Bearden "the nation's foremost collagist" when he passed away in 1988. He also helped start The Spiral, an art group in Harlem. This group discussed the role of African-American artists in the civil rights movement.

Bearden wrote or co-wrote several books. He also co-wrote the jazz song "Sea Breeze." This song was recorded by Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie. Bearden always supported young artists. He and his wife created the Bearden Foundation to help new artists and young students. In 1987, Bearden received the National Medal of Arts.

Growing Up and Learning

Romare Bearden was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. When he was a toddler, his family moved to New York City. This was part of the Great Migration, when many African Americans moved from the South. Bearden went to schools in Harlem, including P.S. 5 and P.S. 139. He then attended DeWitt Clinton High School.

In 1927, he moved to East Liberty, Pittsburgh, to live with his grandparents. Later, he returned to New York City. The Bearden family home became a meeting place for important people of the Harlem Renaissance. His father, Howard Bearden, was a pianist. Romare's mother, Bessye Bearden, was active with the New York City Board of Education. She also started the Colored Women's Democratic League. She wrote for The Chicago Defender, an African-American newspaper. Bearden had Cherokee, Italian, and African family roots.

In 1929, he finished high school at Peabody High School in Pittsburgh. He then went to Lincoln University. This was the second oldest historically black college in the U.S. He later moved to Boston University. There, he was the art director for Beanpot, the student humor magazine. Bearden continued his studies at New York University (NYU). He focused more on art and less on sports. He became a lead cartoonist for The Medley, NYU's monthly journal. Bearden studied art, education, science, and math. He earned a degree in science and education in 1935.

He kept studying art with German artist George Grosz. This was at the Art Students League in 1936 and 1937. During this time, Bearden worked as a political cartoonist. He drew weekly cartoons for African-American newspapers like the Baltimore Afro-American from 1935 to 1937.

Baseball Player

As a child, Bearden played baseball in empty lots. He loved sports. He threw discus for his high school track team. He also tried out for football. When his mother became an editor for the Chicago Defender, he wrote some articles for the paper, including about baseball.

At Boston University, he played fullback for the football team. He also became a pitcher for the school's baseball team. He received an award for his pitching at BU. He proudly displayed this award throughout his life.

While at Boston University, he played for the Boston Tigers. This was a semi-professional, all-Black team. He played with them during the baseball off-season. He had chances to play against famous Negro League teams and white baseball teams. For example, he pitched against Satchel Paige one summer. He also played exhibition games against teams like the House of David and the Kansas City Monarchs.

When Philadelphia Athletics catcher, Mickey Cochrane, brought his teammates to play BU, Bearden only allowed one hit. This impressed the Athletics owner, Connie Mack. Mack offered Bearden a spot on the Athletics team. This was 15 years before Jackie Robinson became the first Black player in major league baseball. There are different stories about whether Mack thought Bearden was white. Some say Mack told Bearden he would have to pretend to be white. Bearden decided he did not want to hide his identity. He chose not to play for the Athletics. After two summers with the Boston Tigers, an injury made Bearden focus more on his art.

Art Career

Patchwork Quilt, made in 1970. It uses cut-and-pasted cloth and paper with paint on a board. It is at the Museum of Modern Art.

Bearden grew as an artist by exploring his own life. His early paintings often showed scenes from the American South. His style was much like the Mexican muralists, especially Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. In 1935, Bearden became a case worker for the New York City Department of Social Services. He worked as a case worker on and off to earn money while pursuing his art. During World War II, Bearden joined the United States Army. He served from 1942 to 1945, mostly in Europe.

After the army, Bearden joined the Samuel Kootz Gallery in New York. This gallery showed avant-garde (new and experimental) art. At this time, he made paintings in a "semi-abstract style." He went back to Europe in 1950. He studied philosophy and art history at the Sorbonne with help from the G.I. Bill. Bearden traveled across Europe and visited artists like Pablo Picasso.

He made big changes in his art. He started creating abstract images of human experiences. He especially focused on scenes from the Passion of Jesus. He moved from focusing on local scenes to a new style. This style fit with the goals of modern American art after the war. His works were shown at the Samuel M. Kootz gallery.

