Romare Bearden

By shariaustin
  • Period: to

    Family Travels

    Romare's family moves to New York City to escape segregation

  • Born

    Romare Bearden was born in North Carolina

  • Art Lessons

    Romare had his first art lesson from a neighbor named Eugene Baily.
  • Period: to

    College

    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.
  • Period: to

    Career

    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.

  • Military

    Enlists as private in the Army. Various postings across the United States. Continues showing in group exhibitions of black artists.

  • Exhibition

    First solo exhibition, at G Place Gallery in Washington.

  • Military Discharge

    Honorably discharged from the Army.

  • Travels

    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.
  • Period: to

    Writer

    Back in New York, Bearden launches promising career as a writer of pop songs, including the successful "Seabreeze," used for a Seagrams commercial.

  • Married

    Marries Nanette Rohan, who encourages him to resume his art career.

  • College Show

    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

    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.

  • Award

    Awarded the Gold Medal for achievement in the arts by the governor of North Carolina.

  • Honored by President Carter

    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.

  • Honored by President Reagan

    Travels to the White House to receive National Medal of Arts from Ronald Reagan.

  • Death

    Bearden dies on March 12.

  • Art Exhibitions

    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.