“Two fundamental assumptions underlie my attitude to my work. First, I feel that when some photographic detail, such as a hand or an eye, is taken out of its original context and is fractured and integrated into a different space and form configuration, it acquires a plastic quality it did not have in the original. . . .  Secondly, I think a quality of artificiality must be retained in a work of art, since . . . the reality of art is not to be confused with that of the outer world. Art . . . is artifice, or a creative undertaking, the primary function of which is to add to our existing conception of reality.”[i]

One of the great innovators of twentieth-century collage, Romare Bearden (1911–1988), was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and raised by parents who nurtured his intellect and exposed him to art. In 1914, the family moved to Harlem, where their circle of friends included luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance. As a teenager, Bearden spent considerable time with his grandparents in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and, at sixteen, he spent a summer working for US Steel, which later inspired him to expose the conditions facing black steelworkers in an article for Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life. After high school, Bearden enrolled at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania before eventually transferring to New York University, earning a BS in Education in 1935. In the fall of that year, he took a job as a caseworker for the New York City Department of Social Services, a position he held until 1969.

After college, Bearden took night classes at the Art Students League, where he studied with George Grosz. He began his professional career as a political cartoonist and was involved with the Harlem Artists’ Guild, frequenting the sessions and exhibitions held at Charles Alston’s studio at 306 West 141st Street. Alston was Bearden’s cousin by marriage, and the studio was the venue for Bearden’s first solo show in 1940. During World War II, Bearden enlisted in the US Army, serving in a segregated unit stationed in New York. He continued to work and exhibit during the war and, in 1945, Bearden joined Kootz Gallery’s stable of artists, which included Carl Holty, William Baziotes, Adolf Gottlieb, Alexander Calder, and Robert Motherwell. These eminent figures of mid-century modernism met regularly to discuss art, abstraction, and composition; their monthly debates proved to be a stimulating environment for Bearden, who wrote extensively about art.

After studying in Paris with GI Bill funding, Bearden resumed his job at Social Services in 1952, but by 1954 he decided to direct more time and energy toward making art. To hone his composition skills, Bearden made duplicates of European masterworks on a Photostat machine and began experimenting with color, divorcing it from figural representation and applying it in “marks and patches.” Through these experiments, Bearden “realized . . . tracks of color tended to fragment my compositions. That was when I went back to the Dutch masters, to Vermeer and De Hooch, in particular, and it was then I came to some understanding of the way these painters controlled their big shapes, even when elements of different size and scale were included within those large shapes.”[ii] This rectangular organization, as Bearden called it, became his foundational approach to composition.

In 1963–1964 Bearden took on collage as his primary medium, which he favored for its embodiment of his ardent belief that “art is made from other art.” Bearden often added gouache, ink, pencil, oil, and spray paint to his kaleidoscopic surface of cut-up collage elements, heightening the effect of his formal structures and deepening the chromatic range of his images. The subjects of Bearden’s collage works are as expansive as his own talent and interests, ranging from Greek mythology, jazz, blues, European Old Masters, and Black American life in both urban and rural settings. He once explained, “I seek connections . . . People in a baptism in a Virginia stream are linked to John the Baptist, to ancient purification rites, and to their African heritage.”[iii] For Bearden, collage became a metaphor for this idea of interconnectivity as well as a means to reveal it. Featuring conjure women and other African traditions that survived the ruptures of slavery and diaspora, Bearden’s work redefined the image of humanity in terms of black experiences, be they African, American, or Caribbean.

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH
The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
Art Galleries at Black Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
The Art Museum, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA
Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, NC
Canton Museum of Art, Canton, OH
Charles H. MacNider Art Museum, Mason City, IA
The City College of New York, The City University of New York, New York, NY
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Colby College Museum of Art, Colby College, Waterville, ME
The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
The Cummer Museum of Art & Garden, Jacksonville, FL
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Davidson College Art Gallery, Davidson, NC
DePaul University Museum, Chicago, IL
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Fisk University Museum of Art, Nashville, TN
Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Hammonds House Museum, Atlanta, GA
Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA
Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, HI
Howard University Gallery of Art, Howard University, Washington, DC
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA
Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ
The Jewish Museum, New York, NY
John L. Warfield Center of African and African American Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, CA

