The Romare Bearden Reader edited by Robert G. O'Meally

This work is a valuable resource for scholars and anyone else interested in Romare Bearden, art history, art techniques, the Harlem Renaissance (which Bearden calls the Black Renaissance because not all participants were in Harlem), and black US history. Robert O'Meally presents a wide range of sources and historical scholarship including Bearden's writing, art, and literary and musical scholarship. All the essays present work to give the readers a better understanding of the significances of Bearden's work (art, essays, plays, and music), especially in the context of Western art history and black arts. There are several books already written about and written by Bearden concerning his life and work, many of which are exhibition catalogues with extensive large plate photographs, such as those found in Myron Schwartzman's Romare Bearden: His Life and Art (1990) or Ruth Fine's The Art of Romare Bearden (2003). O'Meally draws together the major themes of...