-
Romare's family moves to New York City to escape segregation
-
Romare Bearden was born in North Carolina
-
Romare had his first art lesson from a neighbor named Eugene Baily.
-
Bearden studies art and other subjects at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, at Boston University and at New York University, from which he graduates with a degree in education.
-
Becomes a caseworker for the New York City Department of Social Services, a day job he keeps until 1969. He comes to focus on the city's Gypsy community.
-
Enlists as private in the Army. Various postings across the United States. Continues showing in group exhibitions of black artists.
-
First solo exhibition, at G Place Gallery in Washington.
-
Honorably discharged from the Army.
-
Takes leave from Department of Social Services and travels to Paris on the GI Bill, where he frequents artistic and musical circles. Has letters of introduction to Picasso, Braque, Brancusi and Matisse.
-
Back in New York, Bearden launches promising career as a writer of pop songs, including the successful "Seabreeze," used for a Seagrams commercial.
-
Marries Nanette Rohan, who encourages him to resume his art career.
-
Bearden has his first, landmark collage show at Cordier and Ekstrom, where 21 of his works are shown as photostatic enlargements. Appointed as first art director of the new Harlem Cultural Council, an African American advocacy group.
-
Solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art; the exhibition travels to the National Collection of Fine Arts (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum) and to other major institutions.
-
Awarded the Gold Medal for achievement in the arts by the governor of North Carolina.
-
Bearden and nine other leading African American artists honored by President Carter at the White House, in conjunction with a group show at the Corcoran.
-
Travels to the White House to receive National Medal of Arts from Ronald Reagan.
-
Bearden dies on March 12.
-
Retrospective at the Studio Museum in Harlem tours to major museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Art.