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83-703: The Baltimore Afro-American , commonly known as The Afro or Afro News , is a weekly African-American newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland . It is the flagship newspaper of the AFRO-American chain and the longest-running African-American family-owned newspaper in the United States, established in 1892. Initially the Afro-American was known as the Home Protector which

166-709: A 1971 show at the Museum of Modern Art entitled Prevalence of Ritual , an exhibition of his prints, entitled A Graphic Odyssey showing the work of the last fifteen years of his life; and the 2005 National Gallery of Art retrospective entitled The Art of Romare Bearden . In 2011, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery exhibited its second show of the artist's work, Romare Bearden (1911–1988): Collage, A Centennial Celebration , an intimate grouping of 21 collages produced between 1964 and 1983. One of his most famous series, Prevalence of Ritual , concentrates mostly on southern African-American life. He used these collages to show his rejection of

249-557: A 27-year-old dancer from Staten Island , New York. She later became an artist and critic. The couple eventually created the Bearden Foundation to assist young artists. Bearden died in New York City on March 12, 1988, due to complications from bone cancer . The New York Times described Bearden in its obituary as "one of America's pre-eminent artists" and "the nation's foremost collagist." His early works suggest

332-417: A feel of early Cubism . The body is in a central position and darkly contrasted with the highlighted crowds. The crowds of people are on the left and right, and are encapsulated within large spheres of bright colors of purple and indigo . The background of the painting is depicted in lighter jewel tones dissected with linear black ink. Bearden used these colors and contrasts because of the abstract influence of

415-701: A first-day-of-issuance ceremony at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture . In 2017, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond announced acquisition of Romare Bearden's collage, Three Folk Musicians , as part of the museum's permanent collection. The collage, which shows two guitar players and a banjo player, is often cited in art history books. It was shown at the VMFA for

498-618: A form of collage. This collage describes one of the scenes in Homer 's epic Odyssey , in which the hero Odysseus is returning home from his long journey. The viewer's eye is first captured by the main figure, Odysseus, situated at the center of the work and reaching his hand to his wife. All the figures are black, enlarging the context of the Greek legend. This is one of the ways in which Bearden works to represent African-American rights; by replacing white characters with blacks, he attempts to defeat

581-1045: A meeting place for major figures of the Harlem Renaissance . His father, Howard Bearden, was a pianist. Romare's mother, Bessye Bearden , played an active role with the New York City Board of Education , and also was the founder and president of the Colored Women's Democratic League. She was a New York correspondent for The Chicago Defender , an African-American newspaper. Romare had Cherokee , Italian, and African ancestry. The Washington Post described him as "African American." His fair skin allowed him to cross boundaries which many other Black people were unable to access. In 1929, Romare Bearden graduated from Peabody High School in Pittsburgh. He enrolled in Lincoln University ,

664-716: A mural for the City Council chambers. The sixteen-foot-wide mural, incorporating many visual aspects of the city in collage style, was installed in late 1973 and received positive reviews. It was taken down and loaned to a National Gallery of Art Bearden retrospective in 2003 that traveled to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art , the Dallas Museum of Art , and the Whitney Museum of American Art . Following that tour it has been in storage while

747-476: A number of teammates to play a game against BU, Bearden gave up only one hit—impressing Athletics owner Connie Mack . Mack offered Bearden a place on the Athletics fifteen years before Jackie Robinson became the first Black player in major league baseball. There are conflicting sources as to whether Mack thought Bearden was white or told Bearden he would have to pass for white. Despite the Athletics winning

830-427: A scene as a machine. He must enter wholeheartedly into the situation he wishes to convey." In 1942, Bearden produced Factory Workers ( gouache on casein on brown kraft paper mounted on board), which was commissioned by Forbes magazine to accompany an article titled The Negro's War . The article "examined the social and financial costs of racial discrimination during wartime and advocated for full integration of

