Romare Howard Bearden (1911-1988) is known for creating colorful collages. His works include paintings, prints, and photographs. Mr. Bearden was part of the Harlem Renaissance.
Romare Bearden, 1977
Romare Bearden, 1980
Romare Bearden, 1968, Screenprint
Romare Bearden, 1977, lithograph
Romare Bearden’s image of Martin Luther King Jr. represents an homage to a fallen leader. As an African American artist who served in an all-black regiment during World War II, Bearden understood the continued prejudice King sought to combat and became a great admirer of the civil rights leader.
Bearden created Roots as a collage before it was reproduced as a lithograph. The collage was created when TV Guide asked him for a cover illustration that would mark the national broadcast of a miniseries based on Alex Haley’s best-selling book of 1976, Roots: The Saga of an American Family.
From “In the Studio with Mrs. Frobase”
Born in North Carolina in 1911, Bearden spent much of his career in New York City. Virtually self-taught, his early works were realistic images, often with religious themes. He later transitioned to abstract and Cubist style paintings in oil and watercolor. He is best known for his photomontage compositions made from torn images of popular magazines and assembled into visually powerful statements on African American life.