Romare Bearden, American Artist

Romare Bearden (September 2, 1911 E?? March 12, 1988) was an African-American artist. He worked with many types of media including cartoons, oils and collages. He began his artistic career creating scenes of the American South. Later, he endeavored to express the humanity he felt was lacking in the world after his experience in the US Army during WWII. Bearden was a founding member of the Harlem-based art group known as The Spiral, formed to discuss the responsibility of the African-American artist in the struggle for civil rights. Bearden was the author or coauthor of several books, and was a songwriter who co-wrote the jazz classic Sea Breeze. His lifelong support of young, emerging artists led him and his wife to create the Bearden Foundation to support young or emerging artists and scholars. In 1987, Bearden was awarded the National Medal of Arts. He died in 1988, at the age of 76, due to complications from bone cancer. Photographed by Carl Van Vechten, April 15, 1944

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Bearden Harlem Negro Negroes Songwriter Vechten

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