913-737: A street was named after Bearden, intersecting West Boulevard on the west side of the city. Romare Bearden Drive is lined by the West Boulevard Public Library and rows of townhouses . Inside the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Main Library (310 N. Tryon Street) is Bearden's mosaic, Before Dawn . After Bearden's death Nanette Rohan, his widow, selected a 12-by-18-inch (300 mm × 460 mm) collage of his to be recreated in smalti ( glass tiles ) by Crovatto Mosaics in Spilimbergo , Italy for

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996-648: A wall that let black people into society. The Roanoke Tribune was founded in 1939 by Fleming Alexander , and recently celebrated its 75th anniversary. The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder is Minnesota's oldest black-owned newspaper and one of the United States' oldest ongoing minority publication, second only to The Jewish World . Many Black newspapers that began publishing in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s went out of business because they could not attract enough advertising. They were also victims of their own substantial efforts to eradicate racism and promote civil rights. As of 2002 , about 200 Black newspapers remained. With

1079-567: A weekly cartoon from 1935 until 1937. As a child, Bearden played baseball in empty lots in his neighborhood. He enjoyed sports, throwing discus for his high school track team and trying out for football. After his mother became the New York editor for the Chicago Defender , he did some writing for the paper, including some stories about baseball. But once Bearden transferred from Lincoln University to Boston University , he became

1162-435: Is removed before the station is demolished. "We did not expect it to be that much," Port Authority of Allegheny County spokeswoman Judi McNeil said. "We don't have the wherewithal to be a caretaker of such a valuable piece." It would cost the agency more than $ 100,000 a year to insure the 60-by-13-foot (18.3 by 4.0 m) tile mural, McNeil said. Bearden was paid $ 90,000 for the project, titled Pittsburgh Recollections. It

1245-504: Is why Bearden focuses on Christ's body first, to portray the idea of the myth, and then highlights the crowd, to show how the idea is passed on to men. Bearden was focusing on the spiritual intent. He wanted to show ideas of humanism and thought that cannot be seen by the eye, but "must be digested by the mind". This is in accordance with his times, during which other noted artists created abstract representations of historically significant events, such as Robert Motherwell 's commemoration of

1328-749: The Richmond Planet and president of the National Afro-American Press Association; Anthony Overton (1865–1946), publisher of the Chicago Bee ; Garth C. Reeves Sr. (1919–2019), publisher emeritus of the Miami Times ; and Robert Lee Vann (1879–1940), the publisher and editor of the Pittsburgh Courier . In the 1940s, the number of newspapers grew from 150 to 250. From 1881 to 1909,

1411-703: The AFRO is led by 4th and 5th generation descendants of John H. Murphy Sr. It is in partnership with the Strategic Communications and Journalism Departments of Morgan State University's School of Global Journalism and Communication to provide real-time experience for those who would be journalists and/or public relations specialists. In November 2007, five students were selected from Baltimore institutions, Johns Hopkins University , Morgan State University and Goucher College , to begin work under an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant "to uncover and describe

1494-862: The American South , and his style was strongly influenced by the Mexican muralists, especially Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco . In 1935, Bearden became a case worker for the Harlem office of the New York City Department of Social Services. Throughout his career as an artist, Bearden worked as a case worker off and on to supplement his income. During World War II , Bearden joined the United States Army , serving from 1942 until 1945, largely in Europe. After serving in

1577-658: The American South . Later, he worked to express the humanity he felt was lacking in the world after his experience in the US Army during World War II on the European front. He returned to Paris in 1950 and studied art history and philosophy at the Sorbonne . Bearden's early work focused on unity and cooperation within the African-American community. After a period during the 1950s when he painted more abstractly,

1660-495: The Branford Marsalis Quartet . The Romare Bearden Foundation was founded two years after his death. The non-profit organization is not only Bearden's official estate ; it helps "to preserve and perpetuate the legacy of this preeminent American artist." As of 2015 it has been developing grant-giving programs aimed at funding and supporting children, young (emerging) artists, and scholars. In Charlotte ,