1940
Studio of Ad Bates, New York, NY

1945
The G Place Gallery, Washington, DC
Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York, NY

1946
Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York, NY

1947
Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York, NY

1948
Niveau Gallery, New York, NY

1955
Barone Gallery, New York, NY

1960
Michael Warren Gallery, New York, NY

1961
Cordier & Warren Gallery, New York, NY

1964
Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York, NY

1965
Projections, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1966
Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, PA
Bundy Art Gallery, Waitsfield, VT

1967
Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York, NY
J.L. Hudson Gallery, Detroit, MI

1968
University Art Gallery, The University of Albany, State University of NY

1969
University of Iowa, Museum of Art, Iowa City, IO
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York, NY

1970
Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York, NY
Tercia Karliss Gallery, Provincetown, MA

1971
Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; The National Collection of Fine Arts (aka Smithsonian American Art Museum), Washington, DC; University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA; Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA

1973
Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York, NY

1975 
Of the Blues: Romare Bearden, Cordier & Ekstrom, New York, NY

1977
Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York, NY

1978
Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York, NY
Davidson College Art Gallery, Davidson, NC
Sheldon Ross Gallery, Birmingham, MI
Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York, NY

1980
Romare Bearden 1970 - 1980, Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA

1981
Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York, NY

1983
Romare Bearden: Mecklenburg Autumn, Oil Paintings with Collage, Cordier & Ekstrom, New York, NY

1984
The Art of Romare Bearden, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, MI

1986
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY

1988
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC

1989
Romare Bearden: A Memorial Exhibition, 1911-1988, ACA Galleries, New York, NY

1990
Romare Bearden: Selected Works 1964-1987, Sheldon Ross Gallery, Birmingham, MI

1991
Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden, 1940-1987, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Wight Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles, CA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA; National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution (now Smithsonian American Art Museum), Washington, DC
Romare Bearden: Finding the Rhythm, the University of Oklahoma Museum of Art, Norman, OK; traveled
Romare Bearden: The Human Condition, ACA Galleries, New York, NY

1997
Romare Bearden in Black-and-White: Photomontage Projections 1964, Whitney Museum of American Art,; Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion, Stamford, CT; Madison Art Center, Madison, WI; Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg, VA; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC; Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, Marietta, GA; The Trout Gallery, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA; Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland, OR; Museum of Abilene, Abilene, TX

2002
A Look at Romare Bearden, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Recollections of Charlotte's Own: Romare Bearden, The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC

2003
The Art of Romare Bearden, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA

2004
Sunday Morning Breakfast: Inside the Art of Romare Bearden, Children’s Museum of Manhattan, New York, NY

2006
Romare Bearden: Fractured Tales, Intimate Collages, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2009
Bearden at Bowdoin -- From Process to Print: Graphic Works by Romare Bearden and Collages by Romare Bearden, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME

2011
Romare Bearden: COLLAGE, A Centennial Celebration, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY
Romare Bearden: The Artist as Activist, organized by the Romare Bearden Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York, NY
Romare Bearden, W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Romare Bearden: Southern Recollections, Mint Museum of Art Charlotte, NC; Tampa Museum of Art Tampa, FL; Newark Museum Newark, NJ

2012
Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey, organized by Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), Washington, DC; Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN; Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX; Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI; Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, GA; Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH; Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY

2013
Southern Connections: Bearden in Atlanta, Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, GA

2017         
Romare Bearden: Abstraction, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase, NY

Romare Bearden: Visionary Artist, Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, Baltimore, MD

2019
Artwork of Romare Bearden from the Collection of Dr. Michael Butler, Southern University Museum of Art, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA
“Something Over Something Else”: Romare Bearden’s Profile Series, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH
Romare Bearden: Vision and Activism, National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, TN

2020
Romare Bearden: Artist as Activist & Visionary, The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park, MD

2021
Romare Bearden: Abstraction, organized by the American Federation of the Arts (AFA), Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; University of Michigan Museum of Art, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA

1935
Negro Art, YWCA, 144 West 138th Street, New York, NY

1940
21 New York Negro Painters, Harlem Community Art Center, New York, NY

1941
American Negro Art, Downtown Gallery, New York, NY

1944
New Names in American Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD

1945
Annual Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
The Passion of Christ, Devoluy Gallery, Paris, France

1946
Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, NY
Clearwater Art Museum, Clearwater, FL

