The Many Sidedness of Beauford Delaney's Art: Commentary

Last week, I published "The Many Sidedness of Beauford Delaney's Art," an article by Dr. Catherine St. John that discusses Beauford's art in the context of the recent solo exposition Beauford Delaney: Internal Light at the Jim Levis Gallery. Today, I bring you comments on that article by Sylvain Briet - an art expert and the brother of the late Philippe Briet, a French gallery owner and publisher who was passionate about the work of Beauford Delaney. The Briet brothers operated the Philippe Briet Gallery in SoHo, Manhattan in the late 1980s and mounted two retrospectives of Beauford's works.

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My remarks are not about Catherine Saint John's vision of the art of Beauford Delaney, which is by far more interesting than many writings published for decades. I believe in her talent in understanding Beauford's work, as my late brother did. She is a true friend and my comments are not meant to give her discrédit (discredit). But there are some points that needed some éclaircissement (clarification, explanation), as we say in French:

Catherine St. John (CSJ) wrote "...artists living abroad were more apt to explore diversity in an environment where a traditional art market was absent." I wonder why she says that, since by the early 1950s numerous art magazines were active in France, such as La Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1859-2002), Cimaise (1953 to present), L'Œil (January 1955 to present), Connaissance des Arts (1952 to present), Jardin des Arts (1954 to present), Cahiers d'Art (1926-1960), and XXe Siècle (1938-1974). There were also hundreds of galleries already in Paris. When I checked in an issue of Cimaise dating from 1956, I was able to see ads for American, Italian and English galleries. There's even a section with the articles translated into English.

The famous auction house Hôtel Drouot was inaugurated in Paris in 1852 and is still a flourishing business. The auctioneer House of Paris was created in 1801. Sotheby's had its first sale in the U.S. in 1955 and opened an office in Paris in 1967. Christie's in New York didn't have its first auction before 1977, and its first in Paris in 2002. And of course, until 1964 and that now famous Venice Biennal that awarded Rauschenberg, all the art American people were interested in was coming from Europe, and particularly France. So there was a strong art market when Beauford arrived in France.

The thing about Beauford was that he was in his own mental world, creating, and not interested in the art business. Also, he didn't have a partner to take care of his business. When he didn't give his works as presents to friends, he sold them for survival and to be able to produce more works. If he had had a close friend for promoting his art, his life would have been totally different.

CSJ's reference to the traditional art market was derived from an article on Gerhard Richter in Art Journal "that took into consideration a wider continental art market." One sure point is that we can't write generalities on a specific subject. And knowing the French and American culture is "indispensable" in understanding the time when Beauford Delaney was living! So, when it is written "where a traditional art market was absent," this is absolutely wrong. The image below provides evidence:

An auction in Paris including paintings and jewels, in April 1748
Image courtesy of Sylvain Briet
On another note, CSJ uses the expression "modest in size" about Beauford Delaney's paintings. As if the painter was not able to buy and then to create paintings on a larger scale, and as if this would be such a disadvantage in his career. There is nothing in them that makes them modest anyway, because size has nothing to do with quality. Dürer has never done paintings 7 meters long as did Cy Tombly and Rauschenberg. Neither did Van Gogh or Vermeer. Some people need to show big work to be seen!!!

"Modest" has a negative connotation. And the abstract paintings, the yellow ones we exhibited in New York, were not small.

I think that to imagine that Beauford was not able to buy large canvases is a false problem. I believe that he was comfortable creating works that were adapted to his natural gestures and movements and in concert with the development of his ideas. These works need not have been gigantic.

CSJ also mentions that "Untitled: Abstract in Black, Calligraphic Lines with Red, Diptych, probably completed in 1956, was inspired by an invitation from painter Larry Calcagno to join him on a trip to Ibiza, Spain." More precisely, the work was completed in Ibiza in August 1956, during a trip with painter Larry Calcagno. The name of the island is featured on the work.

It is interesting to see that the Jim Levis Gallery has put the works together, when apparently Beauford decided to make two works from the original one, signing each part. When put exactly next to each other, one can verify that Beauford reframed each part, eliminating some surface, whether on the top (work on the left) or on the bottom (work on the right).

Composite image of Untitled: Abstract in Black, Calligraphic Lines with Red, Diptych by Sylvain Briet
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
If some criticism could be made regarding the Jim Levis installation of the exhibition, it is that there is no pertinence in having the portraits presented in between abstract works.

Beauford Delaney: Internal Light
Levis Fine Art
Image courtesy of Levis Fine Art
It is as though Levis didn't believe in the portraits by themselves and thought that displaying an abstract painting next to a portrait would help people to see or to understand and be more likely to purchase the portrait! It is not a proper way to present the paintings to serve the artist.

Danny Simmons on Beauford Delaney

Danny Simmons is a contemporary, self-proclaimed, “neo-African abstract expressionist” painter as well as an author and television producer (Def Poetry Jam). Hailing from Queens, NY, he is a co-founder of Rush Galleries and co-founder and vice president of the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation. He graciously granted Les Amis an interview about Beauford and the Beauford Delaney work that is part of his private art collection.

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Les Amis: When and how did you learn about Beauford Delaney?

DS: I learned about Delaney's work about ten years ago at the black fine art show...one of the older established galleries had a few pieces for sale...I was intrigued by his abstraction. ..at the time I’d only seen figurative work by many of the artists of that period.

Les Amis: How would you describe his work?

DS: Well the work I’m most familiar with is mostly expressionist abstraction. I admit I’m not that well versed on his whole body of work. But in some of his figurative work I admire that he incorporated African images into the paintings . . . also his use of paint . . .how he thickly applied it . . . his portraits were soulful and captured the essence of his subjects.

Portrait of the Artist’s Mother
(1930) Pencil, ink and watercolor on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Les Amis: You are a “neo-African abstract expressionist” painter. What does this mean?

DS: What I meant when I coined that term many years ago is that I try to channel the intent and spiritual feeling of traditional African art and allow it to influence the abstract images that I paint. African art was created for social and religious reasons and invoked power. I try to infuse that same spiritual power into my work.

Les Amis: How much did Beauford’s work influence yours, if any?

DS: I was already on my artistic path when I encountered his work . . . but the freedom and depth I saw in Delaney's art helped to push me to relax a bit more with my painting and find a deeper voice from within to bring to the canvas.

Portrait of the Artist’s Mother (detail)
(1930) Pencil, ink and watercolor on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Les Amis: Have you used any of Beauford’s work as part of the arts education programs that you offer at Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation?

DS: I don’t believe the kids have used Delaney specifically but I am aware that they have looked at art from that period by artists of color. And I’m sure he was among them.

Les Amis: How did you come to obtain the portrait of Beauford’s mother?

DS: A great collector dealer friend of mine told me he had a client that wanted to sell a Delaney that was within my affordability. Beauford’s work is quite pricey. I was hoping for an abstraction but was pleasantly surprised when I saw the stunning portrait of his mother. I pulled the resources together and quickly purchased it before someone else snapped it up.

Les Amis: What drew you to this work?

DS: I was drawn to purchase his work for two reasons:

1. To expand my collection of African-American masters.
2. I’m still hoping to find an abstraction I can afford, but to have such a prominent historical artist in my home is a real blessing. His life in Paris is an amazing story.

Les Amis: Is there a “certain something” that motivates an artist (yourself included) to create abstract rather than figurative works?

DS: I think abstraction is a drawing on one’s soul to create the work. It’s a powerful experience to create something that comes totally from your spirit and imagination.

Les Amis: Do you think it is significant that Beauford continued to paint figurative portraits as he produced more and more abstract expressionist paintings?

DS: I think that artists have the ability to move across the creative spectrum and I admire that Beauford was able to allow himself the freedom to do so.

Les Amis: Any final thoughts?

DS: Only that I’m honored to be one of a very small group in the world that is lucky enough to have some of his work.

