More Beauford Delaney Portraits
As we continue to organize the February 2016 exhibition of Paris-sourced Beauford Delaney works at Reid Hall, I find myself marveling at the number of donors we have found and the wide variety of paintings from which we will be able to select to mount what will be a major show. The abstract works far outnumber the portraits, but there are several portraits from which to choose.
Seeing these paintings inspired me to go back through the archives of this blog and other online sources to look at images of some of the numerous portraits that Beauford painted during his lifetime. I bring you images of several of them in today's post.
Portrait of a Young Man
(ca. 1937-1940) Color pastel crayons
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Portrait
(1946) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Portrait of Henri Chahine
(ca. 1960-1969) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
No 6 Portrait, JFK
(1966) Pastel
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Arlan Iverson
(1972) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
To see images of Beauford's self-portraits and his portraits of James Baldwin on this blog, click on the links below:
Beauford's Portraits of James Baldwin - Part 1
Beauford's Portraits of James Baldwin - Part 2
You've Got the Eye
Beauford's Self-portrait on the Cover of JAMA
************
Les Amis de Beauford Delaney and Reid Hall are partnering to bring an exhibition of original Beauford Delaney works to Reid Hall in Paris in February 2016! To sign-up to receive information about this show, click HERE.
Seeing these paintings inspired me to go back through the archives of this blog and other online sources to look at images of some of the numerous portraits that Beauford painted during his lifetime. I bring you images of several of them in today's post.
(ca. 1937-1940) Color pastel crayons
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1946) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(ca. 1960-1969) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1966) Pastel
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1972) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
To see images of Beauford's self-portraits and his portraits of James Baldwin on this blog, click on the links below:
Beauford's Portraits of James Baldwin - Part 1
Beauford's Portraits of James Baldwin - Part 2
You've Got the Eye
Beauford's Self-portrait on the Cover of JAMA
Les Amis de Beauford Delaney and Reid Hall are partnering to bring an exhibition of original Beauford Delaney works to Reid Hall in Paris in February 2016! To sign-up to receive information about this show, click HERE.
Beauford in Philadelphia: The 1947 Pyramid Club Show
In May, I wrote about my visit to Dr. William A. Dodd's office in Philadelphia and the rich collection of Beauford Delaney memorabilia that he has amassed.
Among them are documents and photos from Beauford's 1947 show at the Pyramid Club in Philadelphia.
Pyramid Club Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture - Cover
© Discover Paris!
Dr. Dodd connected me to Leslie Willis-Lowry, archivist of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University Libraries so that I could ask permission to publish the incredibly handsome photos of Beauford and others at the show. I am pleased to present them below:
John W. Mosley, photographer
Photo reproduced with permission of the
Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection
Unidentified woman, Henry B. Jones, unidentified woman,
Beauford Delaney, Dox Thrash, Dorothy Warrick, Dante Pavone
John W. Mosley, photographer
Photo reproduced with permission of the
Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection
with visitors
John W. Mosley, photographer
Photo reproduced with permission of the
Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection
John W. Mosley, photographer
Photo reproduced with permission of the
Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection
with visitors
John W. Mosley, photographer
Photo reproduced with permission of the
Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection
For more information about the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, contact Ms. Willis-Lowry at 215-204-5379.
Les Amis de Beauford Delaney and Reid Hall are partnering to bring an exhibition of original Beauford Delaney works to Reid Hall in Paris in February 2016! To sign-up to receive information about this show, click HERE.
Beauford's Jazz Club Featured in "Night Vision" Exhibition at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art
Beauford's untitled painting known as Jazz Club has an impressive exhibition and publication history:
Untitled (Jazz Club)
(c.1950) Oil on canvas
28" x 36"
signed lower left: Beauford Delaney
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It appears (in black and white) on page 104 of David Leeming's biography of Beauford called Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney.
Ann E. Gibson refers to it as she discusses Beauford's use of color when representing people in paintings from his "New York years" in her essay entitled “Gay and Black in Greenwich Village: Beauford Delaney’s Idylls of Integration.” This was published in the catalog for the Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris exhibition mounted by the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Jazz Club is included as a color figure (Figure 24) on page 24 of the catalog.
The Michael Rosenfeld Gallery exhibited the painting in the RISING UP / UPRISING: Twentieth Century African American Art in New York in the spring of 2014.
And now, Jazz Club (on loan from the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery) is one of the paintings selected for display in the Night Vision: Nocturnes in American Art, 1860-1960 exhibition at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art*:
Jazz Club is presented in the Night Visions catalog as Plate 73 on page 127. It comprises the entire back cover of the catalog as well.
This work is mentioned in the press about the exhibition:
Night Vision: Nocturnes in American Art, 1860-1960 runs through October 18, 2015. For more information about the exhibition, click HERE.
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
9400 College Station
Brunswick ME, 04011
Telephone: 207-725-3275
*The Bowdoin College Museum of Art holds a Beauford Delaney abstract that is not currently on display.
************
Les Amis de Beauford Delaney and Reid Hall are partnering to bring an exhibition of original Beauford Delaney works to Reid Hall in Paris in February 2016! To sign-up to receive information about this show, click HERE.
(c.1950) Oil on canvas
28" x 36"
signed lower left: Beauford Delaney
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It appears (in black and white) on page 104 of David Leeming's biography of Beauford called Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney.
Ann E. Gibson refers to it as she discusses Beauford's use of color when representing people in paintings from his "New York years" in her essay entitled “Gay and Black in Greenwich Village: Beauford Delaney’s Idylls of Integration.” This was published in the catalog for the Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris exhibition mounted by the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Jazz Club is included as a color figure (Figure 24) on page 24 of the catalog.
The Michael Rosenfeld Gallery exhibited the painting in the RISING UP / UPRISING: Twentieth Century African American Art in New York in the spring of 2014.
And now, Jazz Club (on loan from the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery) is one of the paintings selected for display in the Night Vision: Nocturnes in American Art, 1860-1960 exhibition at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art*:
This is the first major museum survey dedicated to scenes of the night in American art from 1860 to 1960 — an era not yet illuminated by electricity to the beginning of the Space Age. Night Vision: Nocturnes in American Art brings together 90 works in a range of media—including paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs...
-- Bowdoin College Museum of Art
Jazz Club is presented in the Night Visions catalog as Plate 73 on page 127. It comprises the entire back cover of the catalog as well.
This work is mentioned in the press about the exhibition:
- Bowdoin's own story about the show was picked up by ARTFIX daily.
