Romare Bearden (American, 1911-1988)
Brass Section (Jamming at Minton’s) from Jazz Series, 1979
Lithograph, ed. 108/125
24 x 33 1/2 in.
Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, St. Petersburg College, gift of James G. Sweeny in memory of Martha M. Sweeny, 2020.4.8
Published by London Arts Group, Detroit, MI
Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1911, Romare Bearden is considered one of the most influential African American artists of our time. Bearden was a prolific artist, author and songwriter, best known for his mixed-media collage work. Influenced by Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, he infused elements of Western European art, African sculpture and his love for jazz and blues music into his work to convey universal themes.
Part of the Great Migration, the Bearden family moved to New York in 1914. With his father as a pianist and mother as a newspaper journalist, Bearden’s house was a hub of activity during the Harlem Renaissance. Bearden’s formative years were spent in New York City and Pittsburgh. In high school and college, he focused on sports at Lincoln University and Boston University and was scouted for major league baseball (15 years before Jackie Robinson). As a light-skinned African American, some speculate Bearden was mistaken for being white and, when asked to hide his true identity, he refused. Bearden turned his attention to art and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in education from New York University in 1935. At the Art Students League, he studied under George Grosz and Stuart Davis was his mentor. A social worker and political cartoonist by day, Bearden made art at night. After serving in World War II, he studied at the Sorbonne in Paris under the G.I. Bill and traveled through Europe to meet artists, including Pablo Picasso.
Returning to Harlem in the 1960s, Bearden was a founding member of Spiral, a group of renowned African American artists. During this time, Bearden developed his improvisational collage style. He combined abstract and real images that ushered the past into the present so people of different cultures could better understand African American culture. The collage style also symbolized the coming together of tradition and communities. In the late 60s, he was encouraged by his friend Robert Blackburn to experiment with printmaking in his workshop, where he combined the new collage process with collagraph, intaglio and photogravure. A lifelong advocate for the African American arts community, he was a founding member of the Studio Museum of Harlem and the Black Academy of Arts and Letters, and he co-founded the Spiral group and Cinque Gallery in New York.
Romare Bearden Foundation