Conversations with Beauford - Part 2

Paul Sinclair is the agent for the African-American expatriate artist Ealy Mays. He and Mays are admirers of Beauford's work and students of his life story and Sinclair's profound respect and empathy for Beauford inspired him to represent Mays. The following is a second excerpt from an article that Sinclair wrote after visiting Beauford's solo exposition Beauford Delaney: Internal Light, which was recently held at Levis Fine Art in Manhattan. I have published it here with his permission.

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... So as I stood at Levis Fine Arts and solemnly reached into his eyes, I found the man as complex, as soft, as tender, and as serene as the multitude of other witnesses to his existence. He refused my probes for direct answers and where he responded, it was in terms still comprehensible only by geniuses or madmen. His genteel and almost princely Portrait of a Man on White is juxtaposed to the effeminate yet rough portrayal of Howard Swanson, wherein Beauford obviously channeled much of his own inner turmoil into the almost “piggish” face with which he obscured Swanson’s neck. It was the eyes of Portrait of Man in Red that captivated me, and again I wondered while stepping back, “How did Beauford manage to fuse his own persona into this face of a white man?” In studying the portrait, an image of Beauford instantly came alive.

Portrait of a man in red / Michael Frelich, 1965
Oil on canvas
18.0 x 15.0 inches (48.7 x 38.1 cm)
Signed on reverse
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
His Portrait of Ahmed Bioud went straight to the core of Bioud’s soul. One is captivated by his eyes and thereafter, seeing the rest of the portrait becomes a blur. Portrait of a Seated Man was again the Beauford with something to hide, yet dignified and meticulous in all that he did. An untitled piece described as Seated Figure in a Café simultaneously places the individual in a forest or jungle, which forced the question of whether an artist can ever truly be anything but himself or herself. The tumult and confusion of Beauford’s mind was such that even moments seated in a city café might unleash attacking lions and tigers, monkeys swinging wildly, and birds singing his favorite tones, all from deep within rain-forest vegetation through which rays of yellow sunlight would extend to yank at his consciousness and return him to the drink in his glass or the food on his plate.

Whatever darkness he felt inside would often give way to a constant light. Where the focus was not on a realist image, Beauford would go dancing in a magical world of light-infused abstracts. Without saying so, it was clear that this was where he found the most solace. He was an abstract painter before the movement and standing there in the gallery, it became clear to me that his strokes into abstraction were the unleashing of impulses formed from deep within. You got the sense that they were not visual formations, but instead the guided manifestation of hands driven by forces from within as Beauford pranced away in some foreign universe. And then he showed me an even more surprising beauty in Abstract in Turquoise, another piece of abstract work but this time a dalliance with a light-infused shade of blue.

Abstract in Turquoise
Gouache on wove paper, 1961
25.75 x 19.75 inches (65.4 x 50.2 cm)
Signed and dated lower left
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
The man I spoke to was not necessarily insane. He was instead different, and like other geniuses, possibly quite misunderstood. In her biopic definition of the man and his work, Gertrude Stein lauded , as being at the essence of his greatness.the genius of Picasso’s ability to see things differently than the rest of us, as being at the essence of his greatness. According to Stein, “... Picasso was not like that, when he ate a tomato, the tomato was not everybody’s tomato, not at all and his effort was not to express in his way the things seen as everyone sees them, but to express the thing as he was seeing it.” In a different way, Beauford showed me that he too saw things differently from the rest of us.

James Baldwin might have been correct in the following attribution to Beauford Delaney, with the exception of the last portion:

He has been starving and working all of his life – in Tennessee, in Boston, in New York, and now in Paris. He has been menaced more than any other man I know by his social circumstances and also by all the emotional and psychological stratagems he has been forced to use to survive; and, more than any other man I know, he has transcended both the inner and outer darkness.

But what I saw and heard from Beauford was a little different. His inner darkness gave way to the outer light and there might not have been a need to transcend any of that. Should there always be an expectation of genius’ coexistence with rationality, or of light in constant opposition to darkness in regards to those who create? Can logical minds or trouble-free souls be reasonable expectations in the creation of art? Those who knew Beauford, those who loved him, and those who were uplifted by his art, were all saddened that the “companions” that drove the genius had in time also devoured the man. But the man was here, and his art now transcends both time and space, and this should be a source of happiness and inspiration for all.

As Homer once said, there can be no pledging of faith between men and lions. It is to be expected that lion will devour man. Beauford would have known that all along and from behind the caged walls of l’hôpital St. Anne in Paris, he yielded to his inner lions on the 26th day March 1979.


Read the first excerpt from Paul Sinclair's article here.

Conversations with Beauford - Part 1

Paul Sinclair is the agent for the African-American expatriate artist Ealy Mays. He and Mays are admirers of Beauford's work and students of his life story and Sinclair's profound respect and empathy for Beauford inspired him to represent Mays. The following is an excerpt from an article that Sinclair wrote after visiting Beauford's solo exposition Beauford Delaney: Internal Light, which was recently held at Levis Fine Art in Manhattan. I have published it here with his permission.

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On entering the Levis Fine Art gallery on West 24th Street in Manhattan last week, I felt a selfish sense of ideal timing in that I was visiting Beauford to say hello at about 4pm on a Thursday evening, and I was very happy at the absence of a bustling 6pm crowd that might have interrupted the conversation between Beauford and me. Many Manhattan galleries will inundate you with invitations only to grace your presence with that sense of “trespassing-snobbery.” But at Levis Fine Art, it was different.

Beauford Delaney: Internal Light
Levis Fine Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
Jim Levis came out and welcomed me. I told him of my connections to Beauford Delaney and of my absolute pleasure in seeing the exhibit, and I also mentioned that I that I knew a Monique Wells in Paris. He in turn extended a warm welcome and shared a few thoughts on what inspired him to recognize our friend with this wonderful exhibition, entitled Beauford Delaney: Internal Light. It was my second visit to see a Beauford exhibition in as many months. He had featured prominently in the Whitney Museum’s Blues for Smoke exhibition earlier this year, though as part of a group collection by great black artists. At Levis, this was a solo Beauford exhibit, and I had much to discuss with the man.

While standing there, I thought of the many question for Beauford that I had in my head for so many years. I am a “Beauford Delaney kid,” loosely self-described as spending a period of my life in the shadows of Beauford wherein on any given day Beauford might have occupied about hundred out of the average forty thousand thoughts that crossed my mind. His was the other side of Paris; Not exactly Van Gogh’s trail of madness and brilliance through the South of France, but neither was it Henry O. Tanner’s genteel existence of solace found in painting deeply religious images such as Daniel in the Lion’s Den, Return of the Holy Women, or The Resurrection of Lazarus. Tanner, like Beauford, was another kind and gentle soul. Both were sensitive men who had fled the harsh Anglo-Saxon culture of the United States for the soft artistic shores of France, with Tanner leading the way a generation before Beauford.

During my years in Paris, I had met and known so many deeply talented artists who too were tortured souls. So standing there in that gallery, I needed some answers – in particular, to the question of the seemingly perfectly inversed relationship of the genius to the demented, and its reconciliation sooner or later with the bottle or some other form of drug intended to numb the pain. I was not going to wait to read the opinions of some disconnected art writer or of others with varying titles who are paid handsomely to vomit illustrious words per minute, without ever having a single intimate moment with the man or any knowledge of who he was. This was not like a Rembrandt or a Gauguin who lived a thousand years ago and whose works are only to be found in major museums. This was a painter whose roommate had been a father figure for some of us in Paris for years. I was not there to examine brush strokes or contours. Instead, I was there to look Beauford in the eye and ask of him the questions that have been on my mind for these many years.

“Was it true that he had attempted to throw himself into the Seine a few times before being committed?” “Was the use of “yellow” and its many variants done in search of discovering a 4th primary color or was this his media, through which he could abstractly express himself and resonate color and light, his way of shining from within?” “How did he feel to see friends and fellow artists Harold Cousins, Ed Clark, Herbert Gentry, Romare Bearden, and others receive such widespread recognition and fame, while he languished unrecognized for many years?” “What was his reaction to his friend James Baldwin’s meteoric take off after returning to the America in 1957 to participate in the civil rights struggle?” “Did he consider Baldwin’s friendship an important a factor in his life as history had recorded it, and did he feel that Baldwin had done enough for him in his darkest hours of need, as would have been expected of such a ‘dear’ friend and mentee?”