- Bangor Daily News' Café des Artistes article leads with a large image of the painting.
- And Art and Antiques Magazine mentions it and a second painting by Beauford (another untitled work from Beauford's New York years (1944), known as Night Scene) in its write up about the show.
Night Vision: Nocturnes in American Art, 1860-1960 runs through October 18, 2015. For more information about the exhibition, click HERE.
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
9400 College Station
Brunswick ME, 04011
Telephone: 207-725-3275
*The Bowdoin College Museum of Art holds a Beauford Delaney abstract that is not currently on display.
Les Amis de Beauford Delaney and Reid Hall are partnering to bring an exhibition of original Beauford Delaney works to Reid Hall in Paris in February 2016! To sign-up to receive information about this show, click HERE.
Beauford Delaney Works Sold at Case Antiques Auctions
A couple of weeks ago, I reported on the auctioning of three Beauford Delaney works by Case Antiques Auctions & Appraisals of Knoxville, Tennessee on July 18, 2015. One of them - the 1971 landscape watercolor on paper - was sold.
Watercolor on paper
Signed and dated lower left in red ink, "Beauford Delaney 1971"
Photo courtesy of Case Antiques
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The low estimate set for this painting was $2,500.00 and the high estimate was $3,500.00. It sold for $3,186.00*.
The other two paintings from the July auction remain unsold.
Case Antiques sold two Beauford Delaney works at auction in January 2015.
One was a portrait of Beauford's mother, Delia, which Beauford executed from memory in 1964. (Delia Delaney died in 1958.) It was shown in the Studio Museum in Harlem retrospective of Beauford's work in 1978.
(1964) Oil on canvas
Photo courtesy of Case Antiques
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
This painting sold for $48,380.00*, an amount that far exceeded the high estimate of $14,000.00.
The other was an untitled abstract of a human face. Remarkably, Beauford's paint cloth and paint stick - both of which have paint residue similar to the paints used for this abstract - were offered for sale with the work.
Oil on fabric pillowcase
Photo courtesy of Case Antiques
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
From the Case Antiques Web site:
Beauford Delaney's departure from New York to Paris in 1953 also marked the transition from figurative compositions to abstract expressionism with a focus on color and light. Strapped with financial challenges in his early Paris years, he was believed to have painted on other found objects if canvas was not available. An example of one of his earliest known dated abstracts is an untitled oil on a raincoat fragment from 1954. This work serves as the cover for Sue Canterbury's book, "Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris", Minneapolis Institute of Art, 2004. Sue Canterbury, Associate Curator of the Dallas Museum of Art, and Stephen Wicks, Curator of the Knoxville Museum of Art, were able to inspect this work when Ms. Canterbury gave her September 2014 lecture on Beauford Delaney in Knoxville. This Beauford Delaney abstract is only the second documented example of his work using canvas available from household objects.
The "pillowcase" abstract, along with the paint cloth and paint stick, sold for $24,180*. The high estimate for this painting was set at $7,000.00.
To see images of the details of the works shown above, click on the hyperlink in the caption of each image.
For more information about the Beauford Delaney paintings (sold and unsold) at Case Antiques, contact:
Sarah Campbell Drury
Vice President of Decorative Arts
Case Antiques, Inc.
Accredited Member of the International Society of Appraisers (ISA)
Telephone: 615-812-6096
*The prices indicated include an 18% buyer's premium. In auctions, the buyer's premium is a percentage additional charge on the hammer price (winning bid at auction) of the purchased item that must be paid by the winner. It is charged by the auctioneer to cover administrative expenses. The buyer's premium goes directly to the auction house and not to the seller.
Case Antiques Opens Bidding on Three Beauford Delaney Works
On behalf of the Beauford Delaney estate, Case Antiques Auctions & Appraisals of Knoxville, Tennessee has placed three Beauford Delaney works - two watercolors and a lithograph - up for sale in its Summer Fine Art & Antiques auction. Online bidding is now open (see hyperlinks below).
All of the paintings are abstract and date from Beauford's Paris years.
One of the watercolors is painted on both sides of the paper.
Watercolor and gouache on paper (recto)
Signed and dated lower right in black ink, "Beauford Delaney 61"
Photo courtesy of Case Antiques
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Watercolor on paper (verso)
Photo courtesy of Case Antiques
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The front of the painting is dated 1961, which is the last year that Beauford lived in Clamart.
The second watercolor depicts a landscape of meadows and trees in colors of aqua, yellow, orange, greens, blues, brown and black. Beauford may have painted it during his 1971 visit to James Baldwin at Saint-Paul-de-Vence.
Watercolor on paper
Signed and dated lower left in red ink, "Beauford Delaney 1971"
Photo courtesy of Case Antiques
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The lithograph consists of light blue, pink, and green swirl pigments on paper. Case Antiques is calling this an "Afrique Lithography."
(ca 1963) Pigments on paper
Photo courtesy of Case Antiques
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Given the approximate date of this work (1963), Beauford likely painted it at his studio at rue Vercingétorix.
The Summer Fine Art & Antiques auction will take place on July 18, 2015.
For more information, contact:
Sarah Campbell Drury
Vice President of Decorative Arts
Case Antiques, Inc.
Accredited Member of the International Society of Appraisers (ISA)
Telephone: 615-812-6096
Beauford on Google
From time to time, I "Google" Beauford's name and click on various Web links to see what information is available about him online.
During my most recent search, I found several sites that have posted images of singular abstract works. Click on the links beneath the images below to visit three of these sites, two of which have posted articles about Beauford.
Portrait of a Man
(Undated) Oil on Canvas
The Johnson Collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Untitled (abstract green drip)
(1958) Gouache on paper
DCMoore Gallery
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Untitled, Paris 1953
Watercolor on paper
Mark Borghi Fine Arts
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
During my most recent search, I found several sites that have posted images of singular abstract works. Click on the links beneath the images below to visit three of these sites, two of which have posted articles about Beauford.
(Undated) Oil on Canvas
The Johnson Collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1958) Gouache on paper
DCMoore Gallery
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Watercolor on paper
Mark Borghi Fine Arts
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford's Self-portrait on the Cover of JAMA
In a recent Internet search on Beauford, I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of my favorite self-portraits of him graced the cover of the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)*.
Self-portrait
(1944) Oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The following is the abstract of the article about the portrait, written by Thomas B. Cole, M. D., M. P. H.
The two-page article presents a synopsis of Beauford's life, including an intriguing comment in the second paragraph that speculates on the relationship of this self-portrait to the Bible's Sermon on the Mount.