1947
La Tausca Art Competition, New York, NY

1948
6 American Painters, Galerie Maeght, Paris, France
Abstract and Surrealist American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

1950
American Painting Today, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

1951
Survey of American Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

1953
World at Work, American Federation of Artists, New York, NY
Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1956
Eight New York Painters, organized by Hale Woodruff in conjunction with the special program “Patterns of American Culture: Contributions of the Negro”, University of Michigan Museum of Art, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

1961
The 1961 Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, PA

1964
…Some Negro Artists, Art Gallery, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ
Artists for CORE [Congress of Racial Equality] Third Annual Art Exhibition and Sale, Gallery of American Federation of Arts, New York, NY

1965
Sixth Annual Arts Festival, Temple Emanu-El, Yonkers, NY

1966
An Exhibition of Contemporary Painting, Sculpture, and Graphic Art, Academy Art Gallery, National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
The Negro in American Art, Wight Art Gallery, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Artists for CORE Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund, Fifth Annual Exhibition and Sale, Grippi & Waddell Gallery, New York, NY

1967
The Evolution of Afro-American Artists: 1800-1850, City College of New York, New York, NY
The Portrayal of the Negro in American Painting, Forum Gallery, New York, NY
Protest and Hope: An Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Art Center, New School for Social Research, New York, NY

1968
30 Contemporary Black Artists, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, NY; Roberson Center for the Arts and Sciences (now Roberson    Museum and Science Center), Binghamton, NY; Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY; San Francisco Museum of Art (now San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), San Francisco, CA; Contemporary Arts Museum – Houston, Houston, TX; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ; Museum of Art (now RISD             Museum), Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; Art Galleries (now Art, Design, & Architecture Museum), UC Santa Barbara, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
Invisible Americans – Black Artists, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Invisible Americans: Black Artists of the 30’s, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Black Artists in America: 19th and 20th Centuries, Wilcox Gallery, Swarthmore, College, Swarthmore, PA

1969
New American Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Posters by Artists, Finch College Museum, New York, NY
Sixth Biennial National Religious Art Exhibition, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Centennial Exhibition, Lincoln University, Lincoln, PA
Ten Afro-American Artists, Dwight Art Memorial, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA
The First Generation, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Contemporary American Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1970
Afro-American Artists: New York and Boston, The Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston, MA; School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston, MA; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Contemporary Black Artists, Milwaukee County War Memorial Center, Milwaukee, WI
Selections from “Contemporary Black Artists”, The Gallery Toward the Black Aesthetic, Milwaukee, WI   

1971
Black Artists: Two Generations, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ

1972
Detroit Collects Prints and Drawings, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI

1974         
Black Artists in the New York Scene, Acts of Art, Inc., New York, NY; Church of the New Jerusalem, Philadelphia, PA
Directions in Afro-American Art, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

1975
Southern Sampler, American Paintings in Southern Museums, Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, TN

1976
14 Afro-American Artists, Pratt Institute Galleries (now the Rubelle and Norman Schafler Gallery), Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
Spring 1976 Exhibition, The Burgess Collection of Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY

1977
Heralds of Life: Artis, Bearden, and Burke, Central University Museum of Art, Durham, NC
Watercolors by Romare Bearden and Afro-Ethnographs by Reginald Jackson, Wendall Street Gallery, Cambridge, MA

1978
Twelve Americans: Masters of Collage, Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York, NY

1979
Reflections of a Southern Heritage: 20th Century Black Artists of the Southeast, Gibbes Art Gallery, Charleston, SC

1980
In Celebration: 6 Black Americans, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ

1981
The Human Form, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
24 Black American Artists, Goucher College, Baltimore, MD

1982
Works on Paper by Contemporary Black American Artists from the James T. Parker Collection, Vivian G. Harsh Collection of Afro-American Literature and History Room, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library, Chicago Public Library, Chicago, IL

1984
Since the Harlem Renaissance: 50 Years of Afro-American Art, The Center Gallery (now Samek Art Museum), Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA; The Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, College at Westbury (now SUNY Old Westbury), State University of New York, Old Westbury, NY; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY; University of Maryland Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; Museum of Art (now Palmer Museum of Art), Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Cinque at Sag Harbor 1984: Art Exhibition and Sale of Works by Contemporary Black Artists, organized by Cinque Gallery, New York, NY; Home of Millie and Bob Brown, Sag Harbor, NY

