Flashcards
The Art of Romare Bearden
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The Art of Romare Bearden — Flashcards
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| Who was Romare Bearden? | An African-American artist (1911–1988), 5'11" and heavyset, known as "Romie" to friends; one of the preeminent artists in the U.S. from the mid-1960s until his death. |
| Where and when was Bearden born? | Charlotte, North Carolina (seat of Mecklenburg County), on September 2, 1911. |
| What was Bearden's family background? | He grew up in a middle-class African-American family; both parents, Bessye and Howard, were college-educated. |
| What was the Great Migration? | The movement of southern Blacks to points north and west in the early 20th century, which Bearden's family joined around 1914, settling in Harlem. |
| What were Jim Crow laws? | Early 20th-century laws that kept many Blacks from voting and from equal access to jobs, education, health care, business, and land. |
| What was Bearden's mother's role in Harlem? | Bessye Bearden was the New York editor of the Chicago Defender and a prominent social and political figure in Harlem. |
| What is collage? | Bearden's signature technique, using snippets from magazine photographs, painted papers, foil, posters, and art reproductions as his "paints." |
| What is a monotype? | One of Bearden's artistic techniques/methods, a type of print he used alongside collage, watercolor, gouache, and oils. |
| What is "patchwork cubism"? | A term one writer used to describe Bearden's collages, which fractured space and form. |
| What places influenced Bearden's art? | Rural North Carolina (birthplace), Pittsburgh (steel town where he first drew), Harlem (center of Black culture), Paris, and St. Martin in the Caribbean (where he lived part-time as a mature artist). |
| What role did music play in Bearden's work? | Jazz and blues (Duke Ellington, Earl Hines, Ella Fitzgerald) provided many of his subjects; his studio was above the Apollo Theatre for 16 years. |
| What books did Bearden write? | The Painter's Mind (1953), Six Black Masters of American Art (1972), and A History of African-American Artists: From 1792 to the Present (1993, published after his death). |
| What was the Spiral Group? | A group Bearden was part of that addressed the outrage of segregation, referenced in their first exhibition catalogue (1965). |
| What other art forms did Bearden work in besides collage? | Watercolor, gouache, oils, edition prints, monotypes, murals, and one assemblage sculpture. |
| What other projects did Bearden take on beyond fine art? | Illustrations for books, record album covers, stage sets and costumes (e.g., Conjur: A Masked Folk Ballet), and public murals. |
| What recurring motifs appear in Bearden's art? | Trains, spirit figures (conjurers), rural shacks, row houses and stoops, large hands, birds, musicians, windows, hills, African sculpture, smokestacks, sun and moon, cats, and roosters. |
| What subjects did Bearden paint? | African-American life and traditions, stories from religion/history/literature/myth, and blues singers and jazz players. |
| How did Bearden support the arts community? | He was committed to improving opportunities for African-American artists, working to level the playing field despite being critical of "special treatment." |
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