1743-525: The Harmon Foundation 's (a New York City arts organization) emphasis on the idea that African Americans must reproduce their culture in their art. Bearden found this approach to be a burden on African artists, because he saw the idea as creating an emphasis on reproduction of something that already exists in the world. He used this new series to speak out against this limitation on Black artists, and to emphasize modern art . In this series, one of

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1826-1010: The Murphy family . John H. Murphy Sr. was born into slavery and served in the Civil War in the United States Colored Troops, reaching the rank of sergeant (NCO). He worked a variety of jobs after the war. Active with the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, a denomination founded in the early 19th century in Philadelphia as the first independent Black religion in the United States. Murphy merged his church publication, The Sunday School Helper, with two other church publications, The Ledger and The Afro-American. With The Afro-American , Murphy promoted unity in

1909-550: The National Colored Press Association (American Press Association) operated as a trade association. The National Negro Business League -affiliated National Negro Press Association filled that role from 1909 to 1939. The Chicago-based Associated Negro Press (1919–1964) was a subscription news agency "with correspondents and stringers in all major centers of black population". In 1940, Sengstacke led African American newspaper publishers in forming

1992-591: The Passion of Jesus . He had evolved from what Edward Alden Jewell , a reviewer for the New York Times , called a "debilitating focus on Regionalist and ethnic concerns" to what became known as his stylistic approach, which participated in the post-war aims of avant-garde American art. His works were exhibited at the Samuel M. Kootz gallery until it was deemed not abstract enough. During Bearden's success in

2075-705: The Reconstruction era , virtually every large city with a significant African American population had newspapers directed towards African Americans. These newspapers gained audiences outside African American circles. Demographic changes continued with the Great Migration from southern states to northern states from 1910 to 1930 and during the Second Great Migration from 1941 to 1970. In the 21st century, papers (like newspapers of all sorts) have shut down, merged, or shrunk in response to

2158-497: The Spanish Civil War , Jackson Pollock 's investigation of Northwest Coast Indian art, Mark Rothko 's and Barnett Newman 's interpretations of Biblical stories, etc. Bearden depicted humanity through abstract expressionism after feeling he did not see it during the war. Bearden's work was less abstract than these other artists, and Sam Kootz's gallery ended its representation of him. Bearden turned to music, co-writing

2241-679: The 1860s, the newspapers The Elevator and the Pacific Appeal emerged in California as a result of black participation in the Gold Rush. The American Freedman was a New York-based paper that served as an outlet to inspire African Americans to use the Reconstruction era as a time for social and political advancement. This newspaper did so by publishing articles that referenced African American mobilization during that era that had not only local support but had gained support from

2324-519: The American workplace." Factory Workers and its companion piece Folk Musicians serve as prime examples of the influence that Mexican muralists played in Bearden's early work. Bearden had struggled with two artistic sides of himself: his background as "a student of literature and of artistic traditions, and being a black human being involves very real experiences, figurative and concrete," which

2407-589: The Baltimore Federation of Labor Offices and led by Elisabeth Coit Gilman and Broadus Mitchell. Through the summer of 1932, the Baltimore AFRO-American published revealing personal letters from prominent African-American scientist and Howard University professor Percy Lavon Julian . This led to a scandal and the pressure forced Julian to resign from Howard. Carl Murphy used the editorial pages of The AFRO-American to push for

2490-725: The Black community of Baltimore, as well as combating racial discrimination in the city and working for children's education. "He crusaded for racial justice while exposing racism in education, jobs, housing and public accommodations. In 1913, he was elected president of the National Negro Press Association." In 1905, the Afro-American urged its readers to vote against the Poe Amendment, a piece of legislation meant to disenfranchise black voters. When

2573-623: The City Hall building has awaited a seismic retrofit and the city council has been meeting elsewhere. A portion of the mural inspired the city's current logo. During the 1970s, he participated in a community art space called Communications Village operated by printmaker Benjamin Leroy Wigfall in Kingston, NY. Andrews made prints with the help of printer assistants who had been taught printmaking by Wigfall, and he exhibited there. In