1989
Multiple Images: Prints by Afro-Americans, The Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ

1990         
Augusta Savage and the Art Schools of Harlem, Museum of the National Center for Afro American Artists, Roxbury, MA

1991
Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Paintings by Three Harlem Renaissance Painters: Charles Alston, Romare Bearden and Norman Lewis, Bomani Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art, The Beach Institute African-American Cultural Center / King-Tisdell Cottage, Savannah, GA; Hammonds House Galleries and Resource Center (now Hammonds House Museum), Atlanta, GA; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL; Boston University Art Galleries, Boston University, Boston, MA; Main Gallery, Arts Consortium of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH; UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures, University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), San Antonio, TX; Canton Art Institute (now Canton Museum of Art), Canton, OH; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Art Gallery, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL; Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, Pittsburgh, PA; Cheekwood Museum of Art, Cheekwood Estate & Gardens, Nashville, TN; Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV; Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Ocean Springs, MS; Meadows Museum of Art at Centenary College of Louisiana, Shreveport, LA; Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC; The Museum of Art/Tallahassee, Tallahassee, FL; Museum of Arts and Sciences, Macon, GA; Henry Ford Museum (now The Henry Ford), Dearborn, MI; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA; Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, TX; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN; Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY; Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS
Cinque at Martha’s Vineyard: Exhibition and Sale, organized by Cinque Gallery, New York, NY; Home of Dr. Beny Primm, Oak Bluffs, MA

1994  
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art, San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX; Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, GA; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN
Cinque Gallery at Martha’s Vineyard: 25th Anniversary Celebration Fine Art Exhibition and Sale, organized by Cinque Gallery, New York, NY; Home of Dr. Beny Primm, Oak Bluffs, MA 

1995
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, II, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA

1996 
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, III, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

1997
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, IV, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Fisk University Galleries, Nashville, TN
Seeing Jazz: Artists and Writers on Jazz, organized by SITES (Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service) as part of America’s Jazz Heritage; International Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL; Western Gallery, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA; Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute of Art, Utica, NY; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV; Museum of the Southwest, Midland, TX

1998
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, V, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; The Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Kuumba II, Morris Museum of Art, Morristown, NJ
Art in Embassies Program, Official Residence of Ambassador George Moose, US Permanent Representative to the European Office of the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland

1999
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VI, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI
When the Spirit Moves: African-American Art Inspired by Dance, Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, OH; Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI; Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA; Arts and Industries Building, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Collage - The Pasted Paper Revolution, Crane Kalman Gallery, London, England
Founders and Friends Exhibition, Cinque Gallery, New York, NY

2000 
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala, FL
A Brush with the Past, G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, Birmingham, MI

2001
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VIII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Texas Southern University Museum, Houston, TX
Jazz and Visual Improvisations, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY

2002 
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, IX, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

2003
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, X, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Challenge of the Modern: African-American Artists 1925-1945, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Founders and Friends, Cinque Gallery, New York, NY

2004
Mood Indigo: The Legacy of Duke Ellington - A Look at Jazz & Improvisation in American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
50 Years of African American Printmaking, G.R. N’Namdi, Detroit, MI

2005
Syncopated Rhythms: 20th-Century African American Art from the George and Joyce Wein Collection, Boston University Art Gallery, Boston University, Boston, MA
Back to Black: Art, Cinema and the Racial Imaginary, The Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England; New Art Gallery, Warsall, England

2006
Building Community: The African American Scene, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

2007
Body Beware: 18 American Artists, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

2008
African American Art:  200 Years, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

2009
Larry and Brenda Thompson Collection, David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Il Secolo del Jazz: Arte, Cinema, Musica e Fotografia da Picasso a Basquiat (The Jazz Century: Art, Cinema, Music and Photography from Picasso to Basquiat), Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rovereto, Italy; Museé du quai Branly, Paris, France; Centro de Cultura Contemporànea, Barcelona, Spain
Harlem Renaissance, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK

2010
Afro Modern: Journeys Through the Black Atlantic, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, England
Huckleberry Finn, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA

