Bearden became an increasingly involved artist and art activist. In 1963 he became a founder of Spiral, a group of African-American artists who met to discuss what their commitment to the civil rights movement could be. Bearden thought it might be a good idea if they created a work of art collectively, perhaps using collage. He came to the next meeting with materials in hand to begin the project, but no one seemed very interested. Bearden, however, was intrigued and began to create his own collages.

Bearden's early collages were composed primarily of magazine and newspaper cuttings. Along with his Projections, which were enlarged photostatic copies of these collages, they mark a turning point in his career and received critical praise. In style and technique Bearden's work was never static—it was always evolving. Over the next thirty years, Bearden's collages employed not only flat areas of color defined by cut papers, and patterned or textured areas created by cuttings of preprinted images and hand-painted papers, but also foils and fabrics. Surface manipulation was another ongoing concern for the artist, who explored new ways to rework his paper and painted surfaces, including the use of bleach or peroxide, sandpaper, and perhaps even an electric eraser.

Although Bearden is best known for his work in collage, which is also the focus of this text, he achieved success in a wide array of media and techniques, including watercolor, gouache, oil, drawing, monotype, and edition prints. He also made designs for record albums, costumes and stage sets, book illustration, and one known assemblage wood sculpture.

Throughout his life, Bearden gave back to the African-American arts community as well as the art world at large. He wrote scholarly articles and treatises on art and art history, including A Painter's Mind: A Study of the Relations of Structure and Space in Painting with the painter Carl Holty (1969), and A History of African-American Artists: From 1792 to the Present with journalist Harry Henderson and published posthumously (1993). As an advocate and promoter of numerous artists, he also organized several group exhibitions and cofounded the Cinqué Gallery, an artspace named after the Amistad mutiny of 1839 and dedicated to young minority artists in need of exhibition opportunities. Bearden also help found the Studio Museum in Harlem (1968).

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