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2656-634: The Strauss Amendment followed in 1908, the paper persisted, attacking advocates of the amendment. The publication began to grow to reach more cities and to rise in national prominence after his son Carl J. Murphy took control in 1922, serving as its editor for 45 years. He expanded the paper to have nine national editions, with papers published in 13 major cities. At its peak, the paper published two weekly editions in Baltimore and regional weekly editions in cities including Washington, DC; Philadelphia ; Richmond, Virginia ; and Newark, New Jersey ,

2739-473: The U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision outlawing segregated public schools. The AFRO-American also supported actor/singer Paul Robeson and sociologist W.E.B. DuBois during the anti-Communist campaigns of the Joseph McCarthy era. The AFRO-American has employed many notable Black journalists and intellectuals including Langston Hughes, William Worthy and J. Saunders Redding. In the mid 1930s it became

2822-625: The World Series in 1929 and 1930, and the American League pennant in 1931, Bearden decided he did not want to hide his identity and chose not to play for the Athletics. After two summers with the Boston Tigers, an injury made him rethink the attention he was giving to baseball and he put greater focus into his art, instead. Bearden grew as an artist by exploring his life experiences. His early paintings were often of scenes in

2905-637: The army, Bearden joined the Samuel Kootz Gallery, a commercial gallery in New York that featured avant-garde art. He produced paintings at this time in "an expressionistic, linear, semi-abstract style." He returned to Europe in 1950 to study philosophy with Gaston Bachelard and art history at the Sorbonne , under the auspices of the G.I. Bill . Bearden traveled throughout Europe, visiting Picasso and other artists. Making major changes in his art, he started producing abstract representations of what he deemed as human, specifically scenes from

2988-494: The art group known as Spiral, formed "for the purpose of discussing the commitment of the Negro artist in the present struggle for civil liberties, and as a discussion group to consider common aesthetic problems." The first meeting was held in Bearden's studio on July 5, 1963, and was attended by Bearden, Hale Woodruff , Charles Alston , Norman Lewis , James Yeargans, Felrath Hines , Richard Mayhew , and William Pritchard. Woodruff

3071-410: The best, that prominent business firm went bankrupt leading to near end of the newspaper. In 1897, the machinery used to print the Afro-American went up for sale. John H. Murphy Sr. , then the head of the printing press at the paper, purchased the newspaper's printing equipment for $ 200, which he borrowed from his wife, Martha Howard Murphy. Since then, the Afro-American has been owned and operated by

3154-478: The coming together of tradition and communities." In addition to painting, collage, and athletics, Bearden enjoyed music and even composed a number of songs. In 1960, Loften Mitchell released the three act play, Star of the Morning, for which he wrote the script and music, and Bearden and Clyde Fox wrote the lyrics. A selection of them can be heard on the 2003 album Romare Bearden Revealed , created by

3237-480: The content" of the newspaper's archives, held at its headquarters. These included manuscripts, articles, photographs, and clippings that date to the founding of the paper. "The objectives of the project are to identify important unprocessed collections at the newspaper, inventory and organize the collection, and ultimately create an online database for searching the material." African-American newspaper As African Americans moved to urban centers beginning during

3320-534: The cycle of collages and watercolors Bearden completed in 1977 based on Homer 's epic poem, The Odyssey . For a 2005 U.S. postal stamp sheet commemorating ten important milestones of the Civil Rights Movement , Beardon's 1984 lithograph "The Lamp" was selected to illustrate the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. In 2011, the U.S. Postal Service released a set of Forever stamps featuring four of Bearden's paintings during

3403-517: The death of Carl Murphy in 1967, his daughter Frances L. Murphy II served as chairman and publisher. In 1974, John Murphy III, Carl's nephew, was appointed chairman and eventually became the publisher. Both John H. Murphy Sr. and his son Carl J. Murphy have been posthumously inducted into the MDDC Press Association's Hall of Fame in recognition of their contributions to journalism and publishing, in 2008 and 2015, respectively. Today