What I found most interesting is the fact that JAMA started publishing full color images of art on its cover, accompanied by essays in the pages of the journal, in 1964. In an editorial article on his Web site called "JAMA is Redesigned, Art is Demoted," Dr. Jeffrey Levine states that this was
Levine goes on to lament the fact that JAMA redesigned its cover in 2013, excluding art from that point forward.
*JAMA. 2013;310(7):668-669
(1944) Oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The following is the abstract of the article about the portrait, written by Thomas B. Cole, M. D., M. P. H.
The skin tone of Beauford Delaney’s (1901-1979) Self-portrait is a blend of white, purple, blue, and taupe, with highlights of avocado green to match the background, and he is posed in a three-quarter turn to the right with a sidelong glance at the mirror (or at the viewer, depending on one’s perspective). His eyes convey different moods: the left eyebrow is raised in an expression of alarm, but the lens of the right eye is a ghostly white. A self-portrait invites speculation about the artist’s state of mind as well as his technique. Sometimes the state of mind of an artist is irrelevant—most of the self-portraits of Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh were probably made to try out new painting methods—but the life story of Beauford Delaney suggests he may be saying something in this portrait about his inner struggles.
The two-page article presents a synopsis of Beauford's life, including an intriguing comment in the second paragraph that speculates on the relationship of this self-portrait to the Bible's Sermon on the Mount.
What I found most interesting is the fact that JAMA started publishing full color images of art on its cover, accompanied by essays in the pages of the journal, in 1964. In an editorial article on his Web site called "JAMA is Redesigned, Art is Demoted," Dr. Jeffrey Levine states that this was
part of an initiative to inform readers about nonclinical aspects of medicine and public health, and emphasize the humanities in medicine.
Levine goes on to lament the fact that JAMA redesigned its cover in 2013, excluding art from that point forward.
*JAMA. 2013;310(7):668-669
Self-portrait (1962) at the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum
The Detroit Institute of Arts Museum (DIA) owns a single Beauford Delaney painting - a magnificent self-portrait dated 1962.
Self-portrait (1962)
Oil on canvas
23" x 19"
Detroit Institute of Arts Museum
Image courtesy of Michele L. Simms-Burton
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
I contacted DIA to inquire about the painting and spoke with Iva Lisikewycz, Manager of Curatorial Affairs. She told me that the portrait was acquired by the museum from the Darthea Speyer Gallery in 1992 (Accession number - 1992.214) with funds from the DIA Founders Society. Darthea Speyer selected this self-portrait as the image for the invitation card that she created to announce the one-man show of Beauford's work that she mounted in 1992.
Invitation card for 1992 exhibit at Galerie Darthea Speyer
Image courtesy of Galerie Darthea Speyer
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The following is the description that the museum has on file for the painting:
Regarding the exhibition history of this portrait, the only record that DIA has pertains to the exposition entitled Beauford Delaney: The Color Yellow, organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA and shown from February 2002 - May 2003. DIA lists the venues and dates for the exposition as follows:
In 2013, Christie's appraised numerous works held by DIA; Beauford's self-portrait was among them. Christie's valued it at between $25K and $35K.
Christie's appraisal of Beauford's Self-portrait at DIA
The portrait is part of the African-American collection embedded within the Contemporary and Modern Art collection at DIA. It currently hangs in Gallery N 286.
Oil on canvas
23" x 19"
Detroit Institute of Arts Museum
Image courtesy of Michele L. Simms-Burton
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
I contacted DIA to inquire about the painting and spoke with Iva Lisikewycz, Manager of Curatorial Affairs. She told me that the portrait was acquired by the museum from the Darthea Speyer Gallery in 1992 (Accession number - 1992.214) with funds from the DIA Founders Society. Darthea Speyer selected this self-portrait as the image for the invitation card that she created to announce the one-man show of Beauford's work that she mounted in 1992.
Image courtesy of Galerie Darthea Speyer
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The following is the description that the museum has on file for the painting:
Self-portrait of an African-American male in three-quarter view. Ochre sweater and turtleneck on bright yellow background.
Regarding the exhibition history of this portrait, the only record that DIA has pertains to the exposition entitled Beauford Delaney: The Color Yellow, organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA and shown from February 2002 - May 2003. DIA lists the venues and dates for the exposition as follows:
- High Museum (February 9 - May 5, 2002)
- Studio Museum in Harlem (July 10 - September 15, 2002)
- Anacostia Museum and Center for African-American History and Culture of Smithsonian Institution (October 11, 2002 - January 4, 2003)
- Fogg Museum of Harvard University (February 15 - May 4, 2003)
In 2013, Christie's appraised numerous works held by DIA; Beauford's self-portrait was among them. Christie's valued it at between $25K and $35K.
The portrait is part of the African-American collection embedded within the Contemporary and Modern Art collection at DIA. It currently hangs in Gallery N 286.
Flier for Beauford's First One-man Show
On the heels of a successful show at the Whitney Studio Galleries in New York in February - March 1930, the New York Public Library invited Beauford to do a one-man show at their Harlem branch (now the Schomburg Center) in May 1930. It was to be his first one-man show.
The flier below served as an announcement of the show.
Image for flier from W. E. B. Du Bois papers - U Mass Amherst
Charcoal of a Black Woman (1929)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It is a beautiful piece of Beauford Delaney memorabilia!
The charcoal sketch in the upper right corner of the flier was sold by Clarke Auction Gallery for $6452.50 in 2008. I do not know if it represents Portrait of a Woman or Harlem Chore Woman from the list of charcoals on the flier.
The flier below served as an announcement of the show.
Charcoal of a Black Woman (1929)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It is a beautiful piece of Beauford Delaney memorabilia!
The charcoal sketch in the upper right corner of the flier was sold by Clarke Auction Gallery for $6452.50 in 2008. I do not know if it represents Portrait of a Woman or Harlem Chore Woman from the list of charcoals on the flier.
Beauford's Solo Show at the Paul Facchetti Gallery
Last week's post about the Beauford Delaney memorabilia that Dr. William Dodd is collecting in Philadelphia reminded me that I've wanted to publish an article about the one-man show that Paul Facchetti mounted for Beauford in June 1960.
Beauford's relationship with the Facchettis began in the fall of 1956. They included his work in group shows and bought several works from Beauford between that time and the one-man exposition in June 1960. The show was originally to have been held in May, but delays with the catalog forced postponement until June.
