Romare Bearden Art Prints

The work of Howard Romare Bearden portrays the social issues and struggles important to African-Americans in the 20th century. His large collages, which he called "projections," were assembled from newspaper and magazine photographs laid flat on Masonite boards surrounded by scraps of paper, various oils and temperas, inks, synthetic polymer paints and brushes. He presented the migration of African-Americans from the rural American South to the urban North on a grand and epic scale in a style that was colorful and powerful. Born in North Carolina but raised in New York during the Harlem Renaissance, Bearden grew up in a household regularly visited by jazz greats such as Duke Ellington and Fats Waller. He went on to make his name in the art world, exhibiting his works with Robert Motherwell, William Baziotes and Carl Holty in the 1940's. In the 1950's he turned to songwriting, but rose to prominence in the 1960's with his inspirational collages. A graduate of New York University, he was the recipient of many honorary degrees and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1987.