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3486-767: The decline of print media and proliferation of internet access, more black news websites emerged, most notably Black Voice News , The Grio , The Root , and Black Voices . Romare Bearden Romare Bearden ( / ˈ r oʊ m ə r iː / , ROH -mə-ree ) (September 2, 1911 – March 12, 1988) was an American artist, author, and songwriter. He worked with many types of media including cartoons, oils, and collages . Born in Charlotte, North Carolina , Bearden grew up in New York City and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , and graduated from New York University in 1935. He began his artistic career creating scenes of

3569-589: The dominance of the Internet in terms of providing free news and information, and providing cheap advertising. Most of the early African American publications, such as Freedom's Journal, were published in the North and then distributed, often covertly, to African Americans throughout the country. The newspaper often covered regional, national, and international news. It also addressed the issues of American slavery and The American Colonization Society which involved

3652-654: The early 1980s, the Maryland Transit Authority commissioned Bearden $ 114,000 to create "Baltimore Uproar", a 14' x 46' Venetian glass mosaic for the Upton–Avenue Market station . Featuring Baltimore-native Billie Holiday , the mosaic was first built in Italy, and then reassembled upon arrival in Baltimore, before being unveiled in December 1982. In 1954, at age 42, Bearden married Nanette Rohan,

3735-676: The estate of Romare Bearden. The first exhibition of his works at the gallery was in September 2008. In 2014-15, Columbia University hosted a major Smithsonian Institution travelling exhibition of Bearden's work and an accompanying series of lectures, readings, performances, and other events celebrating the artist. On display at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Gallery on Columbia's Morningside campus, and also at Columbia's Global Centers in Paris and Istanbul, Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey focused on

3818-618: The everyday rituals of African American rural life in the south and urban life in the north, melding those American experiences with his personal experiences and with the themes of classical literature, religion, myth, music and daily human ritual." In 2008 a 1984 mural by Romare Bearden in the Gateway Center subway station in Pittsburgh was estimated as worth $ 15 million, more than the cash-strapped transit agency expected. It raised questions about how it should be cared for once it

3901-638: The first Black newspaper to employ a female sportswriter when it hired Lillian Johnson and Nell Dodson to serve on its staff. Renowned artist Romare Bearden began his career as a cartoonist at The AFRO-American in 1936. Sam Lacy, who was hired as the paper's sports editor in 1943 and who, at the age of 94, still wrote a weekly column for the paper, used his weekly ” A to Z” column to campaign for integration in professional sports. Using their writing to protest racial inequities in professional sports, Lacy and sports writers such as Wendell Smith of The Pittsburgh Courier helped to open doors for Black athletes. Following

3984-467: The founding of the National Federation of Afro American Women in 1895. It was also one of the first newspapers, along with the National Association Notes , to create journalism career opportunities for Southern black women. Many African American newspapers struggled to keep their circulation going due to the low rate of literacy among African Americans. Many freed African Americans had low incomes and could not afford to purchase subscriptions but shared

4067-413: The gallery, however, he produced Golgotha, a painting from his series of the Passion of Jesus (see Figure 1). Golgotha is an abstract representation of the Crucifixion . The eye of the viewer is drawn to the middle of the image first, where Bearden has rendered Christ's body. The body parts are stylized into abstract geometric shapes, yet are still too realistic to be concretely abstract; this work has

4150-403: The global community as well. The name The Colored Citizen was used by various newspapers established in the 1860s and later. In 1885, Daniel Rudd formed the Ohio Tribune , said to be the first newspaper "printed by and for Black Americans ", which he later expanded into the American Catholic Tribune , purported to the first Black-owned national newspaper. The Cleveland Gazette

4233-472: The grand reopening gala (June 18, 1989) of the "new" library. She was honored at the ceremony for her contribution. The reinterpreted work is 9 feet (2.7 m) tall and 13.5 feet (4.1 m) wide. The ground breaking for Romare Bearden Park in Charlotte was on September 2, 2011 and the completed park opened in late August 2013. It is situated on a 5.2-acre (2.1 ha) parcel which is located in Third Ward between Church and Mint streets. Bearden lived near

