Sharon F. Patton

When the prolific African American artist Romare Bearden died in 1988 at age 76, there had not been a full retrospective of his work in seventeen years. In April 1991, however, The Studio Museum in Harlem is planning a major exhibition that will offer a survey of the entire spectrum of Bearden's paintings--from the cubist figurative pieces of the 40s, through the lyrical abstractions of the 50s and early 60s, to the brilliant later collages. After...