The artist ultimately found his distinct voice in collages he made from 1964 until his death in 1988.
Read on to discover five of Beardens most famous works.
Here are five iconic Romare Bearden artworks that capture Black American life during the 20th century.
In the early 1940s, the artist rendered social-realist scenes of working-class Black Americans in the South using gouache.
Despite the paintings title, the mens clothes do not suggest that they are factory workers.
Instead, their suits suggest that they are seeking work and may have just been denied employment.
These cut-and-stick techniques allowed him to express his life experiences more fully into his art.
The large-scale work combines layers of hand-painted papers and photographs from magazines.
Although the theme of the piece seems pleasant, it also implies a sense of caution and racial tension.
The half-covered faces in the windows appear to carefully survey the scene.
The Newark riot was one of 159.
Over four days (between July 12 and July 17), 26 people died and hundreds were injured.
The artwork explores themes of migration and segregation within the African American experience.
And in the little towns it’s the Black people who live near the trains.
Trains were central to the lives of enslaved African-Americans.
In it, the artist depicts a piano teacher and her student in a colorful Southern parlor.
