Romare Bearden was an African American artist born in 1911 who is recognized for his lifelong work as a collage artist. He grew up in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance, which inspired his celebration of African American culture and social realism in his collages. Bearden began working extensively in collage in the 1960s, cutting and pasting various materials like paper, photographs, and fabric to tell narrative stories through symbolic, distorted figures and imaginative compositions.

1. Romare Bearden
Figure and Mixed Media Narrative
Collage

2. Romare Bearden
• Collage Artist, painter
(1911-1988)
• Romare Bearden was an
African-American who
is internationally
recognized for his
lifelong work as a
collage artist.

3. •Romare Bearden was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. He moved
to Harlem in NewYork City when he was a young child and grew up
there in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance.
The Harlem Renaissance (1919-1929), was a period in American
cultural history when Black artists felt a need to contribute their
African heritage and pride in a positive way to the visual, performing
and literary arts.
Harlem became the center of this artistic rebirth period during the
1920's when Romare Bearden was a young artist.

4. •Romare Bearden is internationally recognized for his lifelong work as a
collage artist. His work tells many captivating and inspiring stories to
draw attention to social realism and to celebrate the African-American
experience.
COLLAGE
During the 1960's he began working almost exclusively in collage.
Collage comes from the French word coller, “to gum or stick something
together.”
His work was created by gluing fragments of paper, fabric, scraps,
photographs, drawings, and images in
magazines and newspapers to a flat surface. In addition, he used
watercolors, oil paints, and inks to make his collages. He enjoyed many
art forms and styles including African,
Asian and European art.

5. http://www.brwnpaperbag.com/2011/05/24/time-travel-tuesday-romare-bearden/
Time Travel Tuesday

7. Farewell Eugene

8. School Bell

9. The Train

11. ROCKET TO THE MOON

12. Jazz

13. GREGORY CREWDSON

14. EDWARD HOPPER
SUNDAY, 1926, Oil on Canvas

15. CINDY SHERMAN
UNTITLED FILM STILL, Photograph

16. Assignment: Figure and mixed media narrative collage in the style
of Romare Bearden
•Apply skills learned from previous lessons including
compositional skills of foreground, middle ground and
background, basic collage procedures including layering and
working” back to front”.
•Must include at least one figure as the center of interest.
•Distortion must be used to define the figures. See Romare
Bearden examples
•Collages must be narrative and convey a particular mood. Must
be creative and inventive with the mixed media materials creating
a dynamic aysmmetrical composition, with a clear center of
interest. Must have sketchbook examples that support your
narrative ideas.
•Students must include a written narrative, (at least 2 paragraphs)
about your collage. Must be able to explain significant event and
the mood it conveys.

17. Figure and mixed media assignment cont’d.
•Completed artwork must include the use of either Analagous or
Complementary color schemes used to help convey the narrative or used
to express the mood of the work .
•Show evidence of care and effort to produce a creative, original work of
art
•Artwork clearly reflects the influence of Romare Bearden based on
visuals displayed and discussed in class
•Artwork expresses a complete idea and is completed by due date:
Materials: White paper, 18 x 24 inches, various collage materials
including; magazines, various colored paper, computer-generated
images of textures and figures and glue.

18. Art Terms:
• Distortion: a lack of proportionality in an image
• Proportion: a comparative size relationship between
several objects or between parts of a single object or
figure. In figure drawing, the correct relationship
between size of the head and the body.
• Figure and Ground: The relationship between figure
and ground is one of the most important relationships
in design. In simplest terms the figure is what you
notice and the ground is everything else.
• Narrative :a story or account of events, experiences, or
the like, whether true or fictitious.

19. Art Terms cont:
• Photomontage is the process and result of
making a composite photograph by cutting and
joining a number of other photographs.
• Contrast: the difference in visual properties that
makes an object (or its representation in an
image) distinguishable from other objects and
the background. Contrast is determined by the
difference in the color and brightness of the
object and other objects within the same field of
view.

20. Art Terms cont:
Analagous colors
• Analagous colors are next to
each other on the color
wheel. These colors will
have a common base color.
For instance: blue, blue-
violet, and violet. Another
example is yellow-green,
green, and blue-green.

21. Art Terms cont:
Complementary Color
• Complementary colors are
pairs of colors that are of
“opposite” hue in some
color model.