Bearden as Social Realist
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Romare Howard Bearden was born September 2, 1912. Bearden's date of birth has been the subject of much debate. Dates have ranged anywhere from 1911 to 1914. However, according to the Register of Deeds in Charlotte, North Carolina (Bearden's birthplace) his year of birth has been recorded as 1912 (Campbell and Patton 105).
Bearden earned a B.S. in Mathematics from New York University in 1935. While in college, starting in 1933, Bearden drew cartoons for Medley, NYU's humor magazine.
Bearden had met renowned cartoonist Elmer Simms Campbell and began doing editorial drawings for the Baltimore Afro-American. He also contributed some drawings to the Saturday Evening Post and Colliers.
While still trying to decide on whether or not to become a professional artist, he attended a meeting of African-American artists in Harlem, NY. The group of artists called themselves the "306 Group" and Bearden met many of his influences and people who were instrumental in the development of his career in art while attending (such as Langston Hughes, Jacob Lawrence, Augusta Savage, Aaron Douglas, Charles Aston and Addison Bates).
In 1936, Bearden enrolled in night classes at New York's Art Students League where he studied under German Expressionist George Grosz. Grosz inspired him to continue the expressive line renderings that he had used in some of his editorial drawings. Grosz also taught Bearden about the study of composition by familiarizing him with some of the master draftsmen of the past like Hans Holbein and Pieter Brueghel.
Bearden began painting using brown paper and gouache (a method of painting with opaque watercolors). In May 1940, Addison Bates gave Bearden his first solo exhibition entitled "Romare Bearden, oil, gouaches, water colors and drawings, 1937-1940." His most notable painting from this exhibit was Interior.
During the early 40's, Bearden's painting style was that of a Social Realist. At this time, the motifs of his paintings involved the portrayal of the human figure and the human condition. This is most evident in his 1941painting Two Women in a Landscape, which shows "spiritual symbols" whereby "the biblical meeting between Mary and Anne is represented as an encounter between two southern Black women,"(Campbell and Patton 24). Other Social Realist artists of this time were Diego Rivera, Jacob Lawrence and Ben Shahn.
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