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4316-402: The hiring of African Americans by Baltimore's police and fire departments; to press for Black representation in the legislature; and for the establishment of a state supported university to educate African Americans. In the 1930s The AFRO-American launched a successful campaign known as “The Clean Block” campaign which is still in existence today. The campaign developed into an annual event and

4399-500: The hit song "Sea Breeze", which was recorded by Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie . It is still considered a jazz classic. In the late 1950s, Bearden's work became more abstract. He used layers of oil paint to produce muted, hidden effects. In 1956, Bearden began studying with a Chinese calligrapher , whom he credits with introducing him to new ideas about space and composition which he used in painting. He also spent much time studying famous European paintings he admired, particularly

4482-619: The importance of African Americans ' unity and cooperation. For instance, The Visitation implies the importance of collaboration of black communities by depicting intimacy between two black women who are holding hands. Bearden's vernacular realism represented in the work makes The Visitation noteworthy; he describes two figures in The Visitation somewhat realistically but does not fully follow pure realism, and distorts and exaggerates some parts of their bodies to "convey an experiential feeling or subjective disposition." Bearden said, "the Negro artists [...] must not be content with merely recording

4565-399: The latter a destination northern city for many Blacks from the rural South during the Great Migration to the North in the first half of the 20th century. In the early 21st century, the AFRO-American has two city editions: one in Baltimore, and the other for Washington, D.C. During the 1924 presidential election, the Afro-American threw their support behind the Progressives established at

4648-441: The lives of African Americans did not give full value to the individual. [...] In doing so he was able to combine abstract art with real images so that people of different cultures could grasp the subject matter of the African American culture: The people. This is why his theme always exemplified people of color." In addition, he said that collage's technique of gathering several pieces together to create one assembled work "symbolizes

4731-414: The nation's second oldest historically Black college , founded in 1854. He transferred to Boston University where he served as the art director for Beanpot , Boston University's student humor magazine. He continued his studies at New York University (NYU), where he started to focus more on his art and less on athletics, and became a lead cartoonist and art editor for The Medley , the monthly journal of

4814-449: The neighborhood of Roxbury . He tended to play with them during the BU baseball off-season and had opportunities to play both iconic Negro League and white baseball teams. For example, he pitched against Satchel Paige while playing for the Pittsburgh Crawfords for a summer, and played exhibition games against teams such as the House of David and the Kansas City Monarchs . When Philadelphia Athletics catcher, Mickey Cochrane , brought

4897-454: The new park for a time as a child, at the corner of what is now MLK Boulevard and Graham Street. The park design is based on work of public artist Norie Sato . Her concepts were inspired by his multimedia collages. Fittingly, the park serves as an entryway to a minor league baseball stadium, BB&T Charlotte Knights Ballpark. Bearden's home in Harlem, New York is a Historic Landmark Preservation site. DC Moore Gallery currently represents

4980-436: The pieces is entitled Baptism . Bearden was influenced by Francisco de Zurbarán , and based Baptism on Zurbarán's painting The Virgin Protectress of the Carthusians . Bearden wanted to show how the water that is about to be poured on the subject being baptized is always moving, giving the whole collage a feel and sense of temporal flux. He wanted to express how African Americans' rights were always changing, and society itself

5063-496: The press, displaced Black women to the background of a movement they spearheaded. A woman's issue, and a Black woman's issue, was being covered by the press. However, reporting diminished the roles of the women fighting for teacher salary equalization and “diminished the presence of the teachers’ salary equalization fight” in national debates over equality in education. There were many specialized black publications, such as those of Marcus Garvey and John H. Johnson . These men broke

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5146-464: The publications with one another. African American newspapers flourished in the major cities, with publishers playing a major role in politics and business affairs. By the 20th century, daily papers appeared in Norfolk , Chicago , Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Representative leaders included Robert Sengstacke Abbott (1870–1940) and John H. Sengstacke (1912–1997), publishers of the Chicago Defender ; John Mitchell Jr. (1863–1929), editor of