The vernissage (opening) was held on June 21, 1960. Biographer David A. Leeming describes the event in Amazing Grace as follows:
Alvard's introduction was highly poetic, referring to Beauford's paintings as "solar" or "cosmic" and stating that Beauford had never given his talent such free rein. Alvard said that radiance, which was in principle, external, had become the essence of Beauford's work.
Beauford at the Paul Facchetti Gallery
© Paul Facchetti
All of the works at this show were abstractions, and reds and yellows were the dominant colors used. The painting shown below appears on the wall at the right of the photo of Beauford at the Facchetti Gallery (above).
Untitled
(1960) Oil on canvas
36" x 24 1/2"
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford met Professor Ahmed Bioud at this show. He and Beauford became very close and Beauford spent much time with Bioud and his family. The Biouds would take Beauford into their home when Beauford was recovering from his 1961 breakdown and suicide attempt. Beauford would later capture Bioud's likeness in at least two portraits.
Ahmed Bioud, 1964
Oil on canvas
39 1/4" x 32", signed
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York , NY
Though the exhibition was well received, Leeming reports that only two small paintings were sold. Therefore, the Facchettis arranged with Beauford to buy several additional paintings and pay him a monthly allowance for the work.
Beauford's relationship with the Facchettis began in the fall of 1956. They included his work in group shows and bought several works from Beauford between that time and the one-man exposition in June 1960. The show was originally to have been held in May, but delays with the catalog forced postponement until June.
The vernissage (opening) was held on June 21, 1960. Biographer David A. Leeming describes the event in Amazing Grace as follows:
The party was a celebration of Beauford. His Paris friends were there, and a particularly warm joint letter arrived from James Baldwin, Mary Painter, Ellis Wilson, and Palmer Hayden, who were all in New York at the time. Henry Miller wrote an encouraging letter too, as did Brother Joe [Beauford's brother, Joseph Delaney] and many old New York friends. The catalogue included a long excerpt from the Henry Miller article and a short introduction by Julian Alvard, who noted the uniqueness of Delaney's work and admired the ways in which the planes of his paintings appeared in unexpected ways...
Alvard's introduction was highly poetic, referring to Beauford's paintings as "solar" or "cosmic" and stating that Beauford had never given his talent such free rein. Alvard said that radiance, which was in principle, external, had become the essence of Beauford's work.
© Paul Facchetti
All of the works at this show were abstractions, and reds and yellows were the dominant colors used. The painting shown below appears on the wall at the right of the photo of Beauford at the Facchetti Gallery (above).
(1960) Oil on canvas
36" x 24 1/2"
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford met Professor Ahmed Bioud at this show. He and Beauford became very close and Beauford spent much time with Bioud and his family. The Biouds would take Beauford into their home when Beauford was recovering from his 1961 breakdown and suicide attempt. Beauford would later capture Bioud's likeness in at least two portraits.
Oil on canvas
39 1/4" x 32", signed
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York , NY
Though the exhibition was well received, Leeming reports that only two small paintings were sold. Therefore, the Facchettis arranged with Beauford to buy several additional paintings and pay him a monthly allowance for the work.
Live Ideas: Baldwin and Delaney
Professor Rachel Cohen of Sarah Lawrence College provided a wonderful tribute to Beauford for the Les Amis blog in anticipation of moderating a discussion about Beauford and James Baldwin that was scheduled for the New York Live Arts Festival in April 2014.
The video of this session is now on YouTube:
Live Ideas: Baldwin and Delaney
It is an hour and 28 minutes long.
Joining Cohen on stage at the Festival were David A. Leeming, biographer of Beauford and James Baldwin, and Diedra Harris-Kelley, co-director of the Romare Bearden Foundation.
Screenshot from Live Ideas: Baldwin and Delaney video
From left to right: Diedra Harris-Kelley, David A. Leeming, and Rachel Cohen
Below are several highlights of the session that I found to be of particular interest:
Portrait of James Baldwin
(1965) Oil on canvas
25.5 x 21.25 inches
Signed and dated lower left
Image courtesy of Levis Fine Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Dark Rapture
(1941) Oil on canvas
Private collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The video of this session is now on YouTube:
Live Ideas: Baldwin and Delaney
It is an hour and 28 minutes long.
Joining Cohen on stage at the Festival were David A. Leeming, biographer of Beauford and James Baldwin, and Diedra Harris-Kelley, co-director of the Romare Bearden Foundation.
From left to right: Diedra Harris-Kelley, David A. Leeming, and Rachel Cohen
Below are several highlights of the session that I found to be of particular interest:
- "Painterly" discussion of Beauford's work by Diedra Harris-Kelley: 14:00 minutes
- David A. Leeming discusses Beauford's life in New York: 21:20 minutes
- Rare footage of a round-table discussion with James Baldwin, Alvin Ailey, Albert Murray, and Romare Bearden about Paris: 35:50 minutes
- Diedra Harris-Kelley describes one of Beauford's portraits of James Baldwin: 41:00 minutes
(1965) Oil on canvas
25.5 x 21.25 inches
Signed and dated lower left
Image courtesy of Levis Fine Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
- Diedra Harris-Kelley describes the color "yellow" from a painter's point of view: 43:35 minutes
- Diedra Harris-Kelley discusses Beauford's "back and forth" between figurative and abstract works: 47:30 minutes
- David A. Leeming discusses the impetus behind Beauford's Rosa Parks series: 51:05 minutes
- David A. Leeming reads the story of his first encounter with Beauford: 53:58 minutes
- Diedra Harris-Kelley responds to a question about Beauford's relationship with the New York School of Modernism: 1:05:48 minutes
- David A. Leeming tells a story about Dark Rapture: 1:10:20 minutes
(1941) Oil on canvas
Private collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford in Red
The commemorative plaques that will honor Beauford at two locations in Montparnasse will be lettered in red.
As Les Amis prepares for the installation, I thought it appropriate to post images of several works in which Beauford favored the color red.
Abstract in Orange and Red
(1963) Gouache on wove paper
Image courtesy of Levis Fine Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The Sage Black
(1967) Oil on canvas
Private collection
Image from Artsmia Web site
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Abstraction #12
(1963) Oil on canvas
Image courtesy of Levis Fine Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Self-portrait (detail)
(1944) Oil on Canvas
Art Institute of Chicago - Gallery 262
Image courtesy of Tim Paulson
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Untitled
(1963) Aquarelle on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image © Discover Paris!
More news about the installation is coming soon. Stay tuned!
As Les Amis prepares for the installation, I thought it appropriate to post images of several works in which Beauford favored the color red.
