Romare Bearden

Romare Bearden (September 2, 1911 - March 12, 1988) was an African American artist. Paintings such as his 1948 "The Family" reveal him as a latter day cubist. He was famously devoted to imagery growing out of collage processes. He made a collage assignment to a small group of fellow artists in Harlem who failed to respond to the project at which point he began to follow his own assignment. Perhaps the most meaningful subject matter in this extended series involves the Great Migration, Storyville, Jazz, and urban "ghetto" montages. The visual disjunctions inherent in collage are insightfully and wittily expressive of the subject matter and content.