5229-536: The repatriation of free blacks back to Africa. Some notable black newspapers of the 19th century were Freedom's Journal (1827–1829), Philip Alexander Bell 's Colored American (1837–1841), the North Star (1847–1860), the National Era , The Aliened American in Cleveland (1853–1855), Frederick Douglass' Paper (1851–1863), the Douglass Monthly (1859–1863), The People's Advocate , founded by John Wesley Cromwell and Travers Benjamin Pinn (1876–1891), and The Christian Recorder (1861–1902). In

5312-420: The rigidity of historical roles and stereotypes and open up the possibilities and potential of blacks. "Bearden may have seen Odysseus as a strong mental model for the African-American community, which had endured its own adversities and setbacks." By portraying Odysseus as black, Bearden maximizes the potential for empathy by black audiences. Bearden said that he used collage because "he felt that art portraying

5395-448: The secretive Eucleian Society at NYU. Bearden studied art, education, science, and mathematics graduating with a degree in science and education in 1935. Bearden continued his artistic study under German artist George Grosz at the Art Students League in 1936 and 1937. During this time he supported himself by working as a political cartoonist for African-American newspapers, including the Baltimore Afro-American , where he published

5478-407: The starting fullback for the school football team (1931-2) and then began pitching - first for the freshman team and eventually for the school's varsity baseball team. He was awarded a certificate of merit for his pitching at BU, which he hung with pride in subsequent homes throughout his life. While at Boston University he played for the Boston Tigers, a semi-professional, all Black team based in

5561-402: The theme reemerged in his collage works of the 1960s. The New York Times described Bearden as "the nation's foremost collagist" in his 1988 obituary. Bearden became a founding member of the Harlem -based art group known as Spiral , formed to discuss the responsibility of the African-American artist in the civil rights movement . Bearden was the author or coauthor of several books. He also

5644-406: The time, but also for their meanings. Bearden wanted to explore the emotions and actions of the crowds gathered around the Crucifixion. He worked hard to "depict myths in an attempt to convey universal human values and reactions." According to Bearden, Christ's life, death, and resurrection are the greatest expressions of man's humanism, because of the idea of him that lived on through other men. It

5727-436: The trade association known in the 21st century as the National Newspaper Publishers Association . During the 1930s and 1940s, the Black southern press both aided and, to an extent, hindered the equal payment movement of Black teachers in the southern United States. Newspaper coverage of the movement served to publicize the cause. However, the way in which the movement was portrayed, and those whose struggles were highlighted in

5810-419: The use of sandpaper, bleach, graphite or paint. Bearden enlarged these collages through the photostat process. Building on the momentum from a successful exhibition of his photostat pieces at the Cordier and Ekstrom Gallery in 1964, Bearden was invited to do a solo exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. This heightened his public profile. Bearden's collage techniques changed over

5893-483: The war. One of its reporters (and Carl Murphy's daughter), Elizabeth Murphy Phillips Moss, was the first Black female correspondent. The AFRO-American collaborated with The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on numerous civil rights cases. In the 1930s the newspaper joined forces with the NAACP in the latter's suit against the University of Maryland Law School for its segregationist admission policies. Their combined efforts eventually led to

5976-634: The work of the Dutch artists Johannes Vermeer , Pieter de Hooch , and Rembrandt . He began exhibiting again in 1960. About this time he and his wife established a second home on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten . In 1961, Bearden joined the Cordier and Ekstrom Gallery in New York City , which would represent him for the rest of his career. In the early 1960s in Harlem , Bearden was a founding member of

6059-600: The years, and in later pieces he would use blown-up photostat photographic images, silk-screens, colored paper, and billboard pieces to create large collages on canvas and fiberboard . In 1970, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for Fine Arts. In 1971, the Museum of Modern Art held a retrospective exhibition of Bearden's work, which traveled to the University Art Museum in Berkeley, California . The City of Berkeley then commissioned Bearden to create