2011
Embodied: Black Identities in American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery, David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Collage, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2012
African American Art in the 20th Century, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Successions: Prints by African American Artists from the Jean & Robert Steele Collection, David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Blues for Smoke, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
After Tanner: African American Artists since 1940, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
…On Paper, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
African American Art Since 1950: Perspectives from The David C. Driskell Center, organized by Smithsonian Institute of Traveling Exhibition Services (SITES), The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA; Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL; Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA; The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, NC; Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH
INsite/INchelsea, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2013
Reflections: African American Life from the Myrna Colley-Lee Collection, International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
Ashé to Amen: African-Americans and Biblical Imagery, Museum of Biblical Art, New York, NY; Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture; Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Memphis, TN
Etched in Collective History, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL

2014
Face Value: Portraiture in the Age of Abstraction, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
RISING UP/UPRISING: Twentieth Century African American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
The Harmon & Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art: Works on Paper, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue from the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby Jr., Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC
Making Connections: The Art & Life of Herbert Gentry, Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery, Boston University, Boston, MA

2015
Represent: 200 Years of African American Art in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
America Is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
I Like It Like This: S|2 x Drake, Sotheby's Contemporary Art Gallery, New York, NY
Collectors Legacy: Selections from the Sandra Lloyd Baccus Collection, The David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD
I Got Rhythm: Art and Jazz since 1920, Stiftung Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

2016
Modern Heroics: 75 Years of African-American Expressionism, The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Circa 1970, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

2017
Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1952-1965, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY; New York University, Aubu Dhabi Art Gallery, United Arab Emirates
Romare Bearden: Abstractions, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Tate Modern, London, England; Crystal Bridges Museum Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; The Broad, Los Angeles, CA; de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX
Constructing Identity: Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African-American Art, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Art of Rebellion: Black Art of the Civil Rights Movement, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
The Last Ten Years: In Focus; Selections from the David C. Driskell Center Collections, David C. Driskell Center Gallery,University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Parapolitics: Cultural Freedom and the Cold War, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
Figuratively Speaking, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Hold: A Meditation on Black Aesthetics, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Jacob Lawrence: Lines of Influence, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA

2018
I Too Sing America: The Harlem Renaissance at 100, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
Hopes Springing High: Gifts of Art by African American Artists, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Reclamation! Pan-African Works from the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA
Something to Say: The McNay Presents 100 Years of African American Art, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
Now: The Call and Look of Freedom, Tougaloo College Art Gallery, Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, MS
Histórias Afro-Atlânticas, Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) and Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil
Talisman in the Age of Difference, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Under Construction: Collage from The Mint Museum, The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Celebrating 50 Years of the US Open Championships, United States Tennis Association (USTA) President’s Suite, Arthur Ashe Stadium, Flushing Meadows, NY
Truth & Beauty: Charles White and His Circle, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Seeing Otherwise, Colby College Museum of Art, Colby College, Waterville, ME
Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman, Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL; New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, New York, NY; Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA; Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Memphis, TN
Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Lenfest Center for the Arts, Columbia University, New York, NY; Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France
Under Construction: Collage from The Mint Museum, Mint Museum Uptown, The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Lost, Loose, and Loved: Foreign Artists in Paris,1944-1968, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
The Notion of Family, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA

2019
Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; Smith College Museum of Art, Smith College, Northampton, MA; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Seeing America, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
African American Art: We Too Dream America, Museum of Art – DeLand, DeLand, FL
On Their Own Terms, Brad Cushman and Small Galleries, Windgate Center of Art + Design, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR
Nomadic Murals: Tapestries of the Modern Era, Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Charlotte, NC
A Tale of Two Collections, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS
“Cry Gold and See Black,” curated by Julie Mehretu, Artistic License: Six Takes on the Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Harlem: In Situ, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
Call & Response, Stamps Gallery, Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, University of  Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Centennial Impressions: A Celebration of Prints, McDonough Museum of Art, Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH
Afrocosmologies: American Reflections, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Reconstructing Identity: An Exploration of Identity and Diaspora Through Artistic Practice, The Miami Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora, Miami, FL
The Blues and the Abstract Truth: Voices of African-American Art, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD
not but nothing other: African-American Portrayals, 1930s to Today, Binghamton University Art Museum, Binghamton University, State University of New York, Binghamton, NY
The Kinsey Collection of African American Art, African American Museum, Dallas, TX
A Woman’s Work: Selections from the John and Vivian Hewitt Collection of African American Art, The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, NC
New Symphony of Time, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS
Artist’s Choice: Amy Sillman-The Shape of Shape, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
OUMA Collects: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, GA
Resilience: African American Artists As Agents of Change, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
Afrocosmologies: American Reflections, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
African American Art in the 20th Century, organized by Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, IA; Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL; The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA; Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS; Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
“In and Around Harlem” and “Stamp, Scavenge, Crush,” Collection 1940s-1970s, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Globalism Pops BACK Into View: The Rise of Abstract Expressionism, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Down Time: On the Art of Retreat, Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Detroit Collects: Selections of African American Art from Private Collections, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI

