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These works were very well received and are generally considered to be his best work. Semi-professional baseball career. This collage stands in contrast to his earlier Folk Musicians (1941-42), which is more aligned with the mood of Social Realism. 5 in 1917, on 141 Street and Edgecombe Avenue in Harlem, Bearden attended P.S. Romare Bearden [1] 1912-1988 Artist A . [43], Before his death, Bearden claimed the collage fragments aided him to usher the past into the present: "When I conjure these memories, they are of the present to me, because after all, the artist is a kind of enchanter in time."[44]. He returned to Paris in 1950 and studied art history and philosophy at the Sorbonne. After enrolling in P.S. In the winter of 1930, Bearden took flight from the green flatlands of Oxford, Pennsylvania, where he was then a freshman at . It was a world explored by the legendary photographer Ernest Bellocq and one not far removed from that inhabited by French painter Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. "He took the idea of representation, but by using small units of shape, he made it more modernist.". But it isn't clear if they are observers of a train moving through or cutting through their town, or if they are the travelers themselves. Bearden also began to design costumes and theatrical sets for his wife's dance troupe and for the renowned Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, bringing together the visual arts, dance, and music in one art form. Virtually self-taught, his early works were realistic images, often with religious themes. "[3], His early works suggest the importance of African Americans' unity and cooperation. Furthermore, symbolic trains such as the train of the Underground Railroad were central to the history of African-American slaves, who traveled to the northern states for freedom. Originally, he aspired to be a cartoonist. ", "When I conjure these memories, they are of the present to me, because after all, the artist is a kind of enchanter in time. [57], For a 2005 U.S. postal stamp sheet commemorating ten important milestones of the Civil Rights Movement, Beardon's 1984 lithograph "The Lamp" was selected to illustrate the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. By the following year, Bearden was among the most discussed American modernists and had exhibited several times at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Famous for his work in collage. The artist's father, Howard, was a sanitation inspector for the New York Health Department and was a renowned storyteller as well as an accomplished pianist, which influenced Romare's lifelong love of music. Bearden often made prints and Photostats of his collages, which compromised the idea of the original, a key feature of high art and modernism. ", "If you're any kind of artist, you make a miraculous journey, and you come back and make some statements in shapes and colors of where you were. I didn't have all the answers then. Bearden was one such player. In 1962, along with Charles Alston and Norman Lewis, Bearden founded the Spiral Group, an African-American artists' collective that explored the ways artists could contribute to the ongoing Freedom Movement, which met at Bearden's Greenwich Village studio. Bearden documented the African-American narrative like no one else, and conjured the cultural essence of his beloved people in every inch of his work, the very same people whom he had been asked to turn his back on. Inside the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Main Library (310 N. Tryon Street) is Bearden's mosaic, Before Dawn. Triumph. "We don't have the wherewithal to be a caretaker of such a valuable piece." Bearden refused the offer and pursued an uncertain future in art. Shortly after his birth, Bearden's parents moved to New York City where his father worked as a sanitation inspector, and his mother became the New York editor of The Chicago Defender newspaper and the first president of the Negro Women . The year 1955 also saw the deaths of blues greats such as Ruth Brown and Sara Martin. [9] Throughout his career as an artist, Bearden worked as a case worker off and on to supplement his income. In the early 1930s, Beardena talented pitcherwas offered a spot in Major League Baseball if he agreed to one condition: that he would use his light skin tone to his "advantage" and pass for white. This group of colored performers have been too much in demand elsewhere." Gerber, Sanet. He was a master painter and draftsman throughout his career, but it was not until he started making his dramatic collages (using photos clipped from newspapers and magazines) during the civil rights movement of the 1960s that he achieved national recognition as an artist. he played semiprofessional baseball for a short time in Boston. She was publicly honored at the ceremony for her contribution. He earned acclaim for his jazz-like improvisational style. Here's why he turned it down. The artist exhibited his series, The Passion of Christ (1945) at the important Samuel M. Kootz Gallery in New York City, which also represented many Abstract Expressionists. Romare Howard Bearden was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, into