(1963) Gouache on wove paper
Image courtesy of Levis Fine Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1967) Oil on canvas
Private collection
Image from Artsmia Web site
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1963) Oil on canvas
Image courtesy of Levis Fine Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1944) Oil on Canvas
Art Institute of Chicago - Gallery 262
Image courtesy of Tim Paulson
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1963) Aquarelle on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image © Discover Paris!
More news about the installation is coming soon. Stay tuned!
New Beauford Delaney Watercolors at Knoxville Museum of Art
On March 14, 2015, I published an article that describes three Beauford Delaney watercolors that are currently on display at the Knoxville Museum of Art.
See them presented by the museum's curator, Stephen C. Wicks, in this 2:38-minute video:
See them presented by the museum's curator, Stephen C. Wicks, in this 2:38-minute video:
Ascension: A Century of African-American Art at Swann Auction Galleries
Once again, Swann Auction Galleries will make Beauford Delaney works available for purchase during an African-American Art sale. This spring's auction is called "Ascension: A Century of African-American Art." It will be held on Thursday, April 2 at 2:30 PM.
Three Beauford Delaney paintings will be auctioned at this event. Two are portraits and one is an abstract expressionist work.
Untitled (Abstraction in Green)
(1961) Oil on linen canvas
410x275 mm; 16x10 inches
Signed in oil, lower right recto. Dated in oil, lower left recto.
Signed, dated and inscribed "Clamart, Seine" in oil, verso.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Provenance: gift from from the artist; Don Fink, Paris, thence by descent to his estate; private collection, Paris.
Don Fink was an expatriate artist living in Paris who became part of Beauford Delaney's circle of friends soon after his arrival in Paris in 1953. They showed together in 1956 at Galerie Arnaud in a group exhibition of abstract American painters.
Swann's catalog describes this painting as "a radiant example of Delaney's mid-career abstraction in a warm, yellowish green." Its estimated value is $30,000 to $40,000.
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Untitled (Portrait of a Young Man)
(circa 1930-35) Color pastels and charcoal on gray, textured wove paper
597x445 mm; 23x17½ inches
Signed in charcoal, lower left
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist's brother Joseph Delaney; private collection.
The auction catalog qualifies this portrait as "sensitive" and indicates that it was likely created by Beauford soon after he moved to New York. He may have painted it to show at his first solo exhibition, Exhibit of Portrait Sketches by Beauford Delaney, which was held at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library in 1930. The show consisted of five pastel and 10 charcoal portraits.
The estimated value of Untitled (Portrait of a Young Man) is $6,000 to $9,000.
Spanish Youth
(1967-68) Oil on linen canvas
610x457 mm; 24x18 inches.
Signed and dated in oil, lower right.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist; Richard A. Long, Atlanta; thence by descent to his estate.
This painting dates over ten years after Beauford visited Spain with his friend Larry Calcagno in August 1956. The two men visited mutual friend Jim LeGros in Ibiza and were joined by James Baldwin, Baldwin's friend Arnold, and Leslie Schenk. They later traveled to Majorca.
The estimated value of this work is $5,000 to $7,000.
To find out about the buying process, visit the following page on the gallery’s Web site: http://www.swanngalleries.com/auctions/buying/.
For more information about this auction, contact Imani Higginson at .
Three Beauford Delaney paintings will be auctioned at this event. Two are portraits and one is an abstract expressionist work.
(1961) Oil on linen canvas
410x275 mm; 16x10 inches
Signed in oil, lower right recto. Dated in oil, lower left recto.
Signed, dated and inscribed "Clamart, Seine" in oil, verso.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Provenance: gift from from the artist; Don Fink, Paris, thence by descent to his estate; private collection, Paris.
Don Fink was an expatriate artist living in Paris who became part of Beauford Delaney's circle of friends soon after his arrival in Paris in 1953. They showed together in 1956 at Galerie Arnaud in a group exhibition of abstract American painters.
Swann's catalog describes this painting as "a radiant example of Delaney's mid-career abstraction in a warm, yellowish green." Its estimated value is $30,000 to $40,000.
%2BApril%2B2015_est%2B%246K-%249K.jpg)
(circa 1930-35) Color pastels and charcoal on gray, textured wove paper
597x445 mm; 23x17½ inches
Signed in charcoal, lower left
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist's brother Joseph Delaney; private collection.
The auction catalog qualifies this portrait as "sensitive" and indicates that it was likely created by Beauford soon after he moved to New York. He may have painted it to show at his first solo exhibition, Exhibit of Portrait Sketches by Beauford Delaney, which was held at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library in 1930. The show consisted of five pastel and 10 charcoal portraits.
The estimated value of Untitled (Portrait of a Young Man) is $6,000 to $9,000.
(1967-68) Oil on linen canvas
610x457 mm; 24x18 inches.
Signed and dated in oil, lower right.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist; Richard A. Long, Atlanta; thence by descent to his estate.
This painting dates over ten years after Beauford visited Spain with his friend Larry Calcagno in August 1956. The two men visited mutual friend Jim LeGros in Ibiza and were joined by James Baldwin, Baldwin's friend Arnold, and Leslie Schenk. They later traveled to Majorca.
The estimated value of this work is $5,000 to $7,000.
To find out about the buying process, visit the following page on the gallery’s Web site: http://www.swanngalleries.com/auctions/buying/.
For more information about this auction, contact Imani Higginson at .
Walker Art Center in Minneapolis Acquires a Beauford Delaney Painting
Thanks to Milo Bosh of BlackArtistNews.com, I learned of the recent acquisition of a Beauford Delaney painting by Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Walker associate curator Eric Crosby granted Les Amis the following interview about the painting.
(circa 1970) Oil on canvas
Collection Walker Art Center
Gift of the Kunin Family, 2014
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Les Amis: How long has Walker Art Center been "in the market" for a Beauford Delaney painting?
Eric Crosby: This is the first work by Beauford Delaney to enter the permanent collection of the Walker Art Center, and it has come to us as a very generous gift of the Kunin Family. The piece, which is an untitled painting from circa 1970, fills a significant gap in the institution’s painting collection. Past curators at the Walker as well as those currently on staff have been familiar with Delaney’s work for a long time, and this has been a rare acquisition opportunity indeed!
Les Amis: What are the other abstract expressionist works in the collection with which Beauford's work dovetails?