I also wanted to ask Beauford if he was finally at peace and if he was happy with the new found recognition, and dedication of recent years by scholars and writers such as Paris-based freelance writer Monique Wells, who single-handedly prevented the destruction and possible desecration of his “about-to-be abandoned” burial spot and created the Les Amis de Beauford foundation in Paris, solely dedicated to the preservation of the legacy and dignity of Beauford Delaney.

I did not need to ask him how he felt about the exhibition underway at Levis Fine Art Gallery, as I could feel his spirit and I knew he was happy. So I took the time to look Beauford in the eyes and posed my questions. His answers were as varied as could be imagined, and where they were not too clear, I had to infer my own interpretations of the man in yellow. He was no less complex than history had suggested, yet his genteel nature was felt throughout the exhibition halls.

Abstract in Orange and Red, 1963
Gouache on wove paper
25.75 x 19.625 inches
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford's life was lived with kindness, care, pity, neglect, confusion, paranoia, a little schizophrenia, and a lot of pure genius. Depression, isolation, exploitation, and religious-induced self-hatred for being born gay drove the engine of torture that powered both dimensions of his extremes. His work reflected bright colors and lights, which shone through, while his mood often reflected absolute darkness. The artist manifested one wavelength while his art was of an entirely different genre. In physics we learn that with massive temperature increases past a few hundred degrees Celsius, black bodies start to emit visible wavelengths, appearing red, orange, yellow, blue and white. In seeing Beauford’s work, one can imagine a similar internal increase in neurons, increase in electrons, heightened molecular stimulations to the brain, and near atomic spinning of particles, to produce incredibly serene light and often yellow textures, with delicacies of time, place, moods and circumstances. Internal turmoil enveloped the man while tranquility eased itself into every inch of his work and into much of his external interactions with others. He painted many faces but it was through forceful and poignant construction of the eyes by which he often showed us the souls of his subjects. At times, it was clear that he channeled some of the inner Beauford into his subjects as well. All who knew Beauford described him as a kind, sweet, and loving soul, albeit always in regretfully poignant tones.

Ba'lls to the Wa'll, Y'all - Part 2

This article is contributed by Maureen Kelleher, who is an avid admirer of James Baldwin and who came to know about Beauford because of his friendship with Baldwin. "Ba'lls to the Wa'll, Y'all" expresses Maureen's thoughts about a painting that she viewed at the ongoing exposition Beauford Delaney: Internal Light.This is the second excerpt from her article.

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Untitled: Yellow, Red and Black Circles
1966 Gouache on wove paper
25.25 x 19.25 inches (64.1 x 48.9 cm)
Signed and inscribed lower right to James Baldwin
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
Delaney’s work resulted from his trip to Istanbul and meeting up with Baldwin. Untitled: Yellow, Red and Black Circles is a pronouncement.

“I’m here and I’m queer” -- proud, loud, no shame. And “I got balls.”

He hooked up with his buddy, Baldwin. I can easily imagine each man feeling relief – “The cavalry has arrived! I have back–up! I’m saved! I’m normal! All is good with my world, now!” Validation. Affirmation. Hugs. Love. Kindness all around.

The glorious glow that takes one over when we see a person we love, walking toward us, after a long time apart, getting closer, closer, their face, we smile, we start laughing!, we get giddy, and then so thrilled to hug him/ her and have them in our arms! Glory be! I am loved! It’s all okay! You’re here!” “I am so happy you are here!” And that’s just the part that can be expressed in thoughts and words.

And for these two odd [American] balls, who so clearly rejected so much of what was “normal” back “home” in the old streets of the USA: to be within reach of each other was an affirmation of how they chose to live. Pure joy.

Each saw himself in the other, and enjoyed the validation from the other man when in his company, when he watched the other one move, be, talk, relate, eat, joke, drink, smoke, etc.

I can only guess there was an extraordinary vibe and understanding between them, shared: ‘you are me and I am you. Period. Thank god for you.’

I can imagine Baldwin gabbed on and on -- seriously, goofy, humorously, sardonically, subtlely, deeply -- about his love for Delaney (and everything else). He was a talker, sometimes a bullshitter, a sharp-as-shit eye on everything, the voice of what was going on all around him and inside his head, heart, and probably in his loins, too. He talked, he wrote. He wrote more. And more. He got so much up and out. I doubt he would have held back in his verbiage when he met, head on, someone he loved. No lack of expressing the love.

Beauford’s self-expression? I imagine a lot of bear hugs! And jovial physical back and forth with all he came within arm’s length of. And, of course, he expressed through painting.

“Untitled: Yellow, Red and Black Circles,” aka:

"Balls, and I’m proud of 'em."

Or

“Life, and I’m alive!”

Or

“I’m here, I’m queer, and I’m so happy to be.”

Or

“And this is where it all comes from!”

Or

“Life. Let’s get it on.”

Or

“I’m with Jimmy again! Wahoo! I’m so happy!”

Or

“I have no idea what this freaking life is really all about,
but here I am. And here’s where it all started.”

Or

“I know what life is all about, and I’m living it. And here is where I got my start.
Thank you very much!”

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Delaney’s epitaph reads: “I am home.” Clearly he thought about what he wanted to say to the world, when given the last shot.

“I am home.”

My life, his life, our being born: is the leaving of home and trekking out -- being pushed out -- into the world? Out into human existence we go! – to live outside of the home, and death is our happy return ?
Death: the successful coming “full circle” – in which we get back to where it all started? i.e., I made it! I found it! I got back! I’m back!! He believed life was one huge, decades- long search? An effort, the striving, working, to getting back to a special place?

The trail, the damn long road, we each take, once we make that first fluidy wriggle, from that first cell, that meeting of egg and sperm, that will become me? Fall out of the womb, get pushed out, and the trek begins? Striving, from that moment on, to get back in?

To my mind, home is where I feel safe.

While living, Delaney felt at “home” when in the presence of Baldwin. Of that, I feel certain. Baldwin validated so many aspects of Delaney’s being and his essence, too. And vice versa for Baldwin.

For Delaney, he envisioned death was home, and it feels like he looked forward to the relief dying and being back at “home” would bring.

Perhaps he looked forward to the place, the time, where / when he didn’t have to be afraid of and wrestle with and negotiate pain, poverty, demons in his crazy ass head, bills, hunger, the voices, and (I imagine) a monstrously long list of painful crap (that we’ll never know) that his life was chock full of.

Will we ever know the inspiration, Delaney’s real, deep down, inspiration, for this painting? One thing is certain. He dedicated it to Baldwin because he felt love for Jimmy. It is a love letter. It screams love on many levels. It was created while he was in a self-imposed exile, a self-made uprooting, and re-planting in Europe. And within that exile, an even more special trip, days long, to an even more strange (unfamiliar) country, to visit Baldwin.

I’m guessing it was relief, calm, tranquility, love, adoration and all-things- wonderful when one is in the company of a soul mate – in Istanbul in 1966.

And from this came Untitled: Yellow, Red and Black Circles.


For the full article, visit Maureen's Web site at www.beanartbean.com

Ba'lls to the Wa'll, Y'all - Part 1

This article is contributed by Maureen Kelleher, who is an avid admirer of James Baldwin and who came to know about Beauford because of his friendship with Baldwin. "Ba'lls to the Wa'll, Y'all" expresses Maureen's thoughts about a painting that she viewed at the ongoing exposition Beauford Delaney: Internal Light. I've printed a couple of excerpts here and will publish another one next week..