During his time at the gallery, he created Golgotha. This painting was part of his series about the Passion of Jesus. Golgotha is an abstract picture of the Crucifixion. Your eye first goes to the middle of the image, where Bearden painted Christ's body. The body parts are shaped into abstract geometric forms. Yet, they are still realistic enough to not be fully abstract. This work feels a bit like early Cubism. The body is in the center and stands out against the darker crowds. The crowds are on the left and right. They are inside large circles of bright purple and indigo. The background has lighter jewel tones with black lines. Bearden used these colors and contrasts because of the abstract art trends of the time. He also used them for their meanings.

Bearden (right) talks about his painting Cotton Workers with Pvt. Charles H. Alston, his first art teacher and cousin, in 1944. Both were in the 372nd Infantry Regiment in New York City.

Bearden wanted to show the feelings and actions of the crowds at the Crucifixion. He worked hard to "show myths to share universal human values and reactions." Bearden believed Christ's life, death, and return were the greatest examples of human kindness. This is because the idea of him lived on through other people. That is why Bearden focused on Christ's body first. He wanted to show the idea of the myth. Then he highlighted the crowd to show how the idea passed to people.

Bearden focused on the spiritual meaning. He wanted to show ideas of human kindness and thought that you cannot see. These ideas "must be understood by the mind." This fit with his time. Other famous artists also made abstract art about important historical events. For example, Robert Motherwell remembered the Spanish Civil War. Jackson Pollock explored Native American art. Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman interpreted Bible stories. Bearden showed humanity through abstract art. He felt he had not seen enough of it during the war. Bearden's work was less abstract than these other artists. So, Sam Kootz's gallery stopped showing his art.

Bearden then turned to music. He co-wrote the hit song "Sea Breeze." Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie recorded it. It is still a jazz classic.

The Black American in Search of His Identity (1969) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC in 2022.

In 1954, when he was 42, Bearden married Nanette Rohan. She was a 27-year-old dancer from Staten Island, New York. She later became an artist and art critic. The couple eventually started the Bearden Foundation to help young artists.

In the late 1950s, Bearden's art became more abstract. He used layers of oil paint to create soft, hidden effects. In 1956, Bearden began studying with a Chinese calligrapher. He said this teacher taught him new ideas about space and how to arrange things in paintings. He also spent a lot of time studying famous European paintings he admired. These included works by Dutch artists like Johannes Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch, and Rembrandt. He started showing his art again in 1960. Around this time, he and his wife made a second home on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten. In 1961, Bearden joined the Cordier and Ekstrom Gallery in New York City. This gallery showed his work for the rest of his career.

In the early 1960s in Harlem, Bearden helped start an art group called The Spiral. The group's goal was to talk about "the role of the Black artist in the fight for civil rights." They also discussed common art problems. The first meeting was in Bearden's studio on July 5, 1963. Bearden, Hale Woodruff, Charles Alston, Norman Lewis, and others attended. Woodruff named the group The Spiral. He suggested that the way an Archimedean spiral moves upward symbolized progress. Over time, more artists joined the group.

Bearden began making collages in 1963 or 1964. He first combined pictures cut from magazines and colored paper. He would often change these with sandpaper, bleach, graphite, or paint. Bearden made these collages larger using a process called photostat. After a successful show of his photostat pieces in 1964, Bearden was invited to have a solo show. This was at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. This made him more well-known. Bearden's collage methods changed over the years. In later works, he used enlarged photostat images, silk-screens, colored paper, and billboard pieces. He used these to create large collages on canvas and fiberboard.

In 1971, the Museum of Modern Art held a show of Bearden's work. It then traveled to the University Art Museum in Berkeley, California. The City of Berkeley then asked Bearden to create a mural for their City Council chambers. The mural was 16 feet wide. It included many parts of the city in a collage style. It was put up in late 1973 and received good reviews.

Early Artworks

His early artworks show how important unity and cooperation were for African Americans. For example, The Visitation shows two black women holding hands. This suggests the importance of black communities working together. Bearden's realistic style in The Visitation is special. He paints the two figures somewhat realistically. But he also changes and exaggerates some parts of their bodies. This helps to "show a feeling or mood." Bearden said, "the Negro artists [...] must not just record a scene like a machine. He must fully enter the situation he wants to show."

In 1942, Bearden created Factory Workers. This was a painting commissioned by Forbes magazine. It went with an article called The Negro's War. The article looked at the social and money costs of racism during wartime. It also supported fully including African Americans in the workplace. Factory Workers and Folk Musicians show how Mexican muralists influenced Bearden's early work.

