My definition of the word "accessible'' is "easily approached." To my way of thinking, Romare Bearden's collages, paintings and mosaics--like "Quilting Time" pictured here--are accessible. Now that does not mean they are not also significant artistic and social statements; it simply means they are easily approached. Perhaps it's his colorful palette or the simplified, almost abstracted, figures that help people enter into his works. Maybe it's that his favorite subjects during the last 25 years of his life were music, which he loved with a passion, and the activities of daily life in the African American community. But whatever the reason, Romare Bearden could speak to persons of all ethnicities.

That wasn't always true. During the Civil Rights era, a time when there was open estrangement between the races here in the United States, Bearden's paintings and collages of what life was like for African Americans sent shock waves throughout the art world when they were first displayed in 1964. But the shock soon turned to critical acclaim, and his position as a major American artist was assured. This mosaic, "Quilting Time," was commissioned by the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1986. It was designed by Romare Bearden using cut-paper collage, and then sent to a mosaic artist near Venice, Italy who produced, cut and glued the small glass tiles according to Bearden’s specifications. Romare Bearden died two years later, in 1988. To read a brief biography of Romare Bearden, CLICK HERE.