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I’m a lover of all things about James Baldwin, and, in particular, his biography by David Leeming. It’s Baldwin’s life force that keeps me going back for more, more, more. I’d guess I’ve read some parts of Leeming’s book five times, times two. I’ve used the photos in the book in my art (and so much more), I sometimes call up a story from his life to emphasize a point in mine. The man had balls. Big ones.

And his best buddy, friend, confidant, father figure, pal, great source of mutual [as in reciprocated] love, adoration, and respect: the painter, Beauford Delaney.

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Untitled: Yellow, Red and Black Circles
1966 Gouache on wove paper
25.25 x 19.25 inches (64.1 x 48.9 cm)
Signed and inscribed lower right to James Baldwin
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
At Levis Fine Art, W. 24th Street, NYC, Beauford Delaney: Internal Light hangs, shines, glows. Yellow, Lilly Wei points out, was important to Delaney. A lot of these paintings are from Delaney’s years in Paris.

I saw the works the day before the official reception. I had a great sneak peek preview as I waited for Jim Levis to deal with NYC traffic and get to our meeting at the gallery.

I looked at the show, then sat in his office and started a letter. I had about thirty minutes. Of course, I looked up, down, and all around as I thought about what next to write to my pen pal.

I couldn’t miss the additional Delaney paintings that were in Jim’s private space.

On the office walls: art. I was surrounded by it. More compact, tighter, more dense than out in the gallery. Squashed up right against it. The best way to see it. Sitting in a comfy leather chair. Write another sentence, look at the paintings again. Think about the painter.

There was Beauford Delaney, looking at me. His big old head, a piece of sculpture by the door. Delaney was checking me out, too.

“Get up! Pay attention to these paintings!” I said to myself. “He actually touched these!” “These are from across the ocean! From a long time ago!”

Over Jim’s desk I leaned, and then my face was up close and personal with Untitled: Yellow, Red and Black Circles. I kept thinking, over and over, just like when I’m in a museum: “He made this stuff!” “He touched it!” “This painting was in Paris!” and I blurred back into mental fantasy of where / how / when this painting had moved in its ‘life.’ And now, it’s here, right over Jim’s desk, and I could touch it, if I wanted!

This was Delaney’s art. I had only read about him, and then only tangentially (to Baldwin), but here is the stuff he created, right here! I missed it the first time around – lost in my thoughts that I was “actually” in front of work that came from Delaney -- but Jim pointed it out to me, nice semi-Aristotelian style, when we got to talking about the Baldwin and Delaney connection.

“See what it says?” he asked, about the piece over his desk. I got up, I re-looked, and saw the signature in the bottom corner of Untitled. There it was! Damn!!! “For Jimmy, love Beauford” and a notation connecting the piece to Istanbul, 1966.

Ah !!! The connection! So wonderful to see, via Beauford’s inscription !

There it was. The connection that I knew existed, and here it was, original source evidence, in Delaney’s hand. He knew Baldwin!

I had been drawn in by Baldwin; now it was seeping in: Delaney’s force was also a force to be considered, give more attention. Pay attention. There is, here is, this guy’s art, right in front of me! It’s here, it’s now. It is a link to back then, and back there. Surreal. Then is now.

And Delaney’s handwriting: wonderful. Soft, and lots of up and down. Easy to read; relaxed. It doesn’t convey a huge picture (no pun intended) of the artist, but to my sensibilities, I feel a little closer to a person when I see their handwriting. His spirit, in another way, comes through. This is how he moves, how he moves his hand, when he holds a pen or brush and taps into the common symbols-making called the written word.

“For Jimmy” refers to James Baldwin, of course. The reason I was at the gallery, the reason I was in that office, the reason I became a visual artist, the reason I went to 181 Greene Street, retracing Baldwin’s search, looking for Delaney’s house? James Baldwin. James Baldwin. James Baldwin. He lights up some part of my soul, non-stop. “This little [art] light of mine” is fueled, in large part, by The Man with the big old bulging eyes (which weren’t, really, all that bulging).

Now I was bumping up close to Baldwin’s navigator, his wing man, his source, his rock: Beauford Delaney.

Beauford painted Untitled: Yellow, Red and Black Circles, I’m told, during his first trip to Istanbul, where he visited and stayed with Baldwin.

Some possible sources of inspiration, behind the work, for Delaney? Let’s gird our loins; okay. That’s enough. Let ’er rip, and let’s see what this work is.

It is existential.

It’s phallic, it’s penis and scrotum. It’s long and lean, with a big old tip and the line down the middle. It’s swimming amidst the circles. It’s balls on either side.

It’s yellow, it’s egg, it’s yoke.

It’s male and female, kind of swirly, bumping up right against each other. It’s a fried egg! Sitting in front of two balls. Mr. Penis wriggling his way through the players, and across the canvass.

It is the beginning of LIFE.

It is sunshine and light. It is the birth of “this little light of (yours and) mine.”

It’s where all sentient beings, you and me included, got our start. It is my life, Day One.

It is me, way back before I knew what the fuck was going on. It is from whence I sprang, from whence I swam and made my way, disconnected from, and not yet dependent on, air. A little fish swimming around, fluidy and cellular, with not a care in the world, yet. Not in the world, yet. Not in it and not of it, yet, but forces preparing ‘me’ and getting ‘me’ shaped by the two components seen here, sharing the canvass, as shared way back, when I was exactly this same configuration.

It is my self portrait. It is Beauford. It is Jimmy.

It is the masculine.

Delaney and Baldwin: MEN! Of course, their private parts are of utmost importance. Half kidding, and half ... not.

The Half-not part: It is apropos to paint what we care and think about. We definitely care about our organs, and our sexual organs, very definitely.


For the full article, visit Maureen's Web site at www.beanartbean.com

Jim Levis on Beauford Delaney: Internal Light

Jim Levis of Levis Fine Art is the driving force behind the hugely successful opening of Beauford Delaney: Internal Light – the first one-man show of Beauford’s work since the Minneapolis Institute of Art exposition Beauford Delaney from New York to Paris in 2004-2005. A specialist in the art of mid-century modernists, Levis represents the estates of artists of this era who, as innovators are deserving of a serious second look. His clients include the estates of Elaine de Kooning, Budd Hopkins, Maurice Golubov, Walter Plate and now, Beauford Delaney.

Beauford Delaney: Internal Light
Levis Fine Art
Image courtesy of Levis Fine Art
Levis has shown Beauford’s work at his gallery since 2006, when he was offered the opportunity to take four paintings on consignment. He says that Beauford’s œuvre, whether figurative or abstract, engages him and others who view it:

Great art resonates with one’s soul. The way Beauford uses color to capture and reflect light makes his paintings, regardless of palette or subject, enervating. Beauford’s art speaks to me in a profound way and its impact is universal. His paintings echo an energy that was his salvation and when it was beyond his brush, and his reality he struggled terribly until he was able to reconnect with his internal light.

Beauford’s life story adds a huge amount of context and makes interacting with the image more meaningful. He was born into a world where one’s imagination was the key to salvation as his family struggled emotionally, physically and financially. One of 12 siblings, only 4 lived to be adults; one of whom was his treasured brother Joseph, a fellow artist and confident. Beauford also forged relationships with many who were in the arts as well as patrons, including James Baldwin, Larry Calcagno, James Jones, Ahmed Bioud, Henry Miller, Bernard Hassel, Al Hirschfield, Alfred Stieglitz and others. Many of these individuals were not only life long friends and supporters but sitters for his portraits.

According to Levis, roughly 500 people attended the opening and he noted with pleasure that they showed genuine interest in Beauford’s work. Despite the social nature of the occasion, people spent a considerable amount of time looking at the paintings and significant sales were made.

Beyond the “revenue metric,” Levis notes that the “awareness factor” for Beauford’s work seems to be truly blossoming. Several people who attended the May 9th opening and who had never seen more than a few Delaneys in the past have already come back to the gallery for a more in depth viewing. Based on the outpouring of congratulations on the show, Levis is considering organizing follow-up events for focused collectors, scholars, and museums.