6142-480: Was a new medium, as glossy magazines were fairly new. He used these glossy scraps to incorporate modernity in his works, trying to show how African-American rights were moving forward, and so was his socially conscious art. In 1964, he held an exhibition he called Projections , where he introduced his new collage style. These works were very well received and are generally considered to be his best work. Bearden had numerous museum shows of his work since then, including

6225-484: Was a songwriter, known as co-writer of the jazz classic "Sea Breeze", which was recorded by Billy Eckstine , a former high school classmate at Peabody High School , and Dizzy Gillespie . He had long supported young, emerging artists and he and his wife established the Bearden Foundation to continue this work, as well as to support young scholars. In 1987, Bearden was awarded the National Medal of Arts . Bearden

6308-644: Was aimed at improving the appearance of, and reducing crime in, inner-city neighborhoods. The AFRO-American also campaigned against the Southern Railroad's use of Jim Crow cars, and fought to obtain equal pay for Maryland's Black schoolteachers. During World War II, The AFRO-American deployed several of its reporters to Europe, the Aleutians, Africa, Japan, and other parts of the South Pacific, and provided its readers with firsthand coverage of

6391-608: Was at combat with the mid-twentieth century "exploration of abstraction". His frustration with abstraction won over, as he himself described his paintings' focus as coming to a plateau. Bearden then turned to a completely different medium at a very important time for the country. During the civil rights movement , Bearden started to experiment again, this time with forms of collage. After helping to found an artists group in support of civil rights, Bearden expressed representational and more overtly socially conscious aspects in his work. He used clippings from magazines, which in and of itself

6474-549: Was born September 2, 1911, in Charlotte. Bearden and his family moved to New York City when he was a toddler, as part of the Great Migration . After enrolling in P.S. 5 in 1917, on 141 Street and Edgecombe Avenue in Harlem, he attended P.S. 139 and then DeWitt Clinton High School. In 1927 he moved to East Liberty , Pittsburgh with his grandparents and then returned to New York City. The Bearden household soon became

6557-500: Was established and edited by Reverend William Alexander in 1889. With the help of a group of investors, including John R. Cole, Charles H. Richardson, James E. Johnson, and William H. Daly, the Home Protector became the Afro-American on August 13, 1892. In the spring of 1895, the Northwestern Family Supply Company (NFSC), assumed control of the Afro-American . Although this seemed to be a turn for

6640-600: Was established in the 1880s and continued for decades. The national Afro-American Press Association was formed in 1890 in Indianapolis, Indiana . In 1894, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin founded The Woman's Era , the first nationally distributed newspaper published by and for African American women in the United States. The Woman's Era began as the official publication of the National Association of Colored Women , and grew in import and impact with

6723-635: Was in a temporal flux at the time. Bearden wanted to show that nothing is fixed, and expressed this idea throughout the image: not only is the subject about to have water poured from the top, but the subject is also to be submerged in water. Every aspect of the collage is moving and will never be the same more than once, which was congruent with society at the time. In "The Art of Romare Bearden", Ruth Fine describes his themes as "universal". "A well-read man whose friends were other artists, writers, poets and jazz musicians, Bearden mined their worlds as well as his own for topics to explore. He took his imagery from both

6806-478: Was installed in 1984. Before his death, Bearden claimed the collage fragments aided him to usher the past into the present: "When I conjure these memories, they are of the present to me, because after all, the artist is a kind of enchanter in time." The Return of Odysseus , one of his collage works held by the Art Institute of Chicago , exemplifies Bearden's effort to represent African-American rights in

6889-737: Was responsible for naming the group Spiral, suggesting the way in which the Archimedean spiral ascends upward as a symbol of progress. Over time the group expanded to include Merton Simpson , Emma Amos , Reginald Gammon , Alvin Hollingsworth , Calvin Douglas, Perry Ferguson , William Majors and Earle Miller. Stylistically the group ranged from Abstract Expressionists to social protest painters. Bearden's collage work began in 1963 or 1964. He first combined images cut from magazines and colored paper, which he would often further alter with

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