Gelatin silver print (photostat)
In 1964, after three decades of living and working in Harlem, Bearden took up collage, cutting and combining found images and photographs to achieve new combinations defined by their fragmentation, texture, and layered depth. He used this approach to capture the complex facets of Black experience in the United States, often depicting scenes from everyday life in the rural South, which many African Americans left to move to northern cities during the Great Migration (1916–70), and scenes from Harlem. Throughout his career, Bearden reworked his own images in different mediums, including this collage, which is shown alongside a later photo reproduction.
2022
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Romare Bearden
American, 1911–1988 25 works onlineRomare Bearden was 53 years old in 1964, the year he made his first series of collages. By that point in his life, he had already had several careers.
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Romare Bearden
Gallery 416Bearden continually reinvented his work over his six-decade career. He first gained acclaim in the 1940s for his figurative drawings and abstract paintings.
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