Over 30 paintings are currently being exhibited, mostly from the Paris Period between1953-1972 with others in reserve. They have a “pristine provenance” in terms of authenticity and ownership and have been certified by the estate. Beauford Delaney: Internal Light features a mix of abstract and figurative works, with the ratio of the two being roughly 3-to-1. As this is the first of a series of planned expositions, subsequent shows may have a different mix.

Because there was no organized transition plan for Beauford’s work when he died in 1979, many of his paintings were lost, misplaced, mishandled, or misappropriated over the next 25 years. Over the past 6 years, Levis has recommended resources to the estate to aid in their recovery, photography, cataloguing, data-basing, additional scholarship and publication. His reputation of serving other artist’s estates earned him the trust of the Estate Administrator, Derek L. Spratley. Beginning, 2 years ago, the first few paintings were sold for several times the high auction record to serious collectors. Based upon his performance, Levis Fine Art has been selected as Official Representative of the estate, a responsibility that Levis takes quite seriously and acknowledges as a milestone for his firm.

One of Levis’ additional responsibilities is to review and selectively catalog letters from of a treasure trove of Beauford’s “papers” that are held by the estate, independent of the documents held by the Schomburg Center in New York. The estate’s collection of documents provides interesting insights for future scholarship.

While other galleries sell Beauford’s work, Levis Fine Art is currently the only gallery authorized to sell paintings on behalf of Beauford’s estate.

Beauford Delaney: Internal Light will run through June 15, 2013.

Levis Fine Art
514 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
(646) 620-5000
Contact: James Levis
Email:

Where to Find Beauford's Art: Galerie Intemporel

Galerie Intemporel is the only place in Paris where you can find Beauford's work on public display.

Galerie Intemporel
© Discover Paris!
Owned by Laurence Choko, Intemporel was founded in 1998. It is located in the Beaubourg district, only a few blocks from the Pompidou Center. The gallery’s mission is to expose modern and contemporary works of select artists of the African Diaspora. Choko showed Beauford's Portrait of Vasilli Pikoula at Art Basel Miami in 2010.

Two abstract paintings by Beauford currently hang behind the desk at the gallery. I was privileged to stand before them at the recent reception held at the gallery in commemoration of Beauford's dear friend Richard A. Long, where I read from the tribute to Beauford that Richard contributed to this blog in 2010. An image of Beauford's portrait of Richard sat on the desk beside me.

Monique reading at Richard A. Long reception
© Discover Paris!
The blue and burnt orange abstract is an aquarelle dated 1961. The brown and green abstract is an aquarelle and gouache on paper dated 1962.

Beauford's abstracts at Galerie Intemporel
© Discover Paris!
For more information on these works, contact Laurence Choko at:

Galerie Intemporel
37, rue Quincampoix
75004 Paris
Telephone: 01.44.59.63.29
Metro: Châtelet or Rambuteau
E-mail:
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday 2 PM to 7 PM, or by appointment

Beauford's New York Expositions

As the opening date for Internal Light, the solo exposition of the Beauford's works at Levis Fine Art* approaches, I am inspired to share some of the venues at which he had his work shown during his New York years. It's an impressive list!

Beauford in his Greene Street studio, New York City, 1944
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
Whitney Studio Galleries (now the Whitney Museum of American Art) - February 26 - March 30, 1930

New York Public Library (Harlem branch - now the Schomburg Center) - entire month of May 1930

New York Public Library (Main branch) - May 17-28, 1932

Washington Square Outdoor Exhibit - many times, beginning in 1934

International Art Center Show at the Roerich Museum - 1935

8th Street Playhouse (later to become the theater that featured The Rocky Horror Picture Show for many years) - Autumn 1938

Vendome Art Gallery - January 18 - February 2, 1941

Artists' Gallery (closed in 1962) - May 1948

Roko Gallery - many times, beginning in February 1949

*Levis Fine Art
514 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
(646) 620-5000
Contact: James Levis
Email: jim@levisfineart.com
Opening for Internal Light: May 9, 2013

BEAUFORD DELANEY: INTERNAL LIGHT

I am thrilled to share the news below about Beauford's estate!

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Levis Fine Art is pleased to announce the opening of Beauford Delaney: Internal Light, an exhibition of the extraordinary artistic legacy from the Paris period (1953-1972) of this modern master, who exhibited in museums throughout Europe and the United States. Many of these historically significant paintings have not been viewed since the artist’s landmark 1978 exhibition, Beauford Delaney: A Retrospective was held at the Studio Museum in Harlem. The solo exhibition will run from May 9 through June 15, 2013.

The images shown in this post represent a few of the paintings that will be displayed during the exposition:

Abstraction #12, 1963
Oil on canvas
51.5 x 38.5 inches


Waning Light: Abstraction, 1963
Oil on canvas
51 1/8 x 38 1/8 inches (130 x 97 cm)


It is broadly recognized that Delaney’s Paris works are among the most significant of his body of work. A number of these Paris-period works to be shown were rescued from Delaney’s apartment shortly before his death. About to be seized by the French Government and auctioned to satisfy delinquent accounts, the paintings were shipped to New York through the efforts of a coterie of the artist’s devoted friends including James Baldwin, Henry Miller, Richard Powell and Richard Long*. These paintings would form the core of the 1978 retrospective.

Untitled: Street Sweeper, 1966
Marker and mixed media on paper
21 x 14.5 inches


Abstract in Orange and Red, 1963
Gouache on wove paper
25.75 x 19.625 inches


Portrait of Ahmed Bioud, 1968
Oil on canvas
26 x 21 inches


After thirty-five years of uncertain fate, and the enormous efforts over the past seven years by the estate’s court-appointed Administrator, Derek Spratley, many of these estate paintings have been recovered and are now being presented for the first time in this exhibition, opening to the public on May 9th. A fully illustrated color catalog with essay by Lilly Wei, New York-based independent curator and art critic, will be available. Levis Fine Art is proud to represent the estate of Beauford Delaney.

Levis Fine Art
514 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
(646) 620-5000
Contact: James Levis
Email:
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 10am-6pm or by appointment

*A commemorative reception for Richard A. Long will be held at the Galerie Intemporel, 37, rue Quincampoix, Paris 4e at 5 PM today.

Where to Find Beauford's Art: Knoxville Museum of Art

I am very pleased to share the news that the Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA) now houses the paintings for the Delaney estate! The estate executor has allowed the KMA to display the works shown below. Stephen C. Wicks, Barbara W. and Bernard E. Bernstein Curator for the museum, provides the commentary.

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Scattered Light
(1964) Oil on canvas
36 5/8 X 28 3/4 inches
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
Scattered Light appears to vibrate with a warm orange glow at first glance. Upon closer inspection one realizes this warm glow is produced by short, thick strokes of yellow, white, green, blue, and red oil pigment applied in dense clusters. For me, Scattered Light’s rich textures and vibrant colors are reminiscent of Monet’s paintings of Rouen Cathedral.

This work is currently hung beside a painting by Joseph Delaney from our collection that is being shown in the KMA’s ongoing flagship exhibition Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in East Tennessee. Joseph's Marble Collegiate Church (1974-75, oil on canvas, 72 X 47 3/4 inches) depicts a bustling Manhattan crowd dwarfed by a towering church spire and a turbulent sky. Its distinctive frame was designed and built by the artist. In 1986, Joseph returned to Knoxville and was artist-in-residence at University of Tennessee until his death in 1991.

Installation shot at the KMA showing Scattered Light (left) beside Joseph Delaney’s Marble Collegiate Church (right)
Photo courtesy of Knoxville Museum of Art
Higher Ground is housed in one of the two large top-floor galleries. A permanent installation, it traces the development of fine art in the region over the past century. It tells the largely unknown story of East Tennessee’s rich artistic history and its connections to the larger currents of American art. Featured works are drawn from the KMA collection along with selected works on loan from museums and private collections from around the country.

KMA owns several major paintings by Joseph, but none by Beauford. I consider our lack of Beauford’s work as the single most important acquisition goal for our museum.

