Bearden (1911-1988)

An Art-Making Workshop for Middle School Kids by Linda Camardo 2004-2005 Art With Kids Award Winner

Lesson plan

Romare Bearden

Romare Bearden was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina where he spent much of his youth. His family later moved North and Romare spent his time living with his grandmother in Pittsburgh and his family in Harlem. He developed early interests in both music and the visual arts. He is noted as one of the premiere American artists of the 20th century as his art depicts personal memories and the African-American experience.

Focus

Artists conceptualize cultural, historical, social, and personal experiences in their work. We will focus on Romare Bearden’s life, the development of his collage style, the influences of his life in North Carolina, Pittsburgh, and Harlem and the history of the Harlem Renaissance and jazz as they are represented in his art. Bearden believed that both art and jazz music relied heavily upon improvisation and he used improvisation to combine collage materials in his artwork.

Figure 1.
Student Work, The Philadelphia Skyline View From a Crib: Good night, boungys.

Goals/Objectives

Students will:

learn about the life and works of African-American artist, Romare Bearden
identify symbols and connections between Bearden’s life and love of jazz and their representation in his art
learn method of creation of collage with emphasis on use of layers, textures, surfaces
learn about the selection of collages materials
make decisions about which materials best express personal experience, cultural or historical depiction
learn to create collage to maintain a unifying artistic motif
create a mixed media collage depicting one of the following:
1. family heritage, celebration, or tradition
2. personal, childhood memory
write an accompanying piece to the collage

Vocabulary

Harlem Renaissance, collage, symbolism, monoprint, fractured cubism, negative space, dry brush technique, jazz, call and response, unifying motif

Inspiration

Romare Bearden Slides [Figures 2-6]:
Figure 2.
Romare Bearden
Pittsburgh Memories, Farewell Eugene, 1978
Collage
16 x 20 inches
© Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA. New York, NY

Figure 3.
Romare Bearden
Pittsburgh Memories, 1984
Collage of various papers with fabric,foil, paint, ink, color pencil,
graphite and bleached areas on fiberboard
28 5/8 x 23 inches
© Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA. New York, NY

Figure 4.
Romare Bearden
Tomorrow I May Be Far Away, 1966-67
Collage of various papers with charcoal and graphite on canvas
46 x 56 inches
© Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA. New York, NY

Figure 5.
Romare Bearden
The Block, 1972 (6 panels)
Collage of cut paper and synthetic polymer paint on masonite
48 x 216 inches
© Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA. New York, NY

Figure 6.
Romare Bearden
The Blues, 1975
Collage with acrylic paint and lacquer on board
24 x 18 inches
© Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA. New York, NY
Romare Bearden Prints [Figures 7 - 10]:
Figure 7.
Romare Bearden
Folk Musicians, 1941-42
Gouache with ink and graphite on brown paper
© Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA. New York, NY

Figure 8.
Romare Bearden
Three Folk Musicians, 1967
50 1/8 x 60 inches
Collage of various papers with paint and graphite on canvas
© Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA. New York, NY

Figure 9.
Romare Bearden
The Piano Lesson, 1983
29 x 22 inches
Collage
© Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA. New York, NY

Figure 10.
Romare Bearden
The Conversation, 1977
11 1/8 x 15 1/8 inches, collage;
21 1/2 x 28 1/2 inches, lithograph
© Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA. New York, NY
Photographs of Romare Bearden as a child, in different stages of his life, working in his studio, interacting with jazz musicians.
Listen to jazz music while the students are working in a studio atmosphere.

Materials - Art Supplies

Un-stretched, primed canvas or Strathmere paper (heavy weight), 12 ½ x 18
Acrylic paints
Monoprint inks, brushes and Plexiglas (optional)
White drawing paper (dampened for monoprinting) (optional)
Magazines for cutouts (Smithsonian, Life, National Geographic, Ebony)
Scrap papers of various types and textures (wallpaper, pastepaper, handmade papers, newspapers, monoprints, colored tissue paper, etc.)
Black and white photographs of students (to be taken by teacher)
Student childhood photos xeroxed to black and white
Oil pastels, chalk pastels, sharpie markers (various point size), watercolors
Glue sticks, 'Yes' glue,
scissors

Figure 11. Student Supplies

Figure 12. Student Art Materials

Procedure

We begin this workshop with an introduction to the life and works of Romare Bearden. We emphasize the importance of memories depicted in Bearden’s art from those of Mecklenburg County, most clearly of the trains journeying north, pepper jelly and his great-grandmother’s garden to those of the smoke stacks of Pittsburgh to the cityscapes and jazz influences of Harlem. We view slides, prints, and photographs of Bearden’s collages that incorporate these memories as symbols in his work.

Figure 13. Student Busy at Work:
Final application of color details in The Fall

To brainstorm ideas for student work, we begin to recall vivid memories of our own childhood. Students write a 'memory page' about a specific moment in time, one that captures rich, visual memories. These informal writings may be in paragraph or simple list form to initiate visual context for the collage work.

Figure 14. Student Work, The Fall: So Many Mixed Emotions

Students next sketch on newsprint a draft idea for collage, keeping in mind interesting composition, a fractured, cubist motif, and the utilization of different collage pieces. Not much detail is planned yet this is just the groundwork.

Figure 15. Student Work, Dreams That Aren't Afraid to Come True: My Motivations

Next we prepare and collect collage materials. Monoprints of varying textures and patterns are to be created in class and shared among students. Collage materials range from wallpaper, newspaper text, tissue paper, handmade and specialty papers, family photographs that have been cut and re-assembled, magazine cutouts, combinations of drawn, painted or oil pastel sections and monoprints. Collage papers are both torn and cut to vary the edges.

Figure 16. Student Work, I'm Waiting to Hear Mom's Keys (At After Care)

Students place collage pieces on canvas surface. Much experimentation takes place: arranging, re-arranging of pieces, re-working, solving composition problems, and incorporating interesting negative space. Once they are satisfied with the development, students glue pieces on canvas with great care and craftsmanship. This is the most wonderful part of all, the student’s memory comes to life, as the artwork unfolds in Bearden style. The results are amazing!

Figure 17. Student Work, Mihi Nomen Est: Their Names Will Never Be Known

Bibliography

The Art of Romare Bearden: A Resource for Teachers, The National Gallery of Art, 2003
Romare Bearden by Myron Schwartzman, Grolier Press, 1999
Romare Bearden, Artist by Kevin Brown, Introduction Essay by Coretta Scott King, Chelsea House Publishers, 1995
Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance by A. and S. West, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc., 2003
The Art of Romare Bearden: A Book of Postcards, The National Gallery of Art
Romare Bearden, Photographs by Frank Stewart, Foreword: David C. Driskell, Pomegranate Communications, 2004

Videos

The Art of Romare Bearden, National Gallery of Art
Visual Jazz: Romare Bearden, Narrated by Wynton Marsalis, Created and produced by Linda Freeman

Websites

Children’s Books

I Live the Music by Ntozake Shange, paintings by Romare Bearden
Ahrlem, A Poem by Walter Dean Myers, pictures by Christopher Myers
Me and Uncle Romie by Claire Hartfield, pictures by Jerome Lagarrigue
The Block Poems by Langston Hughes, collages by Romare Bearden
Harlem STOMP: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance by Lagan Carrick Hill