DAC Collection Artist Information
Romare Howard Bearden
American painter and printmaker
Brief biography, in most instances from the Union List of Artist Names® Online:
Romare Bearden was born in North Carolina, but grew up in Harlem where his mother led the New York office of an African-American newspaper. As a result, Bearden became familiar with the artists of the Harlem Renaissance at an early age. To support himself, Bearden worked a full-time job in the New York Department of Social Services and, until the 1960s, had to limit his creative output to the evenings and weekends. Early in his career this included writing and songwriting, as well as the fine arts. He began as a painter and later developed an interest in interested in collage and printmaking. He strove to produce innovative work that concentrated on the African-American experience. In 1963, together with Norman Lewis, he founded the Spiral Group, an organization that produced works of art in response to the civil rights movement.
Artist ID number in the Union List of Artist Names®: ULAN 500007871.
The ULAN link above leads to a cataloging authority record at the Getty Research Institute.
Objects related to Romare Howard Bearden:
| Romare Howard Bearden | Pilate, 1979 | Color lithograph on wove paper |
ULAN biographical content is displayed with permission of the Getty Research Institute. Some ULAN content in some DAC artist records has been lightly edited. Content from the Getty Research Institute is © 2019 The J. Paul Getty Trust. All rights reserved.
