What Sold at Swann Auction Galleries' October 2017 African American Fine Art Sale

Five out of eight Beauford Delaney works offered during Swann Auction Galleries' October 2017 African American Fine Art Sale sold.

All four abstract works were purchased:

Untitled (Green Drip Abstraction) (Lot 40), a gouache on wove paper, sold for $12,500 (including buyer's premium*).

Untitled (Green Drip Abstraction)
(1958) Gouache on wove paper
603x483 mm; 23.75x19 inches
Signed, dated, and inscribed "To Lucien, on his birthday
with affection from Beauford Delaney Paris 1958."
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Untitled (Brown and Orange Abstraction) (Lot 41), another gouache on wove paper, sold for $8,125 (including buyer's premium).

Untitled (Brown and Orange Abstraction)
(1958-59) Gouache on wove paper
660x483 mm; 26x20 inches.
Signed and inscribed "To Jimmy with love Beauford Happy Birthday"
in ink, lower center.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Untitled (Green, Red and Yellow Abstraction) (Lot 55), a watercolor on wove paper, sold for $11,875 (including buyer's premium).

Untitled (Green, Red and Yellow Abstraction)
(1964) Watercolor on wove paper
648x502 mm; 25 1/2x19 3/4 inches.
Initialed, dated and inscribed "Paris", in ball point pen and blue ink, lower center.
Signed and dated in ball point pen and blue ink, lower right.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
And Untitled (Abstract Composition) (Lot 56), another watercolor on wove paper, also sold for $11,875 (including buyer's premium).

Untitled (Abstract Composition)
(1965) Watercolor on wove paper
546x457 mm; 21 1/2x18 inches.
Signed, dated and inscribed "avec amour" in ink.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The only figurative work that was purchased was Greenhouse at Yaddo (Lot 26).

Greenhouse at Yaddo
(1950) Color pastels on wove paper
457x610 mm; 18x24 inches.
Signed, dated and inscribed "Yaddo" in pastel, lower right.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It fetched the highest price of all the Beauford Delaney works in this sale - $15,000 (including buyer's premium).

Three portraits remain unsold.

*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 in addition to the hammer price. The buyer’s premium for items purchased directly through Swann is 25%. Swann Auction Galleries now reports the "hammer price" and the price that include the buyer's premium in its online catalog.

Abstract Works at Swann Auction Galleries' October 2017 Sale

Last week, I presented the four Beauford Delaney figurative works that are being offered during Swann Auction Galleries' Autumn 2017 sale of African-American Fine Art. This week, I am featuring the abstracts.

Untitled (Green Drip Abstraction) (Lot 40) is a gouache on wove paper.

Untitled (Green Drip Abstraction)
(1958) Gouache on wove paper
603x483 mm; 23.75x19 inches
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It is signed, dated, and inscribed "To Lucien, on his birthday with affection from Beauford Delaney Paris 1958." It is likely that "Lucien" is Lucien Happersberger, lover and lifelong friend of James Baldwin.

The estimated value of this work is $8,000 - $12,000.


Untitled (Brown and Orange Abstraction) (Lot 41) is also a gouache on wove paper.

Untitled (Brown and Orange Abstraction)
(1958-59) Gouache on wove paper
660x483 mm; 26x20 inches.
Signed and inscribed "To Jimmy with love Beauford Happy Birthday"
in ink, lower center.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It was a gift from Beauford to James Baldwin for Baldwin's birthday, which was August 2. Baldwin spent a great deal of time with Beauford in Clamart during the summers of 1958 and 1959 - the approximate dates ascribed to this work.

The estimated value of Untitled (Brown and Orange Abstraction) is $8,000 - $12,000.


Untitled (Green, Red and Yellow Abstraction) (Lot 55) is a watercolor on wove paper.

Untitled (Green, Red and Yellow Abstraction)
(1964) Watercolor on wove paper
648x502 mm; 25 1/2x19 3/4 inches.
Initialed, dated and inscribed "Paris", in ball point pen and blue ink, lower center.
Signed and dated in ball point pen and blue ink, lower right.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
1964 was a busy year for Beauford. He participated in many group shows as well as a solo exhibition at the Galerie Lambert, in which abstractions and portraits were displayed.

I do not know whether Untitled (Green, Red and Yellow Abstraction) was publicly shown in 1964. Its estimated value is $10,000 - $15,000.

Untitled (Abstract Composition) (Lot 56) is another watercolor on wove paper.

Untitled (Abstract Composition)
(1965) Watercolor on wove paper
546x457 mm; 21 1/2x18 inches.
Signed, dated and inscribed "avec amour" in ink.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
In 1965, Beauford wrote the following about his work in a letter to Henry Miller:

Something has happened to my color and the paintings seem to have sunlight and the feeling sometimes of all you wonderful people it has been my privilege to have as friends and architects of the spirit.

One can easily visualize the brilliant yellow in this work as sunshine filtering through thick foliage, perhaps from the vantage point of a wrought iron grill over a window.