Collage Art

Bearden struggled between two parts of himself as an artist. He was a student of literature and art history. He also had real experiences as a Black person. These two sides sometimes clashed with the abstract art popular in the mid-20th century. He felt his paintings had reached a limit. So, Bearden turned to a completely different art form at an important time for the country.

During the civil rights movement, Bearden started trying new things. This time, he experimented with collages. After helping to start an artists' group for civil rights, Bearden put more clear social messages into his work. He used clippings from magazines. This was a new art material, as glossy magazines were fairly new. He used these shiny pieces to show modern life in his art. He wanted to show how African-American rights were moving forward, and so was his art with a social message. In 1964, he had a show called Projections. Here, he showed his new collage style. These works were very popular and are often seen as his best.

Bearden had many museum shows of his work. These included a 1971 show at the Museum of Modern Art called Prevalence of Ritual. Another was A Graphic Odyssey, which showed his prints from the last 15 years of his life. In 2005, the National Gallery of Art had a show called The Art of Romare Bearden. In 2011, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery showed 21 of his collages made between 1964 and 1983.

One of his most famous series is Prevalence of Ritual. It mainly focuses on African-American life in the South. He used these collages to show that he disagreed with the William E. Harmon Foundation (a New York City art group). They believed African Americans should only create art that copied their culture. Bearden felt this limited Black artists. He used this new series to speak out against this idea and to highlight modern art.

In this series, one piece is called Baptism. Bearden was inspired by Francisco de Zurbarán. He based Baptism on Zurbarán's painting The Virgin Protectress of the Carthusians. Bearden wanted to show that the water about to be poured on the person being baptized is always moving. This gives the collage a feeling of constant change. He wanted to show how African Americans' rights were always changing. Society itself was also changing at that time. Bearden wanted to show that nothing stays the same. He showed this idea throughout the image. The person is about to have water poured on them and also be submerged in water. Every part of the collage is moving and will never be the same twice. This matched society at the time.

In "The Art of Romare Bearden," Ruth Fine says his themes are "universal." Bearden was a well-read man. His friends were artists, writers, poets, and jazz musicians. Bearden used their worlds and his own for ideas. He took images from everyday life in the African American South and North. He mixed these American experiences with his own life. He also used themes from classic literature, religion, myths, music, and daily human rituals.

In 2008, a mural by Romare Bearden in the Gateway Center subway station in Pittsburgh was valued at $15 million. This was more than the transit agency expected. It raised questions about how to care for it when the station is torn down. The 60-by-13-foot (18.3 by 4.0 m) tile mural is called Pittsburgh Recollections. Bearden was paid $90,000 for it in 1984.

Before he died, Bearden said that collage pieces helped him bring the past into the present. He said, "When I remember these things, they are present to me. After all, the artist is like a magician with time."

The Return of Odysseus, a collage at the Art Institute of Chicago, shows Bearden's effort to represent African-American rights. This collage shows a scene from Homer's epic poem Odyssey. The hero Odysseus is returning home from his long journey. Your eye first sees Odysseus, in the center, reaching for his wife. All the figures are Black. This makes the Greek story bigger. This is one way Bearden showed African-American rights. By making white characters Black, he tried to break old roles and stereotypes. He wanted to show the possibilities for Black people. "Bearden may have seen Odysseus as a strong example for the African-American community. They had also faced many difficulties." By showing Odysseus as Black, Bearden helped Black audiences connect with the story.

Bearden said he used collage because he felt that art showing the lives of African Americans did not fully value each person. He could combine abstract art with real images. This helped people from different cultures understand African-American culture: the people. This is why his art always showed people of color. He also said that collage, by putting many pieces together, "shows how traditions and communities come together."

Music and Songs

Besides painting and collage, Bearden loved music. He even wrote several songs.

In 1960, Loften Mitchell released a play called Star of the Morning. Mitchell wrote the script and music. Bearden and Clyde Fox wrote the lyrics.

Some of his songs can be heard on the 2003 album Romare Bearden Revealed. The Branford Marsalis Quartet created this album.

Legacy

Romare Bearden passed away in New York City on March 12, 1988. He died from complications related to bone cancer. The New York Times called Bearden "one of America's most important artists." They also called him "the nation's foremost collagist."

Two years after his death, the Romare Bearden Foundation was started. This group helps to "preserve and continue the legacy of this important American artist." Recently, it has started giving grants. These grants help fund and support children, new artists, and students.

