Romare Bearden's life was full of movement. Born in 1912 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden's family moved shortly thereafter to Harlem where their apartment was a popular meeting place for intellectuals and artists such as W.E.B. DuBois, Aaron Douglas, and Charles Alston during the Renaissance. In 1925, Bearden moved to Pittsburgh where he eventually graduated from high school, and later came back to New York, obtaining his bachelor's degree in mathematics from New York University. The painter eventually joined the "306" group and continued his study of European painting which was later to exert a heavy influence on his work. After serving in the army for three years, Bearden studied philosophy in Paris at the Sorbonne, returning to New York afterward to paint. |