Eric Crosby: As an excellent example of the artist’s abstract expressionist work, it dovetails beautifully with a number of key abstract expressionist paintings already in the collection. Among them are Barnett Newman’s The Third (1962), Mark Rothko’s No. 2 (1963), Robert Motherwell’s Untitled (Iberia)(1958), Clyfford Still’s untitled (1950-C) (1950), Joan Mitchell’s Painting 1953 (1953), and many others. This important Delaney canvas will certainly become a mainstay of our future collection installations, especially those that seek to contextualize mid-century abstraction.
Les Amis: What is the provenance of the painting prior to being added to the Regis collection?
Eric Crosby: Our current understanding of the painting’s ownership history is as follows:
- Estate of the artist, Paris, France
- Joseph Delaney, Knoxville, TN
- The Delaney Estate, Knoxville, TN
- Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, NYC
- Myron Kunin Collection, Minneapolis
- Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Eric Crosby: We are always looking to expand the Walker’s holdings of works by artists collected in depth. Since this is the first work by Beauford Delaney to enter the collection, we look forward to researching the painting and exploring opportunities to contextualize it further. This canvas represents just one facet of this influential painter’s decades of work.
Les Amis: Is the painting currently on display? If so, in which room?
Eric Crosby: Yes, the work is currently on view through August 2 in the 75 Gifts for 75 Years exhibition in the Target and Friedman Galleries.
More on the Knoxville Museum of Art Acquisition of Beauford Delaney Paintings
As a follow-up to the Les Amis blog post entitled Knoxville Museum of Art Acquires Beauford Delaney Paintings, Stephen C. Wicks - Barbara W. and Bernard E. Bernstein Curator at the Knoxville Museum of Art in Beauford's hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee - shares comments about the museum's recent acquisition of several Beauford Delaney paintings and drawings. The number of works acquired has now grown to thirty-seven (37)!
Watercolors make up one of the largest portion of works in the Beauford Delaney estate. I went through the entire contents and selected a group of works on paper that I thought best captured the range of Beauford’s artistic experimentation over a broad span of his career. Of the works on paper we purchased, three are featured in Higher Ground1.
Untitled, circa 1945 is a city scene in which the artist has distilled his surroundings into a series of flat geometric shapes rendered in radiant colors. The halos around the street lights suggest it is evening, but the glowing scene appears devoid of any trace of shadow.
Watercolor on paper
15 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches
Purchased with funds provided by the KMA’s Collectors Circle2, 2014
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Untitled (Clamart), 1959 is a fiery composition built of multiple layers of watercolor, gouache, and faint areas of chalk. It appears to radiate heat, as if you are descending into the heart of the sun. I think it’s one of the most exciting abstractions I’ve ever seen, and it possesses a depth and complexity that can only be appreciated by direct viewing. Interestingly, I came across an upside-down signature along the top margin with a notation “Clamart 1958”, which suggests that Delaney originally oriented the painting so that the dark orange portion was at the bottom. He later signed and dated it at the other end “Beauford Delaney 1959."
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Watercolor and gouache on paper
24 1/2 x 18 inches
Purchased with funds provided by the KMA’s Collectors Circle2, 2014
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Watercolor and gouache on paper
24 1/2 x 18 inches
Purchased with funds provided by the KMA’s Collectors Circle2, 2014
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Untitled, 1960 features swirling watercolor marks rendered in a broad range of colors laid out in a square area on a rectangular piece of paper. I’m used to seeing the artist use every inch of his surface, and so this work struck me as interesting and unusual for the fact that he chose this compositional approach. We purchased this work from the estate thanks to funds provided by distinguished collectors Brenda and Larry Thompson.
Watercolor on paper
26 x 19 3/4 inches
Purchased with funds provided by Brenda and Larry Thompson, 2014
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
1The Knoxville Museum of Art’s exhibition Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in East Tennessee is a permanent installation that traces the development of fine art and craft in the region and the surrounding area over the past century. It tells the largely unknown story of the area’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 several regional museums and private collections.
2KMA Collectors Circle is a special membership group that supports the museum’s efforts to acquire works of art.
Brooklyn Museum Acquires a Beauford Delaney Painting
Les Amis is pleased to report the acquisition of one of Beauford's paintings by the Brooklyn Museum! The museum purchased the work from the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery. I present excerpts from the museum's press release, dated January 2015, below.
The Brooklyn Museum has purchased a powerful painting by the twentieth-century African American modernist artist Beauford Delaney. Untitled (Fang, Crow, and Fruit) resonates deeply with other major mid-century American works in the collection by artists including Stuart Davis and Marsden Hartley, and significantly advances the Museum’s recent focus on acquiring works by African American artists that derive formal or thematic inspiration from traditional African art.
Untitled (Fang, Crow and Fruit)
(1945) Oil on canvas
25 x 30 in. (63.5 x 76.2 cm)
Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art, A. Augustus Healy Fund, and Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund , 2014.73.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esq., Court Appointed Administrator
The acquisition marks the fifth anniversary of the Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art, a collecting initiative focusing on works by African American artists created before the mid-twentieth century.
Untitled (Fang, Crow, and Fruit) dates from Delaney’s last decade in New York (before he immigrated to France, his place of residence from 1953 until his death in 1979), when his style evolved from a broad naturalism to a distinctly more commanding expressionism. He was at work in an unheated Greene Street loft at the time, and he had developed a close friendship with the writer James Baldwin, for whom he was a deeply influential early mentor. Both were seeking empowerment as black artists and gay men. Inspired and sustained artistically by a connection to African culture and art, they found support in the writings of Alain Locke, who from the mid-1920s had encouraged young black artists to derive formal inspiration from African sculpture as European modernists had done. They were attentive to Locke’s altered message of the late 1930s, when he urged artists to seek a more direct relationship with their African ancestry and identity by understanding the long-held centrality of art in African life.
In Untitled (Fang, Crow, and Fruit), Delaney arranged the composition as if representing an offering—the bowl of brilliant-yellow fruit—placed before a Fang reliquary figure from Cameroon that was in fact a well-known object that had been published in an important German volume, Negerplastik, in 1920. A bird, perhaps a spirit symbol, hovers over the fruit, while the black calligraphic forms in the background may suggest a shelter and tree in an African setting. The power of this work grows from the electric intensity of Delaney’s palette and the vibration of forms deriving from his highly animated brushwork. The bowl almost appears to spin, and the figure—suggested with deft marks—to rock.
Delaney’s very thick and lively application of paint was influenced by his interactions with Stuart Davis, with whom he had developed a close friendship and shared equal passions for painting and new jazz. Davis’s own more decoratively abstracted compositions would exert an even greater influence on Delaney’s increasingly flattened designs from 1946 until 1953. Marsden Hartley’s paintings, which were showcased in a large exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in the winter of 1944/45, are certain to have been influential on Delaney’s expressionist facture and iconic subject matter as well.
