A Dallas native, Bearden moved with his family to St. Louis when he was ten years of age. There he studied three years in a children’s program at the City Art Museum. He returned to Dallas where he attended high school and then received his baccalaureate in art at Southern Methodist University (1941), working under Jerry Bywaters and Elizabeth Walmsley. When Bywaters became director of the Dallas Museum of Arts, Bearden became his assistant, a position he held for ten years, including a 1944 leave of absence to study under Otis Dozier and Boardman Robinson at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. In 1948 Bearden joined the art faculty at Southern Methodist University where he taught four years. He was active thereafter in various activities: painting portraits of the presidents of the United States and of the actors in the movie Giant on location in Marfa, Texas; executing private portrait commissions; owning and operating an advertising agency; serving as a founding director of the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts; and painting for his own enjoyment. His works were reproduced in the magazines Ford Times and Humble Way. Bearden died in Dallas.