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ROMARE BEARDEN

ROMARE BEARDEN (1911-1988), born in North Carolina, moved to New York City as a child and grew up amidst the Harlem Renaissance. He studied in New York and later at the Sorbonne, Paris. Combining painting and drawing with scraps of paper and cloth, Bearden produced a uniquely American take on the collage. With jazz as much an influence as Picasso and Braque, Bearden explored themes and stories from his early rural childhood as well as contemporary urban life.