Romare Bearden

A treasured, iconic African-American artist who was a master of collage and painting and excelled without any formal art training, Romare Bearden had an early training in medicine and gave up his studies, much to the chagrin of his well-known Harlem community activist mother.

Called "a successful self-taught artist," Bearden always contended that all artists are self-taught individuals and they continue to branch out into their own once they've had their formal training.

We had the honor and pleasure of interviewing a close friend of Romare Bearden, Russell L. Goings, a New Yorker who lives on the Upper West Side and who has a considerable collection of Bearden works. Goings new book The Children of Children Keep Coming is graced with images by Romare Bearden and tells the epic chronicle of the African-American experience in the United States.

Here is an interview conducted with Romare Bearden by Barbaralee Diamonstein in the Duke University Galleries; it will give you a good general background on his life, opinions, and work.

And here is Part 1 of Design2Share's special interview sequence with Russell Goings and his insights into this incredible artist's life and work.

Update on August 8, 2009 by Design2Share

Part 2 of our interview with Russell L. Goings, a close friend and patron of Romare Bearden. We encourage you to look into Russell's book The Children of Children Keep Coming, with illustrations from Romare Bearden (Simon & Schuster).

Update on August 13, 2009 by Design2Share

Part 3 of our exclusive Design2Share video interview with Romare Bearden friend and collector, Russell L. Goings, author of The Children of Children Keep Coming (Simon and Schuster) which features some of the Bearden works shown in this video. At right, Romare Bearden at work in his studio.

Update on August 23, 2009 by Design2Share

Part 4 of our interview with Romare Bearden collector and friend Russell L. Goings. In this video, Russell focuses on some of the last works by Bearden, not surprisingly focusing on death. Included in the works that we see is his collaboration late in life with his assistant Andre Thibault/Teabo -- in Beardon's only co-signed piece -- and a look at some of Teabo's beautiful collage work (mixed media with sea glass). Goings is author of The Children of Children Keep Coming (Simon and Schuster), which includes never-before-published images from Romare Bearden.