Today we're going to talk about the artist Ramir Bearden. Ramir Bearden was a 20th century American artist and his artwork depicted the African-American culture and experiences in creative and thought-provoking ways. He was born in North Carolina in 1911 and spent much of his career in New York City.
As a self-taught artist, his early works were realistic images and had some religious themes. He later created abstract and cubist style paintings in oils and watercolors, and he is best known for his photo montage compositions. These are works of art made from torn images from magazines, and they were put together to make visually powerful statements on African American life.
The works of Ramir Bearden's cover a wide range of techniques and styles. In college, Bearden aspired to be a cartoonist, and he drew for Boston College's Humor magazine in the early 1930s. He continued his cartooning and moved to New York City. He studied there in medical school and graduated with a bachelor's degree in science. He lived in Harlem later and joined the Black Artist Group and became excited about modern art, particularly cubism, post-impressionism, and surrealism.
He created paintings of scenes of the American South. And some works were realistic and showed influence from Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera. Bearden grew up during the Harlem Renaissance, and he was exposed to many of the great jazz musicians such as Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday.
Bearden's collages reflect some of these elements of jazz and his characters in his use of materials. One of Bearden's most famous art pieces is The Block. This is an art piece that... is of Harlem street with row house buildings and the bustling life of the neighborhood. Made of shapes and images, he captures the life and faces of people living on his block.
It reveals a lifetime of his experiences and those living on his street in Harlem.