In addition to resonating with important works of American modernism in Brooklyn’s collection, Untitled (Fang, Crow, and Fruit) further strengthens the Museum’s ability to represent the vital dialogue in which African American artists engaged with traditional African art.
Brooklyn Museum
The painting’s original owner was Emanuel Redfield, a noted civil liberties attorney and counsel to the New York chapter of the Artists Equity Association. Delaney may have presented Redfield with the work as a form of payment as early as 1945, the year of its completion, when Redfield’s services were engaged to challenge a landlord who had denied access to apartments on St. Mark’s Place that [James] Baldwin and their circle of friends had planned to use as a shared living and studio space.
With the purchase of Beauford Delaney’s Untitled (Fang, Crow, and Fruit), a complex and vivid narrative enters the orbit of the Brooklyn Museum’s American Identities galleries, where it will go on view in February 2015. Joining important works on view by Eldzier Cortor, Sargent Johnson, and John Biggers, this painting will allow a deeper exploration of how references to African forms and themes in these works enacted a claiming of heritage and identity, in contrast to the references to African art in Eurocentric modernist works that embody distance, difference, and the “other.” The painting additionally offers a fresh opportunity to study the exposure of African art in New York during the interwar years, particularly in the context of the Museum’s important African holdings and their exhibition from the 1920s forward.
The work was acquired for the Brooklyn Museum by Dr. Teresa A. Carbone, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, who has played a leadership role in the creation of the African American purchase fund. The purchase was also made possible by A. Augustus Healy Fund and Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund.
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11238-6052
Telephone: (718) 638-5000
Fax: (718) 501-6134
www.brooklynmuseum.org
The Brooklyn Museum has purchased a powerful painting by the twentieth-century African American modernist artist Beauford Delaney. Untitled (Fang, Crow, and Fruit) resonates deeply with other major mid-century American works in the collection by artists including Stuart Davis and Marsden Hartley, and significantly advances the Museum’s recent focus on acquiring works by African American artists that derive formal or thematic inspiration from traditional African art.
(1945) Oil on canvas
25 x 30 in. (63.5 x 76.2 cm)
Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art, A. Augustus Healy Fund, and Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund , 2014.73.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esq., Court Appointed Administrator
The acquisition marks the fifth anniversary of the Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art, a collecting initiative focusing on works by African American artists created before the mid-twentieth century.
Untitled (Fang, Crow, and Fruit) dates from Delaney’s last decade in New York (before he immigrated to France, his place of residence from 1953 until his death in 1979), when his style evolved from a broad naturalism to a distinctly more commanding expressionism. He was at work in an unheated Greene Street loft at the time, and he had developed a close friendship with the writer James Baldwin, for whom he was a deeply influential early mentor. Both were seeking empowerment as black artists and gay men. Inspired and sustained artistically by a connection to African culture and art, they found support in the writings of Alain Locke, who from the mid-1920s had encouraged young black artists to derive formal inspiration from African sculpture as European modernists had done. They were attentive to Locke’s altered message of the late 1930s, when he urged artists to seek a more direct relationship with their African ancestry and identity by understanding the long-held centrality of art in African life.
In Untitled (Fang, Crow, and Fruit), Delaney arranged the composition as if representing an offering—the bowl of brilliant-yellow fruit—placed before a Fang reliquary figure from Cameroon that was in fact a well-known object that had been published in an important German volume, Negerplastik, in 1920. A bird, perhaps a spirit symbol, hovers over the fruit, while the black calligraphic forms in the background may suggest a shelter and tree in an African setting. The power of this work grows from the electric intensity of Delaney’s palette and the vibration of forms deriving from his highly animated brushwork. The bowl almost appears to spin, and the figure—suggested with deft marks—to rock.
Delaney’s very thick and lively application of paint was influenced by his interactions with Stuart Davis, with whom he had developed a close friendship and shared equal passions for painting and new jazz. Davis’s own more decoratively abstracted compositions would exert an even greater influence on Delaney’s increasingly flattened designs from 1946 until 1953. Marsden Hartley’s paintings, which were showcased in a large exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in the winter of 1944/45, are certain to have been influential on Delaney’s expressionist facture and iconic subject matter as well.
In addition to resonating with important works of American modernism in Brooklyn’s collection, Untitled (Fang, Crow, and Fruit) further strengthens the Museum’s ability to represent the vital dialogue in which African American artists engaged with traditional African art.
The painting’s original owner was Emanuel Redfield, a noted civil liberties attorney and counsel to the New York chapter of the Artists Equity Association. Delaney may have presented Redfield with the work as a form of payment as early as 1945, the year of its completion, when Redfield’s services were engaged to challenge a landlord who had denied access to apartments on St. Mark’s Place that [James] Baldwin and their circle of friends had planned to use as a shared living and studio space.
With the purchase of Beauford Delaney’s Untitled (Fang, Crow, and Fruit), a complex and vivid narrative enters the orbit of the Brooklyn Museum’s American Identities galleries, where it will go on view in February 2015. Joining important works on view by Eldzier Cortor, Sargent Johnson, and John Biggers, this painting will allow a deeper exploration of how references to African forms and themes in these works enacted a claiming of heritage and identity, in contrast to the references to African art in Eurocentric modernist works that embody distance, difference, and the “other.” The painting additionally offers a fresh opportunity to study the exposure of African art in New York during the interwar years, particularly in the context of the Museum’s important African holdings and their exhibition from the 1920s forward.
The work was acquired for the Brooklyn Museum by Dr. Teresa A. Carbone, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, who has played a leadership role in the creation of the African American purchase fund. The purchase was also made possible by A. Augustus Healy Fund and Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund.
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11238-6052
Telephone: (718) 638-5000
Fax: (718) 501-6134
www.brooklynmuseum.org
Knoxville Museum of Art Acquires Beauford Delaney Paintings
In an article published in April 2013, Les Amis reported on a Beauford Delaney abstract that was shown at the Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA)'s permanent installation entitled Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in East Tennessee.
Scattered Light
(1964) Oil on canvas
36 5/8 X 28 3/4 inches
Knoxville Museum of Art, purchase with funds provided by the Rachael Patterson Young Art Acquisition Reserve, 2015
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
The painting was on loan. At the time, the museum owned no works by Beauford.