Beauford's portrait of his niece Imogene Delaney now hangs in our new temporary exhibition Tradition Redefined: The Larry and Brenda Thompson Collection of African American Art, which is on view through June 16, 2013.

Portrait of Imogene Delaney
(1963) Oil on canvas
38 ½ x 31 inches
Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia
The Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection of African American Art
GMOA 2011.584
The portrait is made up predominantly of yellow pigment applied in flat, even strokes. Some orange hues appear in the upper 1/3 of the composition. Interestingly, Imogene appears to hover in space because Beauford opted to apply yellow over the area where her armchair would have appeared in order to erase any evidence of its existence.

The Thompsons' extensive collection redefines the landscape of African American art, offering an in-depth, inclusive understanding of artists and their aesthetic and social concerns. Featured artists include Radcliffe Bailey, Romare Bearden, Camille Billops, Beauford Delaney, Joseph Delaney, Lois Mailou Jones, Norman Lewis, and Hale Woodruff. The fact that Tradition Redefined allows viewers to consider Beauford’s and Joseph’s work within the larger context of African American art is one of the major reasons why the KMA was eager to bring the exhibition to Knoxville.

Tradition Redefined hangs in the lower galleries at the KMA. It was organized by the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Beauford at the MRG Chelsea Inaugural Expo

The Michael Rosenfeld Gallery (MRG) holds the largest number of Beauford's paintings among galleries today. It has been and continues to be a great friend of Les Amis de Beauford Delaney. I am taking this opportunity to publicly thank them for their support!

MRG recently relocated to Chelsea after operating for over 20 years at 24 West 57th Street in midtown Manhattan. Beauford's Untitled (Greene Street) was hung by the gallery as part of the inaugural exposition.

Untitled (Greene Street)
(1950) Oil on canvas
47" x 36 1/2"
signed and dated lower left: B. Delaney. 1950
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
This work was part of the African American Art Calendar 2011, created by MRG and published by Pomegranate Press in Petaluma, CA, in which it was the illustration for the month of October. It was shown at INsite/INchelsea: The Inaugural Exhibition for MRG from December 18, 2012-March 9, 2013.

Prior to the gallery's acquisition of this work, it was owned by Clarke Gallery in Mamaroneck, NY. Clarke Gallery obtained it from a private collection, the owner of which obtained it from Beauford.

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
100 11th Avenue at 19th Street
New York, NY 10011
Telephone: 212-247-0082
Internet: http://www.michaelrosenfeldart.com

An Unexpected Discovery and a Primer for Art Collection

I met Anne Stills several months ago when she wrote to me to comment on the recent publication of my book entitled Black Paris Profiles. Since that time, we communicate frequently by e-mail to share information about Paris.

I received a couple of messages from Anne a few days ago, each with an image attached. I was delighted to find that the images were of paintings by Beauford!

Untitled (recto)
(1942) Pastel on paper
Image courtesy of Anne Stills

Untitled (verso)
(undated) Pastel on paper
Image courtesy of Anne Stills
Anne found these paintings at a private art dealer's establishment* in NYC while she was purchasing art to add to her collection. The dealer, Jon Mellitz, acquired them over 20 years ago from the Betty Esman estate (Esman was a WPA artist, as was Beauford.) Both pieces measure approximately 23x18 inches and are in good condition. The asking price is $7000 for both paintings.

Because I believe that the concept of art collection is foreign to many and because starting and building a collection requires education and advice, I asked Anne to grant Les Amis an interview to talk about art collection and what it means to her. Find our exchange below:

Anne Denise Stills at Versailles
Photo courtesy of Anne D. Stills
Les Amis: When did you first realize that you wanted to collect art?

Anne D. Stills: I have been collecting one thing or another most my life. We are all collectors, all of us. As a young person I collected dolls. I moved on to jazz albums, fashion magazines, cookbooks and mystery novels. As my taste and exposure to the world grew, I started more costly collections of porcelain teapots, Lladro and Herend figurines, and Hermes scarves. As I settled down and started paying more attention to home, I began to think about collecting art first as a means to decorate and later as a passionate pursuit.

Les Amis: Why is it important for you to collect art?

Anne D. Stills: I am a visual person. I need to be surrounded by beauty. The artwork in my home reflects my personal taste and brings a certain energy, joy and peace to my well being and sensibility. It reminds me of my parents and connects me to the history and experience of black people in America and the African Diaspora.

Les Amis: Which genres do you prefer (painting, sculpture, installations, photography…)?

Anne D. Stills: My collection is still young and evolving, therefore, I prefer to remain open and develop a taste for a broad range of mediums. I started with works on paper, along with vintage black and white photos.

Les Amis: Which types of paintings do you prefer (examples: figurative vs. abstract; portraits vs. landscapes; oils vs. watercolors vs. acrylics…)?

Anne D. Stills: My tastes are quite varied. In the beginning stages of collecting, I found myself drawn to abstract works of art. Later to round out my collection, I acquired figurative works. As a serious collector, I am very deliberate about my selections. It is very important that each piece enhances and fits into the overall theme.

I have a wish list of artists I want to collect. When I am considering a work, I mostly think about what that artist is known for and select art that represents a part of either their earlier or later works or sometimes both.

Les Amis: Is Beauford one of the artists whose work you'd like to collect?

Anne D. Stills: Yes, Beauford Delaney is on my wish list. I am partial to his abstracts and bold use of color.

Les Amis: When did you begin to collect art?

Anne D. Stills: My first awareness and deliberate decision to build a collection of fine art started five years ago. Once I made the decision, I thought long and hard about the strategy and artistic goal for my collection. I first went about educating myself and being exposed to many different types of art and artists. Through this exposure and training, I decided I wanted to focus my collection on African-American artists of the WPA (Works Progress Administration) period. This was a federal program established in 1935 during the Great Depression to offer work to the unemployed. There was an arts project component to help keep artists working. This was also during the time of the Harlem Renaissance with its explosion of cultural nationalism, black heritage, pride and the blossoming of black art and literature. I feel a strong affinity to the works created during this era.

Les Amis: What was your first purchase?

Anne D. Stills: My first acquisition was a Romare Bearden lithograph, Brass Section (Jamming at Minton’s), from the Jazz Series, dated 1979. As a lover of jazz music, this piece spoke to me. I remember gazing at the image and being taken back to the 1970s jazz club scene in Greenwich Village, grooving to the sounds of Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and the voices of Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae and Shirley Horn.

Les Amis: How do you feel about the concept of “black art”?

Anne D. Stills: I believe the concept of black art is very subjective. You can ask different people including art historians and scholars this question and receive different answers. It’s a very broad subject. I am only an art lover, not an expert. However, I came of age in NYC during the late 1960s and early 1970s during a major social upheaval and transformational time. There was a proliferation of black expression, pride and the birth of the Black Movement. As a result, I was nurtured and exposed to the works of “black art” by all the many incredibly talented, prolific writers, musicians and artists that look like me and whom I could identify with. This was my bridge into the art world. It established a comfort level for me. As an example, my love for opera music developed because I was able to go and see Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman and Shirley Verrett…people that looked like me.

Black art has illuminated my path, nurtured my growth and given me the freedom to broaden my horizons and develop a global perspective.

Les Amis: Does your collection represent an investment or simply a passion?

Anne D. Stills: My collection comes out of my love and passion for the history and legacy of African-American artists, their art and our collective experiences. I applaud their ability to document what they saw and express their emotions to create something beautiful that I live with and enjoy each day. That is the driving force behind my building a fine art collection. At some point, however, as my collection grew in size and value, it inevitably evolved into an investment. As an investment, there are certain considerations that require management - things such as insurance, tax, and estate planning.

Les Amis: Do you use the Internet to search for works to collect?

Anne D. Stills: The Internet can certainly be used as a source to search for artwork. I much prefer an interactive and proactive approach, including consulting with my art dealers and attending art auctions, galleries and art fairs. The primary source I have used to collect art is through reputable dealers that I have developed a long-term relationship with. They are familiar with the strategy of my collection and have assisted me with evolving, expanding and growing my body of work.

