Daily Art Fixx

Born on September 2, 1911 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Romare Bearden was a multi-talented artist and one of America’s foremost collagists.  Bearden’s family moved to New York City in 1914 in an attempt to distance themselves from Jim Crow’s “separate but equal” laws.

Bearden initially studied at Lincoln University but transferred to Boston University where he was the art director of Beanpot, a student humour magazine. He then completed his degree in education at New York University.  At NYU, Bearden was enrolled in art classes and was a lead cartoonist and art editor for the monthly journal “The Medley”.  During his University years, he published numerous journal covers and wrote many texts on social and artistic issues.  Bearden also attended New York’s Art Students League, studying under German artist George Grosz. Bearden served in the US Army between 1942 and 1945 and returned to Europe in 1950 to study art and philosophy at the Sorbonne with the support of the GI Bill.

From the 1930′s to the 1960′s Bearden was a social worker with the New York City Department of Social Services and worked on his art in his free time.  He had his first successful solo exhibitions in Harlem in 1940 and in Washington DC in 1944. In 1954, he married dancer and choreographer Nanette Rohan, with whom he shared the rest of his life. During this time, Bearden was active in Harlem’s art scene and was a member of the Harlem Artists Guild.

Bearden was a prolific artist who experimented with numerous mediums including watercolours, oils, collage, photo montage, prints, and costume and set design. His inspiration was gathered from his lifelong study of art from the Western masters, African art, Byzantine mosaics, Japanese prints, and Chinese landscape paintings. Bearden is best known for his collages which were featured on the covers of Time and Fortune magazines in 1968.

Bearden was active in numerous arts organizations and was a respected writer and spokesperson for the arts and for social causes. In 1964, he was appointed as art director of the African-American advocacy group, the Harlem Cultural Council.  He was also involved in the establishment of art venues such as The Studio Museum and the Cinque Gallery that supported young minority artists. Bearden was also a founding member of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters and was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1972.

Bearden’s work is on display in major museums and galleries in the United States including New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Bearden received numerous honorary degrees including doctorates from the Pratt Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Davidson College, Atlanta University, and others.  He received the 1984 Mayor’s Award of Honour for Art and Culture in New York City, and the National Medal of Arts, presented by President Ronald Regan in 1987.

Romare Bearden died in New York on March 12, 1988 from complications due to bone cancer.  His estate provided for the Romare Bearden Foundation which was established  in 1990 and whose purpose is “to preserve and perpetuate” his legacy.  The foundation also supports the “creative and educational development of young people and of talented and aspiring artists and scholars”.

Related Books:
Romare Bearden
The Art of Romare Bearden
Conjuring Bearden

Sources: Romare Bearden Foundation, National Gallery of Art, Artcyclopedia, New York Times, Wikipedia

Dena Schuckit has a BFA from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and her MFA from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. She was a master printer with Crown Point Press for twelve years.

Schuckit works from stacks of saved and categorized photos pulled from online news. “My hybrid landscapes chart loose and abstracted scenes of construction, destruction and the suspended chaos that often accompanies the two. The process decontextualizes the action from any specific event, instead drawing from the connections that emerge in the process of organizing the photos. Online news is often accompanied by entire slide shows of photos capturing the drama and dynamism of the disaster and the surprising and unplanned landscape that is the deconstructed physical manifest. Sorting stacks of these pictures is a way of mapping my relationship to my landscape. Pattern, shape, color, and event overlap and repeat in a complex rhizome charting the ebb and flow of civilization vs. nature.” (from artist website)

Schuckit’s work is included in the collections of the University of the Arts, London and the Parsons School of Design, New York. Her current solo show ” The Garden is a Raging Sea” at David B. Smith Gallery in Denver, Colorado runs August 27th through September 25th.

To see more visit DenaSchuckit.com.

Rovi Jesher Salegumba is a Phillipean painter and a graduate of  the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. Jesher has already defined a style that won him first prize at the 2006 Shell National Student’s Art Competition (oil/acrylic category) for his painting titled “Become”.

See more of Rovi Jesher’s work on Deviant Art or at Multiply.com.

Another Monday Mixx!  Enjoy!

The twin brothers HOW and NOSM (aka Raoul and Davide Perre) are graffiti artists and professional muralists residing in New York. Born in the Basque country of San Sebastian, Spain, the Perre brothers grew up in Düsseldorf, Germany practicing the Bronx-born art form of graffiti. Their late teenage years were spent spray painting the world, visiting many of the more than 50 countries in which they both left their remarkable artwork on any kind of surface including subway trains. During a visit to New York in ’97 HOW and NOSM were asked to become members of the legendary TATS CRU, and permanently relocated to New York shortly thereafter in ’99 – a move that marked their transition from painting on trains, and even the Berlin Wall – to creating elaborate murals for a number of known commercial clients such as SONY.

As members of TATS CRU, the Perre twins have lectured at universities including M.I.T. and their work has appeared in numerous films, music videos, documentaries, and most recently, the windows of the historic department store, Lord and Taylor.

HOW and NOSM have been featured within the pages of numerous publications, including the New York Times and the New Yorker, and even stirred the likes of the Rev. Al Sharpton with the controversial undertones of subjects manifested within their art. As adept with a spray can as only few artists could ever hope to be with a brush, and best known for their medium, Perre’s body of work includes everything from skateboards and collectible toys to large scale multimedia sculpture – and for that matter, anything they can get their hands on. (bio from artist’s website)

To learn more about HOW and NOSM, visit HowNosm.org or check out their photostream on Flickr.