a college-educated and relatively financially successful middle-class African-American family, which was not ordinary for the time, especially in the Deep South. "The work ceased to be about race," Haskell said. It 1954, Bearden took a studio above the famed Apollo Theater, where he painted abstract canvases heavily influenced by Chinese painting. Yet in the story of black Boston ballclubs from the erathe Boston Pilgrims, Roxbury Wolverines, and Boston ABCs are among the city's other local teamsthe Tigers stand at the pinnacle. By 1982, Bearden's health had become compromised, yet he kept working up until his death. Gouache and casein on Kraft paper - Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Minnesota. Increasingly, Bearden's collages of the 1970s took on musical themes, from the urban blues of Kansas City and Harlem nightclubs, to the blues and church music of Mecklenburg, North Carolina. These early exhibitions were waylaid by his tour of military duty. Romare Bearden, "A Griot for a Global Village", Romare Bearden, "The Art of Romare Bearden Opens at the High Museum," ArtDaily, October 2012, "Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey," Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning, September 22, 2015, Romare Bearden at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Romare_Bearden&oldid=1162652591, In 1987, the year before he died, he was awarded the, Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 1970, 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. In 1954, at age 42, Bearden married Nanette Rohan, a 27-year-old dancer from Staten Island, New York. The background of the painting is depicted in lighter jewel tones dissected with linear black ink. An extremely light-skinned African-American, he easily could have lived his life as white but refused to do so, devoting most of his art to African-American life and the struggles of blacks to achieve respect and equality. Romare Bearden Drive is lined by the West Boulevard Public Library and rows of townhouses. For example, he pitched against Satchel Paige while playing for the Pittsburgh Crawfords for a summer,[19] and played exhibition games against teams such as the House of David and the Kansas City Monarchs. The viewer's eye is first captured by the main figure, Odysseus, situated at the center of the work and reaching his hand to his wife. March 3, 2012. While the exterior world seems pleasant enough, the inside world of furtive glances out of windows and half-covered faces imply a sense of caution and surveillance, as cities became racial battlegrounds such as the Newark, New Jersey, Riots that year which left 26 people dead. Then this: "Did you know," our guide began, "that Romare Bearden played semi-professional baseball during the Negro Leagues and had an opportunity to play in the pros?". "[citation needed], In 2008 a 1984 mural by Romare Bearden in the Gateway Center subway station in Pittsburgh was estimated as worth $15 million, more than the cash-strapped transit agency expected. Sources conflict about whether Mack thought Bearden was white[6] or told Bearden he would have to pass for white. This is why his theme always exemplified people of color. The books and articles below constitute a bibliography of the sources used in the writing of this page. Frank Stewart. Bearden would continue with collage through the remainder of his career. Beardens work appeared on the cover of magazines such as Fortune and Time, and, in the case of his seminal Projections, captured the emotion of the Black Pride movement. He never played professional baseball again. [42] Bearden found this approach to be a burden on African artists, because he saw the idea as creating an emphasis on reproduction of something that already exists in the world. It just hasn't been looked for in the right places. Beginning at the . This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. Bearden was an imposing presence. With the greater inclusiveness of African American art within traditional, predominantly white mainstream survey texts and college classes, Bearden is no longer isolated on the margins of art history. If Bearden hadn't rejected the offer from the Philadelphia Athletics, it is uncertain if he would have ever become the visionary painter and collagist he did. Neither did the guide. [47][48], A selection of them can be heard on the 2003 album Romare Bearden Revealed, created by the Branford Marsalis Quartet. The Museum of Modern Art purchased He is Arisen (1945) from the Passion of Christ series (1945), which was the first Bearden work to enter the museum's collection, as well as the first ever museum purchase for the artist. Bearden wanted to show that nothing is fixed, and expressed this idea throughout the image: not only is the subject about to have water poured from the top, but the subject is also to be submerged in water. Bearden's early work focused on unity and cooperation within the African-American community. Watercolor, pen, India ink, and pencil on paper - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. [20][21] Despite the Athletics World Series in 1929 and 1930, and the American League pennant in 1931,[22] Bearden decided he did not want to hide his identity and chose