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Romare Bearden Painter, Draftsman and Printmaker American (Charlotte, North Carolina, 1914 - 1988) View objects by this artist.

Romare Bearden is one of the great American artists, receiving much acclaim during his lifetime, including the President's National Medal of the Arts in 1987.  A writer, lecturer, and sometimes activist, Bearden was throughout his life a force in the New York art world.  In the decade before his death, Romare Bearden spent a great deal of time in the Caribbean and the West Indies, native home of his wife, the dancer Nanette Rohan Bearden.  Many of the lithographs he produced during these years reveal the bright colors or landscape of tropical islands, including In the Garden, 1980.

Growing up in Harlem during the cultural renaissance of the 1920s, the young Romare Bearden frequented the Lincoln Theater, the Savoy Ballroom, and other nightspots that were close to his family's apartment.  Their home was a frequent gathering place for intellectuals, artists, and jazz musicians, including those of such stature as Fats Waller and Duke Ellington.  Bearden developed an intense love for music, and took a hiatus from his life as a painter in the 1950s to pursue songwriting; a number of his songs were published, most notably Sea Breeze, which was recorded by many artists, including Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie.  Bearden often used musical themes in his visual work, especially in the 1970s, including this watercolor of a piano player, At the Clef Club, 1975.

Born Charlotte, North Carolina, 1914
B.S., New York University, 1935
Studied at Art Students League, New York, 1936-1937
Case Worker, Department of Social Services, 1938-1966
Studied philosophy at Sorbonne, Paris, 1950
Began to work primarily in collage, 1963/1964
Died 1988
Major Exhibitions:
New Names in American Art, Baltimore Museum, Maryland, 1944
Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York, 1945
Cordier & Warren Gallery, New York, 1961
Projections, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965
Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1971
Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden, 1940-1987, Studio Museum in Harlem, 1991





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