(The article from which this passage was taken appeared in 1981.)

When speaking of Romare Bearden, one is tempted to say, “A great Black American artist.” The subject matter of Bearden’s collages is certainly Black. Portrayals of the folk of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, whom he remembers from early childhood, of the jazz musicians and tenement roofs of his Harlem days, of Pittsburgh steelworkers, and his reconstruction of classical Greek myths in the guise of (in the guise of: 假借;以...为幌子) the ancient Black kingdom of Benin, attest to this. In natural harmony with this choice of subject matter are the social sensibilities of the artist, who remains active today with the Cinque Gallery in Manhattan, which he helped found and which is devoted to showing the work of minority artists.

Then why not call Bearden a Black American artist? Because ultimately this categorization is too narrow. “What stands up in the end is structure,” Bearden says. “What I try to do is amplify. If I were just creating a picture of a farm woman from back home, it would have meaning to her and people there. But art amplifies itself to something universal.”

　　　在谈及罗马勒"比尔敦（Romare Bearden）时，人们会情不自禁地说：“真是一个伟大的美国黑人艺术家。”比尔敦的拼贴画的题材内容毋庸置疑与黑人有关。对北卡罗来纳州梅克伦堡县（Mecklenburg County, North Carolina）百姓们——这些人自他很早的孩提时代起就深深地留在他的记忆之中——的描绘，对爵士音乐家和对他哈莱姆（Harlem）岁月中公寓屋顶的描绘，对匹兹堡（Pittsburgh）钢铁工人的描绘，以及他假借古代贝宁黑人王国（Black Kingdom of Benin）为掩饰对古希腊神话的重建，凡此些种种均证明着这一点。与这一题材的选择浑然一体的是这位艺术家社会感知力：时至今日，他依然活跃于曼哈顿（Manhatten）的辛克画廊（CinqueGallery）。该画廊由他一手帮助建立起来的，并专门用以展出少数民族艺术家的作品。
　　那么，为什么不把比尔敦称作一个美国黑人艺术家呢？因为最终说来，这样的归类法过于狭隘了。“最终赫然显现出来的是结构，”比尔敦说道。“我所做的是去扩展。如果我所创作的仅是一幅描绘故乡农场女性的画作的话，那么，这幅画可能仅对她和那里的人们才有意义。但是，艺术却将自己扩展成某种普遍之物。”