Bob O’Meally’s The Romare Bearden Reader reviewed in the LA Review of Books

“Bearden, one of the great artist-humanists of the 20th century, labored beneath the image and the words each day as he pieced together the collages on themes of urban and rural African American life that would make him a nationally recognized figure. Bearden’s devotion to his subjects and his craft, his drive to collaborate with other artists, and his unerring compassion for his fellow man, characterized his life and career. Two recent books—The Romare Bearden Reader (Duke University Press, 2019), edited by Robert G. O’Meally, and the catalog of a current Bearden exhibition at the High Museum in Atlanta, “Something Over Something Else”: Romare Bearden’s Profile Series (University of Washington Press, 2019)—elucidate Bearden’s enduring legacy.”