Les Amis: What are the pros and cons of using the Internet?

Anne D. Stills: The down side of buying art on the Internet is that you may purchase a fraudulent work if you are not experienced and knowledgeable. There can be a lot fraud if you don’t know what you are doing. It’s important to receive certificate of authenticity to document the details and value of your artwork. This may not always be possible using an Internet seller. The positive side, however, is that you are purchasing directly as opposed to through a middle man such as an auction house, thereby, getting a better price.

Some dealers use the Internet to sell their inventory. I once came upon a valuable piece of artwork directly via the Internet. It was put up for auction at a major auction house in the past, however, did not sell. The seller’s asking price was thousands of dollars below the auction house estimate. Unfortunately, I was not able to purchase it because it was not within my budget at the time.

Les Amis: How would you advise someone new to art collection to begin?

Anne D. Stills: All serious art collecting begins with educating yourself and building an art library. A great deal of effort must be put in prior to your first purchase. I would advise the novice collector to spend of lot of time visiting museums and galleries as well as attending local art fairs and auctions. Study art magazines and gallery catalogs. Attend exhibits and establish relationships with contemporary artists, gallery owners, curators and collectors. Study the African-American art collections of important private collectors such as Dr. Walter O. Evans (Savannah College of Art and Design), Dr. Harmon and Harriet Kelley (private collection), and Paul R. Jones collection (University of Delaware and University of Alabama)—these are an extremely educational resource. In time you will train your eye and your gut to identify artists that have created the works that speak to you.

Quality artwork by established emerging artists can be found to fit any taste and budget. To develop a good collection, you must develop your eye.

Les Amis: Are there any references, online courses, or other resources that you would recommend to new collectors?

Anne D. Stills: One of the books I consider the bible of African-American art history is A History of African-American Artists, From 1792 to the Present by Romare Bearden & Harry Henderson. The information, artists and works presented in this book and made during this period laid the groundwork for everything that followed. Another important reference and must have is Collecting African American Art, Works on Paper and Canvas by Halima Taha. This book is invaluable with everything the new collector needs to know. The IRAAA (The International Review of African American Art) magazine published by Hampton University Museum is an excellent resource for identifying emerging artists and what is trending in the art world of black artists.

Three excellent books that I would recommend by art historians and scholars are Black Art in the 20th Century and To Conserve a Legacy: American Art of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, both by Richard Powell; and African American Art and Artists by Samella Lewis. Additional resources would include the online archived catalogs at Swann Galleries, and the auction house Web sites for Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

*For more information about the Beauford Delaney portraits, contact Jon Mellitz at 917-721-3608.

Beauford's Portrait of Charlie Parker

Many thanks to the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY for furnishing the images and information presented in this post.

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Several of Beauford's paintings are being shown in the Blues for Smoke exposition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. One of them is an untitled work that is also known as Charlie "Bird" Parker:

Untitled (aka Charlie "Bird" Parker), 1968
Oil on canvas
28 3/4" x 23 1/2", signed and dated
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, Courtesy of
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York , NY
This painting is signed and dated in the lower right corner: 1968 Beauf Delaney. It is also signed, inscribed and dated in the upper right corner on the back: Beauford Delaney Paris 1968 France. Billy Dee Williams (Los Angeles, CA) acquired it directly from Beauford in 1968 in the accompaniment of James Baldwin. It is currently held by the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY, which loaned it to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MOCA) for the current exposition. It appears on page 51 of the exhibition catalog.

In an article about Blues for Smoke, published by the New York Times on February 8, 2013, Holland Cotter discusses the few pieces in the show that come from Europe. Beauford's paintings are a part of this group. About the portrait shown above, Holland states:

Europe — Paris — was the adopted home of the painter Beauford Delaney, who has a wonderful little 1968 portrait here of Charlie Parker, dressed like an African chief in a citrus-yellow robe.

Untitled (aka Charlie "Bird" Parker) - detail, 1968
Oil on canvas
28 3/4" x 23 1/2", signed and dated
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, Courtesy of
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York , NY
Blues for Smoke was shown at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA from October 21, 2012 - January 7, 2013; the show opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art on February 17 and will hang until April 28, 2013.

Click on the links below to read other Les Amis blog posts about Beauford and the Whitney Museum of American Art:

Where to Find Beauford's Art: Whitney Museum of American Art

Beauford at the Whitney Museum Studio Galleries - 1930

Where to Find Beauford's Art: Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries - Part 4

This final segment of the multi-part article on the Beauford Delaney paintings held by Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries comes from Patricia Sue Canterbury*, curator of the solo exposition entitled Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris that was mounted by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 2004.

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The group of works that resides in the collection of the Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries (“CAUAG”) is bound together by the two salient factors of color and origin. All seven works, which range between 1962 and 1978, are suffused with yellow, a shade that dominated the artist’s work—particularly after his relocation to Paris in the 1950s. The sun-drenched shade was a flexible, expressive tool that conveyed the perceived essence of his subject matter. The other aspect that contributes special meaning to the works as a group is the fact that all are a bequest from Delaney’s long-time friend, James Baldwin. My thoughts on a few of my favorites follow below.

Baldwin and Delaney’s history spanned decades and, while it began with the artist in the role of mentor to the younger man, by the 1970s Baldwin would take on a protective role towards the man who had taught him in little but profound ways to look beyond the surface of initial impressions. It was also Delaney who was living proof to the young, aspiring writer that a black man could be, and succeed, as an artist. The friendship begun in New York continued across the Atlantic where both men found in Paris a place where each could explore their respective paths with a freedom that opened within them new approaches and ideas in the pursuit of their crafts.

Given their long history, Delaney portrayed Baldwin on many occasions and those likenesses rank as some of the artist’s most powerfully intuited portraits. Therefore, it is not surprising that out of the three portraits by Delaney in the CAUAG collection, it is his portrayal of James Baldwin that projects to us the interior essence of the sitter.

Portrait of James Baldwin
(1971) Oil on canvas
Bequest of James Baldwin
Image courtesy of Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries
Note: Some question whether the person depicted in this portrait is indeed Baldwin.
The yellow light of inspiration and spiritual power surrounds the author like an aura, but the face is suffused with the same light as if it is rising up from within and emanating towards the viewer. Baldwin and the light are one and the same. The clarity of vision and purity of his purpose are further conveyed to us through the bright white of his eyes and the jacket in which he is cloaked. His expression, looking straight ahead, is one of calm determination and his position in the dead center of the canvas, further marks the solidity of that resolve.

As Baldwin’s success as an author rose, he would in turn offer Delaney opportunities to vacation with him in various locations, including his timber and stone villa in St. Paul de Vence in the South of France. CAUAG is fortunate to possess two works that mark Delaney’s presence there. In Village (St. Paul de Vence) the artist captured the nature of a town that, to any visitor, is an unending succession of steeply pitched steps that hug the walls of any structure they desire to reach. Here, Delaney collapses a slice of the town into a single plane with multiple stepped paths and the cellular-shaped interiors of the establishments that border them. It is a portrait of a place well loved, which conveys a sense of his delight in its peculiar quality of place.

Village (St. Paul de Vence)
(1972) Oil on canvas
Bequest of James Baldwin
Image courtesy of Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries
The work also reaches back to works from New York (ca. 1946-1953) when the artist employed similar divisions or compartmentalizing in the portrayal of a place (i.e., Untitled (Jazz Club), ca. 1951, Private Collection). While each area of activity is distinct, in concert they convey a sense of simultaneity within the greater whole of the place portrayed.

Yellow Cyprus (1978), painted six years later, and one year before Delaney’s death, translates his experience of the scene that opened before him from the terrace of Baldwin’s house at St. Paul de Vence. In spite of his delicate mental state by this point in time, he obviously divined larger, cosmic meaning underlying the visual phenomena. To get at it, he restricted the color palette and stripped away the unessential elements that would only distract. The yellow orb of the sun does not simply bathe the landscape in golden light; it invades it and transforms it into an extension of itself and threatens to dematerialize it, outright.

