Romare Bearden: Layers of History

Romare Bearden was born in North Carolina in 1911, but his family moved to Harlem when he was very young. He was just a kid during the Harlem Renaissance. Romare’s mother was a newspaper editor, and their home became a meeting place where writers like Langston Hughes and musicians, including Duke Ellington, gathered to discuss ideas. As Romare listened in, he was inspired to find his own vision as an artist.

Bearden wanted to make art about the things he loved, like music, and the things that mattered to him, like equal rights for all. He began by making paintings. Then in the 1960s, he started adding other materials to his paintings. He assembled these collages, such as Three Folk Musicians, above, and One Night Stand, using newspapers, Photostats (early photocopies), decorative paper, photographs, and other materials.

Bearden glued cut-out shapes in overlapping layers. He often added texture by including paper with printed patterns. You can really see this effect in the stripes on the men’s shirts in Three Folk Musicians. He also added photographs of noses, hands, and other features.

Bearden stylizes the figures in Three Folk Musicians using many patterns and shapes. He simplifies the image with large areas of flat color in the background.

Jazz, which has roots in traditional African music, inspired Bearden, and, like a composer, he developed techniques to create different moods in his work. Collage allowed him to create visual rhythms. Three Folk Musicians is a bright, energetic composition. Its swiftly changing textures act like fast musical notes.

Summertime, above, showing a street scene in Harlem, is different. Bearden uses a cool palette and subtle patterns to create a slower melody. He uses the large black-and-white areas in the background to calm the mood. Shadowy faces peer from darkened windows at the central figure, as if hiding from the heat on a summer day.