Black in Time Presents Romare Bearden: How Collages Tell The Story of the Black Experience

Born in Charlotte, North Carolina to middle-class African-American parents; Romare Bearden moved to Harlem at the age of 4 during the Great Migration. The Bearden family took an active role in the Harlem Renaissance, and their circle of friends included Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Bearden graduated with a degree as a mathmetician but remarked that after the Great Depression there was nothing to count but the unemployed and so he devoted his time to observation and storytelling through art. You may be more familiar with Romare Bearden then you think. Bill Cosby was an avid collector of the premier African American artist and his works enjoyed a string of cameos gracing the walls of Cliff and Clair Huxtable on the long running Cosby Show. Romare Bearden embraced the collage technique. Bearden drew his subjects from a wide range of sources including his own photography, drawings, and paintings, as well as “found” images from books and magazines. His images were often concerned with his own personal experiences, as well as themes from history, literature, and art. By the time of his death in 1988, he had achieved critical success and paved the way for future African-American artists.

source