Yellow Cyprus
(1978) Oil on canvas
Bequest of James Baldwin
Image courtesy of Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries
The scene embodies the spiritual crux of what Delaney had sought to capture in his grand cosmic abstractions of the 60s—“that which cannot be said or portrayed…that is deathless, eternal, and obscure.” [Letter to Henry Miller, 11/3/65] Indeed, nature here presented him with its own “canvas” of infinite and unfathomable light. It was left only for him to walk into it.

*To read the other contributions that Sue Canterbury has made to the Les Amis blog, click on the links below:
Anatomy of an Art Exposition - Part 1
Anatomy of an Art Exposition - Part 2
Why Are So Many of Beauford's Paintings in Museum Storage

Beauford's Self-Portrait at Swann Galleries African-American Fine Art Auction

Once again, Beauford's work was represented at the Swann Galleries African-American Fine Art Auction. The most recent sale was held on February 14, 2013. This time, the painting auctioned was an exquisite self-portrait (Lot 73) that I had not seen before.

Self-Portrait
(1964) Oil on linen canvas
470x337 mm; 18 1/2x13 1/4 inches.
Signed, dated and inscribed "Paris" in oil, verso.
Image courtesy of Swann Galleries
This painting was last held by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which acquired it in 2011. It was previously owned by Louise Taylor, St. Michael, MD; Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York (1999); and John Axelrod, Boston (1999). It was exhibited in a show called Selections from the Collection of John P. Axelrod at the Addison Gallery of American Art, Philips Exeter Academy, Andover, MA, August 31 - October 31, 1999 and at the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, 1999, with the labels on the frame back.

Swann Galleries describes the painting as follows:

This modern self-portrait is a striking example of an important body of work--Beauford Delaney made self-portraits throughout his career, from the 1930s through the 1970s. This work is done at the height of his Paris period, the same year as Delaney's solo exhibition at Galerie Lambert in Paris, where he showed both portraits and abstract canvases. There is another 1964 self-portrait, with a cigarette on a yellow background, in the collection of the Reinfrank family, and a very similar Self-Portrait, 1965, in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art and illustrated on the cover of David Leeming's biography, Amazing Grace: a Life of Beauford Delaney.

The estimated sale price for this piece was $20,000-$30,000. It sold for $30,000*.

*At auction, there are two prices--the hammer price, or the price at which the item sells during the auction, and the price with the buyer's premium. All auction houses have a buyer's premium that the buyer pays to the auction house on top of the hammer price. Swann's premium is 20%. The prices indicated in this article are hammer prices.

Beauford Returns to the Whitney Museum of American Art

Blues for Smoke is a major interdisciplinary exhibition exploring a wide range of contemporary art, music, literature, and film through the lens of the blues and “blues aesthetics.” Mounted by the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), it is now being shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan.

The image below is a screenshot from the page on the Whitney Museum Web site that promotes the exposition.  The painting on the right was done by Beauford - it is called Portrait of a Young Musician and is on loan from the Studio Museum in Harlem.  It is not dated. (Click on the image for a larger view of the portrait.)

Screenshot from Whitney Museum Web site

Beauford experienced his first major break as an artist at the Whitney, where he exhibited twelve works (three oils and nine pastels) at a four-person show that ran from February 26 to March 8, 1930.  He won first prize for one of his pastels and honorable mention for the other works that he submitted for this show. 

There is no indication on their Web site as to why the Whitney chose Portrait of a Young Musician among dozens of others to represent this exhibit.  But I think you'll agree that the work is compelling.  During a Google search, I found a blog post by a young woman named Kiffe Coco that echoes this sentiment.  Coco says that as soon as she laid eyes on the painting, she was deeply intrigued.  She goes on to describe how the image evoked thoughts of Paris:

I was introduced to this piece on Tuesday at the Studio Museum of Harlem while working a workshop, and just looking at it, I thought of Paris and then somehow, James Baldwin's image popped into my head. His scarf, his crossed legs, his expression all led me to believe that this guy had been spending some time in the City of Light...

Blues for Smoke is being accompanied by a series of performances, events, screenings, and readings, all of which showcase the enduring legacy and innovative possibilities of the blues in contemporary music and live art. It will run until April 28, 2013.

Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street
New York, NY 10021
General Information: (212) 570-3600
info@whitney.org
Click here for information on hours and admission fees.

Where to Find Beauford's Art: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has recently acquired one of Beauford's most acclaimed portraits, that of Marian Anderson:

Marian Anderson
(1965) Oil on canvas
J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art
Image source: VMFA Blog
The painting had been on loan to the museum for five months prior to the acquisition. As of December 2012, it is part of their permanent collection. It hangs in the American gallery across the room from Beauford's Greene Street, which the museum acquired in 2010. As part of the museum's inventory, these works now belong to the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The following description comes from the VMFA blog:

In this “memory” portrait — painted in Paris but with an awareness of the Civil Rights struggles underway in America — Delaney expressed his ongoing admiration for Anderson’s sensitive brilliance as a performer and person. The visual harmony of the work epitomizes the artist’s exploration of painterly abstractions that featured the color yellow as a symbol of perfection and transcendence.

According to the blog Black Artist News, Marian Anderson is the museum’s first painted portrait of a celebrated historical black figure. Many thanks to milo, creator of Black Artist News, for informing Les Amis of the acquisition!

A Portrait for Sale

Beauford captured the likeness of his friend Richard Gibson in a portrait painted in Paris in 1955:

Portrait of Richard Gibson
Beauford Delaney
Oil on canvas (1955)

Click HERE to read the story of how Richard sat for the portrait.

The painting was hung as part of the exposition of Beauford's works that the Philadelphia Museum of Art held in 2005. As Richard is a native of Philadelphia, he was proud to have his portrait shown during this exhibit.  Click HERE to read more about this exposition.

Richard Gibson standing next to his portrait at the 2005 exposition
Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Photo courtesy of Richard Gibson

Richard owns the painting and is offering it for sale.  Interested parties should address an e-mail message to Craig Allen at craig.persmail[at]yahoo[dot]com.

To read Richard's tribute to Beauford, click on the following link:
A Tribute to Beauford...in Gratitude

Where to Find Beauford's Art: Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries - Part 3

I am pleased to present this multi-part article about Beauford's works at Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries in Atlanta, GA. Many thanks to Tina Dunkley and her assistant Cynthia Ham for providing the interview and images upon which this article is based.
************
The James Baldwin bequest to Clark Atlanta University contained the following paintings by Beauford:

• Yellow Cypress, 1972, oil on canvas
• Unknown Portrait (inscription: Saint Paul), 1971, oil on canvas
• Portrait of James Baldwin*, 1971, oil on canvas
• Man in Blue, 1972, oil on canvas
• Abstraction: Yellow and Orange, 1972, watercolor
• Village (Saint Paul de Vence), 1972, oil on canvas
• Abstract: Yellow and Red, 1967, oil on canvas

Village (Saint Paul de Vence) is my personal favorite among these works.  It was shown originally shown in the 1973 Darthea Speyer solo exposition of his work and later shown during the solo exposition The Color Yellow mounted by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta in 2002.

Village (Saint Paul de Vence)
(1972) Oil on canvas
Bequest of James Baldwin
Image courtesy of Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries
Beauford first went to Saint Paul de Vence in 1971, the year that his nephew Sam died.  Baldwin invited him there to help him deal with the emotional trauma resulting from Sam's death.  He invited Beauford to the property for Christmas that same year. 

Beauford would go to Saint Paul de Vence again in 1972, this time as a result of Richard A. Long finding him in fragile mental condition during Long's visit to France.  Beauford drew sketches of the town during this trip and created Village and other paintings upon his return to Paris.


In Part 4 of this article, read a personal view of several paintings from the Baldwin bequest.

*Some question whether the person depicted in this portrait is indeed Baldwin.