not to play for the Athletics. Across the frontal plane, Bearden has cut and pasted photographs of women and of African sculpture, which he reworks into black faces. Postal Service released a set of Forever stamps featuring four of Bearden's paintings during a first-day-of-issuance ceremony at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Bearden's vernacular realism represented in the work makes The Visitation noteworthy; he describes two figures in The Visitation somewhat realistically but does not fully follow pure realism, and distorts and exaggerates some parts of their bodies to "convey an experiential feeling or subjective disposition. Storyville, which was shut down during World War I, flourished at a time of strict segregation. Later, while at New York University, Bearden became more committed to his artistic studies and worked as the lead cartoonist and art editor for the school's student magazine; he graduated in 1935. Reserved. At the upper-left corner, a small train stands for greater themes on migration and segregation within the African-American experience. Bearden wanted to show how the water that is about to be poured on the subject being baptized is always moving, giving the whole collage a feel and sense of temporal flux. Lawrence, who was then a better-known artist than Bearden, told him of a vacancy above his studio located on 125th Street, the lifeblood of Harlem's pulsing community. All the figures are black, enlarging the context of the Greek legend. Manhattan gallery owner Arne Ekstrom once referred to Bearden as "the pictorial historian of the black world." [53] After Bearden's death, his widow selected a 12-by-18-inch (300mm 460mm) collage by him to be recreated in smalti (glass tiles) by Crovatto Mosaics in Spilimbergo, Italy, for the grand reopening gala (June 18, 1989) of the "new" library. In 1956, Bearden began studying with a Chinese calligrapher, whom he credits with introducing him to new ideas about space and composition which he used in painting. The artist soon became a central figure within Paris's black, expatriate community, and the Negritude movement. During the civil rights movement, Bearden started to experiment again, this time with forms of collage. 59 Facts About Romare Bearden . This page was last edited on 30 June 2023, at 11:35. These anomalies suggest that perhaps these men have either left work, or are seeking work during lean times. After the Army, the artist resumed painting with oils and watercolors. GerberWebWork, n.d. But I promised to find out. Here, Bearden paints a substantial female figure that is seated alone. As a group they attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963). Yet in all his life he produced only one sculpture: a largely abstract work of wood inspired by the tale of Mauritius, a black soldier in the Roman army who was beheaded for refusing to abandon his Christianity. Three musicians, one with a guitar in hand, dominate this scene painted in rich browns and blues; Bearden's lavish use of the color blue, in fact, suggests the blues, the singular African-American folk music. Concurrently, while a college student, Bearden earned his livelihood as a political cartoonist for several African-American publications including W.E.B. He also was a songwriter, known as co-writer of the jazz classic "Sea Breeze", which was recorded by Billy Eckstine, a former high school classmate at Peabody High School, and Dizzy Gillespie. White prostitutes reclined on the chaises longues; black ones more usually had to work the streets. 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. 2023 The Art Story Foundation. But once Bearden transferred from Lincoln University to Boston University, he became the starting fullback for the school football team (1931-2) and then began pitching - first for the freshman team and eventually for the school's varsity baseball team. Once there he attended Boston University and, in addition to his regular course load, began to take classes in art history and instruction, despite his thinking he still might become a doctor. In the 1950s, Bearden relocated his studio to downtown New York; Harlem still remained vital to his life and to his art. [18] When Philadelphia Athletics catcher, Mickey Cochrane, brought a number of teammates to play a game against BU, Bearden gave up only one hitimpressing Athletics owner Connie Mack. [16], Bearden grew as an artist by exploring his life experiences. When Abstract Expressionism was "the" artistic movement to engage with, Bearden forged his own path and began making collages specific to his experiences as an African American man. The push-pull to the composition, or the variation between the interior and exterior worlds, reveal in the cutouts private moments of worship, lovemaking, and children at play, or as Bearden expressed, "the lives [the buildings] contained within their walls." With the installation of the Jim Crows Laws (1893, Plessey vs. Ferguson), which made racial segregation the law of the land, the Beardens and other African-American families were condemned to racial secondary social status. He studied European Old Masters, post-war Abstract Expressionists and even Chinese art. As well, here he returns to folk music, or the blues, which