That has since changed. In July 2014, KMA acquired two paintings with funds provided by the KMA Collectors Circle. In August 2014, it acquired nineteen additional works, including Scattered Light. The final payment for this painting was made in January 2015.
The museum is justifiably proud of its collection, given that Knoxville is Beauford's hometown and that the museum owns one work by Beauford's brother, Joseph. Work is currently underway to photograph, mat and frame the acquired Beauford Delaney works. Special attention is being given to those that require conservation work.
Scattered Light still hangs near the Joseph Delaney painting Marble Collegiate Church in the Higher Ground installation.
Joseph Delaney (Knoxville 1904-1991 Knoxville)
(1974-75) Marble Collegiate Church
Oil paint on canvas
72 x 47 3/4 inches
Knoxville Museum of Art, gift of the artist, 1990
Image courtesy of Knoxville Museum of Art
(1964) Oil on canvas
36 5/8 X 28 3/4 inches
Knoxville Museum of Art, purchase with funds provided by the Rachael Patterson Young Art Acquisition Reserve, 2015
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
The painting was on loan. At the time, the museum owned no works by Beauford.
That has since changed. In July 2014, KMA acquired two paintings with funds provided by the KMA Collectors Circle. In August 2014, it acquired nineteen additional works, including Scattered Light. The final payment for this painting was made in January 2015.
The museum is justifiably proud of its collection, given that Knoxville is Beauford's hometown and that the museum owns one work by Beauford's brother, Joseph. Work is currently underway to photograph, mat and frame the acquired Beauford Delaney works. Special attention is being given to those that require conservation work.
Scattered Light still hangs near the Joseph Delaney painting Marble Collegiate Church in the Higher Ground installation.
(1974-75) Marble Collegiate Church
Oil paint on canvas
72 x 47 3/4 inches
Knoxville Museum of Art, gift of the artist, 1990
Image courtesy of Knoxville Museum of Art
Jazz Concert in the Old New York Synagogue
Beauford loved jazz! He considered it to be "warm, vibrant, and conducive to dreaming and romantic musing."*
During his "New York years" (1929-1953), he painted two works depicting jazz musicians performing in a synagogue.
Jazz Quartet
(1946) Oil on canvas
Image courtesy of Burt and Patricia Reinfrank
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Jazz concert in the old synagogue, Lower East Side, New York
(ca. 1946) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
I was curious about the setting for these two paintings and decided to do a little research. I learned that there is a black Jewish population in New York City and that the first African-American synagogue in the city was founded in 1919. I also learned that jazz pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith was Jewish and worked as a Hebrew cantor for a black Jewish congregation in Harlem. However, I was unable to find information about the location of the synagogue in the paintings.
Jazz Quartet hung in the Artsmia exposition Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris, which originated at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (November 21, 2004 – February 20, 2005) and was subsequently presented by the Knoxville Museum of Art (April 8 – June 25, 2005), the Greenville County Museum of Art (August 3 – October 2, 2005), and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (November 12, 2005 – January 28, 2006).
As a tribute to Beauford's love of jazz, the Philadelphia Museum of Art organized a special event starring Philadelphia jazz pianist Orrin Evans and including a screening of the Oscar-nominated documentary film A Great Day in Harlem.
*Quote from Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney
During his "New York years" (1929-1953), he painted two works depicting jazz musicians performing in a synagogue.
(1946) Oil on canvas
Image courtesy of Burt and Patricia Reinfrank
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(ca. 1946) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
I was curious about the setting for these two paintings and decided to do a little research. I learned that there is a black Jewish population in New York City and that the first African-American synagogue in the city was founded in 1919. I also learned that jazz pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith was Jewish and worked as a Hebrew cantor for a black Jewish congregation in Harlem. However, I was unable to find information about the location of the synagogue in the paintings.
Jazz Quartet hung in the Artsmia exposition Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris, which originated at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (November 21, 2004 – February 20, 2005) and was subsequently presented by the Knoxville Museum of Art (April 8 – June 25, 2005), the Greenville County Museum of Art (August 3 – October 2, 2005), and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (November 12, 2005 – January 28, 2006).
As a tribute to Beauford's love of jazz, the Philadelphia Museum of Art organized a special event starring Philadelphia jazz pianist Orrin Evans and including a screening of the Oscar-nominated documentary film A Great Day in Harlem.
*Quote from Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney
A Christmas Self-portrait
Beauford painted the self-portrait below in December 1972*.
Self-portrait
(1970) Gouache on paper
Collection of David A. Leeming
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Though he had promised his family in Knoxville, TN that he would come home for the holidays that year, he stopped communicating with them and went to James Baldwin's home at Saint-Paul de Vence instead. His mental state was somewhat precarious at the time, and as biographer David A. Leeming states in Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney
, this can be seen in Beauford's countenance in the painting. His neighborhood in Paris was undergoing massive urban renewal and he was having an increasingly difficult time coping with the change and the knowledge that he would soon need to move.
Yet his visit to Saint-Paul soothed him, and he wrote to his family to tell them he was well. When he returned to Paris, he began to prepare for a solo exposition to be held in March 1973 at the Darthea Speyer Gallery.
*Note that the painting is dated 1970, yet the Leeming biography indicated that Beauford painted it in 1972. Which is correct? Because of Beauford's declining mental health during the 1970s, one could imagine that he did not date the painting correctly. Leeming presumably relied on archival materials to come to the conclusion that Beauford painted this work in 1972, but in the absence of footnotes about this particular painting in Amazing Grace, we may never know!
(1970) Gouache on paper
Collection of David A. Leeming
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Though he had promised his family in Knoxville, TN that he would come home for the holidays that year, he stopped communicating with them and went to James Baldwin's home at Saint-Paul de Vence instead. His mental state was somewhat precarious at the time, and as biographer David A. Leeming states in Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney
, this can be seen in Beauford's countenance in the painting. His neighborhood in Paris was undergoing massive urban renewal and he was having an increasingly difficult time coping with the change and the knowledge that he would soon need to move.Yet his visit to Saint-Paul soothed him, and he wrote to his family to tell them he was well. When he returned to Paris, he began to prepare for a solo exposition to be held in March 1973 at the Darthea Speyer Gallery.
*Note that the painting is dated 1970, yet the Leeming biography indicated that Beauford painted it in 1972. Which is correct? Because of Beauford's declining mental health during the 1970s, one could imagine that he did not date the painting correctly. Leeming presumably relied on archival materials to come to the conclusion that Beauford painted this work in 1972, but in the absence of footnotes about this particular painting in Amazing Grace, we may never know!