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Welcome to the official website of The Romare Bearden Foundation. This site offers a wide range of resources and information on the art and life of preeminent African-American artist Romare Bearden.
Please explore our website, sign our e-mail list and learn about who we are and how you can support us. We invite you to visit this site often to learn more about Romare Bearden, one of America's foremost artists. Enjoy!
Photo by Marvin Newman.
Romare Howard Bearden (1911-1988). Recognized as one of the most creative and original visual artists of the twentieth century, the artist had a prolific and distinguished career.
The Romare Bearden Foundation was established as a nonprofit organization by the estate of Romare Bearden in 1990, two years after the artist died.
Our MissionPhoto by Frank Stewart
Our memberships provide wonderful benefits and supports our goal to preserve and conserve our local history. Donate to continue Romare Bearden's legacy.
DISCOVER
Our Events
Spring Garden Party, Washington, D.C.
The Romare Bearden Foundation hosts events and fundraisers to promote the arts, and to support their educational programs.
Symposium
In Common: Romare Bearden and New Approaches to Art, Race & Economy
The Romare Bearden Foundation, The New School’s Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy, the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, and The Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University combine forces to examine Bearden’s legacy under three distinct lenses: the impact of his activist work, especially his prints; the role of music in both his practice at large and the activist projects; and the resonance of his oeuvre in contemporary art making.
Drawing on the art and activist legacy of American icon Romare Bearden (1911–1988), the three-day convening offers a unique, action-oriented investigation into the potent relationships among race, culture, economy, and the common good. Plenary discussions examine the themes of purposeful creativity, the artist as activist, BIPOC leadership in creative culture and economy, and other topics. Live musical and artistic performances evoke and explore key themes, creating a dynamic and thought-provoking experience: part conversation and part performance.
Speakers, performers, and artists at the symposium include: Rocío Aranda-Alvarado, Aisha Benson, Johanne Bryant-Reid, Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes, Adrienne Edwards, Nicole Fleetwood, Angie Kim, Eriola Pira, fayemi shakur, Eddie Torres, Yvonne Watson, Calvin Williams, H. Sharif Williams, and Wayne Winborne.
Full schedule and guide here: https://www.veralistcenter.org/events/in-common-romare-bearden-and-new-approaches-to-art-race-economy
The Exhibition
In Common: New Approaches with Romare Bearden
Nov 9, 2023–Jan 15, 2024
66 5th Avenue at 13th Street; Open daily 12–6 pm EDT, Thursdays late until 8 pm
PAST EVENTS
WATCH
Romare Bearden's Southern Sensibility by Wide Iris Productions
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In the news
- 12 Nov
Preview Event: Paris Blues/Jazz and Other Works
Read moreWednesday, November 13, 5:30 – 7:30 pm Romare Bearden: Paris Blues/Jazz and Other Works Fall Fundraiser Event- Exhibition Preview of Romare Bearden: Paris Blues/Jazz
- 02 Sep
Happy Birthday Romare Bearden
Read moreBearden was born Sept 2, 1911 and died on March 12, 1988. Today we celebrate him as a master painter who would have been
- 07 May
WPI Webinar Series- Enduring Legacy- Conversations on Romare Bearden
Read moreWPI Webinar Series – Enduring Legacy- Conversations On Romare Bearden This series runs through May. Use this link to register for the series wpi art Brought
- 15 Apr
Cinque Artists Talk Program: Phillip Smallwood
Read moreWednesday, April 24 6:00 – 7:00 pm – Virtual on Zoom Controlling the Narrative: Lifescapes & Watercolors with Philip Smallwood The Cinque Artist Series
Quotes
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I think the artist has to be something like a whale, swimming with his mouth open, absorbing everything until he has what he really needs. When he finds that, he can start to make limitations. And then he really begins to grow.
Romare Bearden -
I felt that the Negro was becoming too much of an abstraction, rather than the reality that art can give a subject.
Romare Bearden, 1964 -
As a Negro I do not need to go looking for happenings, the absurd or the surreal, because I have seen things that neither Dali, Beckett, Ionesco, nor any of the others could have thought possible.
Romare Bearden, 1967 -
It is not my aim to paint about the Negro in America in terms of propaganda. It is to depict the life of my people as I know it, passionately and dispassionately as Brueghel. My intention is to reveal through pictorial complexities the life I know.
Romare Bearden -
I do not burden myself with the need for complete abstraction or absolute formal purity but I do want my language to be strict and classical, in the manner of the great Benin heads, for example.
Romare Bearden, 1969 -
I paint out of the tradition of the blues.
Romare Bearden, 1980