In Charlotte, a street was named after Bearden. It crosses West Boulevard on the west side of the city. Romare Bearden Drive has the West Boulevard Public Library and rows of townhouses.

Inside the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Main Library is Bearden's mosaic, Before Dawn. After Bearden's death, his wife chose a 12-by-18-inch (300 mm × 460 mm) collage by him. It was then recreated in smalti (glass tiles) in Italy. This was for the library's grand reopening in 1989. The new mosaic is 9 feet (2.7 m) tall and 13.5 feet (4.1 m) wide.

Construction for Romare Bearden Park in Charlotte began on September 2, 2011. The park opened in late August 2013. It is on a 5.2-acre (2.1 ha) piece of land. The artist lived near the new park as a child. The park's design is based on the work of public artist Norie Sato. Her ideas were inspired by Bearden's collages. The park is also an entrance to a minor league baseball stadium, BB&T Charlotte Knights Ballpark.

DC Moore Gallery now represents Romare Bearden's art. Their first show of his works was in September 2008. In 2014-15, Columbia University hosted a big Smithsonian Institution traveling show of Bearden's work. It also had lectures, readings, and performances. The show, Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey, focused on his collages and watercolors from 1977. These were based on Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey.

In 2011, the U.S. Postal Service released a set of Forever stamps. They featured four of Bearden's paintings.

In 2017, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond bought Romare Bearden's collage, Three Folk Musicians. This collage shows two guitar players and a banjo player. It is often mentioned in art history books. It was shown at the VMFA for the first time in February 2017.

Books by Romare Bearden

Romare Bearden wrote:

• Lil Dan, the Drummer Boy, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003

Romare Bearden co-wrote:

• with Harry Henderson, Six Black Masters of American Art, New York: Doubleday, 1972
• with Carl Holty, The Painter's Mind, Taylor & Francis, originally published in 1969
• with Harry Henderson, A History of African-American Artists. From 1792 to The Present, New York: Pantheon Books 1993

Awards and Honors

• Founded the 306 Group, a club for Harlem artists
• Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1966
• Elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1972
• Elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, 1978
• Awarded the National Medal of Arts, 1987
• Listed on Molefi Kete Asante's list of 100 Greatest African Americans, 2002

Specific Awards

• American Academy of Arts and Letters Painting Award, 1966
• National Institute of Arts and Letters grant, 1966
• Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 1970
• Ford Foundation Fellowship, 1973
• Medal of the State of North Carolina, 1976
• Frederick Douglas Medal, New York Urban League, 1978
• James Weldon Johnson Award, Atlanta Chapter of NAACP, 1978

Famous Artworks

• Abstract (painting)
• The Blues (collage) – 1975, Honolulu Museum of Art
• The Calabash (collage) – 1970, Library of Congress
• Carolina Shout (collage) – Mint Museum of Art
• The Dove
• Falling Star (painting)
• Fisherman (painting)
• "Jammin' at the Savoy" (painting)
• The Lantern (painting)
• Last of the Blue Devils
• Madonna and Child, (collage) – ca. 1968-1970, Minnesota Museum of American Art
• Morning of the Rooster
• Patchwork Quilt (collage) – 1970, Museum of Modern Art
• Pepper Jelly Lady (color lithograph), Minnesota Museum of American Art
• Piano Lesson (painting) – Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, inspired the play The Piano Lesson
• Pittsburgh Memory (collage) – 1964, Collection of w, New York. Used as album art for The Roots album ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin.
• Prevalence of Ritual: Tidings (collage)
• Recollection Pond (tapestry) – 1974–1990, 7 plus 1 artist's proof/8 made, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum; Port Authority of NY & NJ; York College, City University of New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Return of the Prodigal Son – 1967, Albright-Knox Art Gallery
• Rocket to the Moon (collage)
• She-Ba
• Showtime (painting)
• Soul Three (collage) – 1968, Dallas Museum of Art
• Summertime (collage) – 1967, Saint Louis Art Museum
• The Woodshed
• Wrapping it up at the Lafayette
• The Dove 1964
• "The Family" 1941
• "The family" 1975

Where His Art Is Kept

• Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas
• Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI
• Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
• Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN
• Museum of Modern Art
• Whitney Museum of American Art

See also

In Spanish: Romare Bearden para niños

• African-American art
• List of Federal Art Project artists