Census 2000 Gateway | Glossary |
Census Marketing Posters American Artist |
Operations Decision -- Intercensal Estimates |
"We are pleased to be able to use this artwork from the National Museum of American Art to help promote Census 2000. The Bureau has requested permission from the Museum and the artist's family to display this work on the Internet. We are currently awaiting approval."
Romare Bearden
(1912-1988)
African-American artist Romare Bearden celebrated life through
art. Born in North Carolina, raised in Harlem and Pittsburgh,
Bearden decided to become an artist after earning a degree in
mathematics at New York University. In 1935, he drew political
cartoons for the Baltimore Afro-American. During the civil
rights movement, Bearden worked as social worker in Harlem and
encouraged many young black artists to continue their work.
His innovative use of collage earned him numerous awards and
honors, including the National Medal of Arts. His own childhood
memories inspired Family, the collage on wood selected for the
Census 2000 poster. The work served as the model for a ceramic
tile wall mural for a federal building in Queens, New York.
The General Services Administration Art-in-Architecture Program
transferred this model to the National Museum of American Art,
Smithsonian Institution.
Beardens artwork depicts a traditional family with a
young couple presenting their child to his grandparents. In
1990, 18 percent of all children in the United States lived
with a father who was a full-time provider and a homemaker
mother, compared with 47 percent in 1950. Census 2000 will
provide more information on the changing family. |