is celebrated as a unique black contribution to American culture. In this work, Bearden demonstrates his belief that when some things are taken out of their usual context, reworked and refigured, and then inserted into a new context, they are given a new look and meaning. [38] After helping to found an artists group in support of civil rights, Bearden expressed representational and more overtly socially conscious aspects in his work. Bearden then turned to a completely different medium at a very important time for the country. He tended to play with them during the BU baseball off-season and had opportunities to play both iconic Negro League and white baseball teams. As a child, Bearden played baseball in empty lots in his neighborhood. Celebrated now with a remarkably comprehensive exhibition at New York's Whitney Museum of Art (originally organized by Washington's National Gallery of Art), Bearden was as prolific an artist as his skills were diverse. This is one of the ways in which Bearden works to represent African-American rights; by replacing white characters with blacks, he attempts to defeat the rigidity of historical roles and stereotypes and open up the possibilities and potential of blacks. Bearden turned to music, co-writing the hit song "Sea Breeze", which was recorded by Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie. Bearden's home in Harlem, New York is a Historic Landmark Preservation site. Bearden launched his career in 1940 with a solo exhibition of his paintings in Harlem, which was well received. "[25] According to Bearden, Christ's life, death, and resurrection are the greatest expressions of man's humanism, because of the idea of him that lived on through other men. Bearden's fame and artistic influence has grown exponentially since the 1980s. He was such a remarkable pitcher that not long after his star began to rise, he was approached and offered a spot on the Boston Colored Tigers, one of the city's all-black, semi-professional baseball teams. The reinterpreted work is 9 feet (2.7m) tall and 13.5 feet (4.1m) wide. 1911-d. 1988) is an artist best known for his inventive collage methods, evident in his production from the mid-1950s to the time of his death. Gouache on paper - Curtis Galleries, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Bearden was a devotee of the music and life of New Orleans' Jelly Roll Morton, who rose to prominence at a time when jazz was inextricably linked with that city's tawdry palaces of prostitution. [27], In the late 1950s, Bearden's work became more abstract. He wanted to express how African Americans' rights were always changing, and society itself was in a temporal flux at the time. was developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) and made possible through the generous support of the Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services. It is situated on a 5.2-acre (2.1ha) parcel located in Third Ward between Church and Mint streets. Sharp black calligraphic lines of India ink outline the figures as well as divide the watercolor background into prismatic planes of color, calling to mind stained glass found in churches. In 1935, Bearden became a case worker for the Harlem office of the New York City Department of Social Services. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, York College, City University of New York, Romare Bearden, Collagist and Painter, Dies at 75, "National Gallery of Art: The Art of Romare Bearden - Introduction", "ARTS IN AMERICA; Charlotte Acclaims Romare Bearden as a Native Son", "Review | First the New Yorker profiled Romare Bearden. During World War II, racism flourished the United States even as the war effort sought to bring people together. The crowds of people are on the left and right, and are encapsulated within large spheres of bright colors of purple and indigo. Library of Congress. After working several decades as a painter, during the politically tumultuous 1960s Bearden found his own voice by creating collages made of cut and torn photographs found in popular magazines that he then reassembled into visually powerful statements on African-American life. It was installed in 1984. Baseball Career. Romare Bearden Bearden's original career path was that of a professional baseball player. This period of Bearden's artistic development has received less attention than his Social Realism and his collages, in part because Bearden's collages are path-finding works. Because his family was relatively financially sound, unlike most of his contemporaries, Bearden did not qualify for the Works Progress Administration federal art patronage programs, and so he continued to work on his art while juggling several jobs. Despite the chokehold the Great Depression had taken on the city and country at large, the Tigers' celebrity endured, even emboldened, during this turbulent time. Yet one of his best known works, the 1973 wall mural "Berkeley -- The City and Its People," was of a place he had never visited before undertaking the project. Romare Bearden (, ROH-m-ree) (September 2, 1911 - March 12, 1988) was an American artist, author, and songwriter. He enrolled in Lincoln University, the nation's second oldest historically Black college, founded in 1854. Both the National