Romare Bearden is celebrated as one of America’s foremost collage artists of the twentieth century.  Combining bold colors and richly textured materials, Bearden’s works resonate with an unforgettable aesthetic, while powerfully expressing the experience of African Americans during the 1900s.  Although Bearden earned a degree in education and was employed as a social worker, he always found an outlet for his artistic productions.  In addition to his masterful collages, watercolors, and oils, the artist also addressed social issues of the day (notably, he served as the director of the Harlem Cultural Council) and contributed to art historical literature.  Today, Bearden’s work is featured in every major museum including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  During his life, he was honored with two retrospectives (Mint Museum of Art (1980) and The Detroit Institute of Art (1986); in 2003 the National Gallery of Art also organized a major restrospective of the artist’s work.