2020
Spectrum: A Celebration of Artistic Diversity, Richard and Barbara Basch Visual Arts Center, Ringling College of Art + Design, Sarasota, FL
Polyphonic: Celebrating PAMM’s Fund for African American Art, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL
Tell Me Your Story: 100 Years of Storytelling in African American Art, curated by Rob Perrée, Kunsthal KAde, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, curated by Adrienne L. Childs, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
“Awakened in You”: The Collection of Dr. Constance E. Clayton, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Unbound, East Galleries, Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA
The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art: Works On Paper, Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo, TX
Paper Power, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Building a Legacy: The Vibrant Vision Collection of Jonathan Green and Richard Weedman, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC
Explorations in Self: Black Portraiture from the Cochran Collection, Phillip and Charlotte Hanes Art Gallery, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC
The Roots of Abstraction, Housatonic Museum of Art, Housatonic Community College, Bridgeport, CT
Selected Works from The Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art at the University of Alabama, Houston Museum of African American Culture, Houston, TX
Memories and Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art, Gilcrease Museum - Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History & Art, Tulsa, OK;  Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, University of Richmond Museums, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA; Appleton Museum of Art, College of Central Florida, Ocala, FL; Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT; David Owsley Museum of Art, Ball State University, Muncie, IN; Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV; Albany Museum of Art, Albany, GA; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH; Carnegie Arts Center, Turlock, CA; Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK; Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA; Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA

2021   
Afro-Atlantic Histories, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Creating Community: Cinque Gallery Artists, The Art Students League of New York, New York, NY
In Great Company: David C. Driskell and Howard University, Howard University Gallery of Art, Howard University, Washington, DC
Vision & Spirit: African American Art | Works from the Bank of America Collection, Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Levine Center for the Arts, Charlotte, NC
Afro-American Images 1971: The Vision of Percy Ricks, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Enduring Voices: African American Art from the David R. and Susan S. Goode Collection, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA
Call & Response: Collecting African American Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, NY
The Kinsey African American Art & History Collection, Greenwood Cultural Center and ONEOK Boathouse, Gathering Place, Tulsa, OK; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA
Exhibiting Culture: Highlights from the Hammonds House Museum Collection, Hammonds House Museum, Atlanta, GA
Afro-Atlantic Histories, curated by Kanitra Fletcher; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Colliding with History: African American Works on Paper from the Collection of Wes and Missy Cochran, The Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design Gallery, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

Romare Bearden (1911-1988), Soul Three (detail), 1968, collage on board, 44" x 55 1/2", signed and dated; © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery is proud to have placed this work in the permanent collection of The Dallas Museum of Art. Bearden's Soul Three, 1968  was one of a select 58 works chosen for the Art Everwhere US campaign, as voted for by the American public.

The Art Everywhere US campaign is a public celebration of great American art exhibited on thousands of out of home (OOH) advertising displays across America. OOH advertising displays include billboards, bus shelters, subway posters, and much more.

Throughout the entire month of August, cherished American artworks will be seen by millions of people every day when they are commuting to work, taking the kids to school, hailing a taxi, shopping in a mall, catching a bus or pursuing other routine activities.

The movement for art to be seen everywhere is inspired by Art Everywhere founder, Richard Reed, who first produced Art Everywhere UK.

Five of America’s leading art museums have selected works of art that represent American history and culture. The American public has voted for their favorite artworks. The final selection of works are to be featured in the Art Everywhere US campaign, on display from August 4-31, 2014.