Urban League and the NAACP awarded him great honors. Theory: Romare Bearden and Abstract Expressionism". Bearden never relinquishes the figure to give over to full abstraction, which shows his attachment to narrative and relative aesthetic conservatism. The 1970s were a productive and positive period for the artist. After attending Boston University, he wound up playing for the school's varsity baseball team and was even awarded a certificate of merit for his skills. [Internet]. He continued his artistic study under German artist George Grosz at the Art Students League in 1936 and 1937. The use of patterned cloth and recycling cloth has deep roots in African and Southern black history and art. Bearden was influenced by the Social Realists of the Great Depression, along with the Mexican Muralists such as Diego Rivera, who was well-established in New York City. Bearden was also a founding member of the Studio Museum in Harlem. He later transferred to Boston University where he served as art director for Beanpot, Boston University's student humor magazine. The Bearden household soon became a meeting place for major figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Romare Bearden, the only child of Richard Howard and Bessye Johnson Bearden, was born in 1912 in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the heart of Mecklenburg County. Summertime has been cited as an expos on impoverished inner city communities where many African Americans resided within tenement-like conditions. "Return of Odysseus by Romare Bearden." Bearden died in New York City on March 12, 1988, due to complications from bone cancer. And, when writing his own Piano Lesson (1990), for which he won his second Pulitzer Prize, he likewise set the play in Pittsburgh, Bearden's childhood and teenage hometown. Here, factory workers gather (the factory is in the upper-right background) however, there is no evidence of their labor, nor are they seen in work clothes. The Huffington Post / Easy. (13 votes) Very easy. Quiet as it's kept, Romare Bearden's baseball career is storied. The Whitney exhibition will be on view through Jan. 9. A portion of the mural inspired the city's current logo.[31]. 2 /5. [43], "We did not expect it to be that much," Port Authority of Allegheny County spokeswoman Judi McNeil said. The younger artist later commended Grosz for making him "realize the artistic possibilities of the American Negro subject matter." This inclination to mine the Southern black experience and that of the urban North still influences artists who find their bearings in art of their own heritage and locale. Here, the vivid patterning of the cloth contrasts and highlights the reclining nude figure whose form and color draw upon black Egyptian statuary; the Africanness of Egyptian art and history was a pronounced interest during the Civil Rights era. He worked hard to "depict myths in an attempt to convey universal human values and reactions. In the late 1960s, Bearden and others formed the Cinque Gallery of New York in part to protest the Metropolitan Museum of Art's infamous exhibition Harlem on My Mind (1969), which excluded black artists from contributing. The more than 2,000 artworks he produced in his career included paintings, drawings, watercolors, monotypes and other prints, cartoons, collages and photographs. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden grew up in New York City and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated from New York University in 1935. It was still only a feigning interest then"a hobby," he might have called itbut it marks an important point of departure. Not only was he an extraordinarily talented pitcherhe was on what many believed to be "the first prominent black ball club in 20th century Boston." After a hiatus of several years in which he concentrated on composing music, Bearden re-emerged in the mid-1950s, displaying a more abstracted style of painting influenced by the Abstract Expressionists; Bearden had friendships with many of the key artists within this group. Bearden creates a patchwork on composition board. ", "Artists have this desire for a vision of the worldThere's some painting someplace that's not in a museum and it's your idea as a painter to put that one thing that is missing there. It would cost the agency more than $100,000 a year to insure the 60-by-13-foot (18.3 by 4.0m) tile mural, McNeil said. Bearden was a deeply spiritual artist, especially after serving in the Army in World War II, but his subjects included highly erotic nudes and brothels, as well. The US artist Romare Bearden, who died in 1988, is having his autobiography re-told at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta this month with the exhibition Something Over Something Else. Over time the group expanded to include Merton Simpson, Emma Amos, Reginald Gammon, Alvin Hollingsworth, Calvin Douglas, Perry Ferguson, William Majors and Earle Miller. Bearden was a cofounder of the Harlem Artists Guild in the 1930s, which was a key social and advocacy group for black artists and was also active with the artists' collective Group 306 along with such luminaries as Charles Alston and Augusta Savage. The Athletics would grant Bearden access into the majors with one stipulation.