The estimated value of Untitled (Abstract Composition) is $8,000 - $12,000.

The auction will take place at 2:30 PM on Thursday, October 5, 2017. Preview dates are as follows: September 30 from 12-5 PM; October 2 to 4, 10 AM to 6 PM; October 5, 10 AM - noon.

For more information, contact Nigel Freeman at
.

Figurative Works at Swann Auction Galleries' October 2017 Sale

Eight Beauford Delaney works are available for purchase during Swann Auction Galleries' Autumn 2017 sale of African-American Fine Art: three portraits, one landscape, and four abstracts.

The figurative works are presented below:

Greenhouse at Yaddo (Lot 25) is a rare work on paper from Beauford's New York years in that it is a pastel that is not a portrait. Beauford gave it to his friend, poet May Swenson.

Greenhouse at Yaddo
(1950) Color pastels on wove paper
457x610 mm; 18x24 inches.
Signed, dated and inscribed "Yaddo" in pastel, lower right.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford met Swenson during a two-month fellowship at Yaddo in September 1950. Biographer David A. Leeming describes his work from that period as "... paintings that, although still containing figurative elements, were much more abstract than anything he had done before."

Greenhouse at Yaddo is part of a private collection. Its estimated value is $15,000 - $25,000.

Untitled (Portrait of a Young Man) (Lot 16) and Untitled (Portrait of a Young Man in Suit and Tie) (Lot 17) are part of a private collection. Both were obtained from Beauford's brother, Joseph.

Untitled (Portrait of a Young Man)
(circa 1937-40) Color pastels on pale green, textured wove paper
625x480 mm; 24 1/2x18 7/8 inches.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Untitled (Portrait of a Young Man in Suit and Tie)
(circa 1940) Color pastels on pale gray wove paper
600x468 mm; 23 1/2x18 3/8 inches.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
These portraits are similar to works that Beauford created throughout the 1930s, beginning with his pastel and charcoal portraits of dancers at Billy Pierce's Dancing Studio on West 46th Street. The publicity that he received for these works led him to approach the Whitney Studio Galleries about showing them - which they did.

The estimated value of each portrait is $7,000 - $10,000.

The final figurative work is yet another portrait.

Portrait of a Bearded Young Man Reading
(1971-72) Oil on linen canvas
647x546 mm; 25 1/2x21 1/4 inches.
Signed and dated "1972" in pencil, lower left.
Signed and dated "1971" in pencil, lower right.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Portrait of a Bearded Young Man Reading (Lot 75) dates from Beauford's Paris years. It is part of a private collection and bears two signatures and dates. The owner obtained this work from Beauford's niece, Ogust Delaney Stewart.

Beauford visited James Baldwin in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, a hilltop town in southern France with a view of the Mediterranean Sea, in 1971 and 1972. Perhaps the blues and greens in the background of this painting represent that view.

The estimated value of Portrait of a Bearded Young Man Reading is $7,000 - $10,000.

To see images of the other Beauford Delaney paintings being offered at this sale, click HERE.

The auction will take place at 2:30 PM on Thursday, October 5, 2017. Preview dates are as follows: September 30 from 12-5 PM; October 2 to 4, 10 AM to 6 PM; October 5, 10 AM - noon.

For more information, contact Nigel Freeman at
.

Next week: the abstracts...

Beauford at the Tate Modern

One of Beauford's many portraits of James Baldwin is on display at the Tate Modern. It is part of the exhibition entitled Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power.

Portrait of James Baldwin
(1971) Oil on canvas
Bequest of James Baldwin
Image courtesy of Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

The Tate Modern is promoting the exhibition as follows:

Soul of a Nation shines a bright light on the vital contribution of Black artists to a dramatic period in American art and history.

Beauford's portrait hangs in Section 9, which is entitled "Black Heroes." It is on loan from Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries.

The information card for the portrait is shown below.

Image courtesy of M. Herron
I wrote about this portrait in 2013 in the last of four segments of an article on the Beauford Delaney collection at Clark Atlanta University. 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, comments on the painting in that article.

Note: The information card and the 2013 Les Amis article both indicate that there is some doubt as to whether this portrait represents Baldwin.

Soul of a Nation is on display through October 22, 2017. For more information, visit the Tate Modern's Web site.

Greece, 1967: Into the Blue

by Hanna Gressler

Grèce
(1967) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford believed that abstraction was the purest form of art. His philosophy is evident in his painting, Greece (Grèce in French), where shape, form, and color become intertwined to create a new world and a new sense of being. The first time I encountered this painting, my mind was immediately engulfed by the intense blue and sporadic color of white that carried me into a new experience of nature.

Eventually, I learned about Beauford’s suicide attempt on a boat to Greece in 1961, which led him to be institutionalized for the first time. Although the painting, Greece, was created six years after the incident, Beauford was troubled by mental illness all his life and the painting may speak of a continuing desire to achieve a sense of unity in oneself and with the world.

The blue of the ocean is all-encompassing. By looking at this painting, you dive into the deep blue and the shifting waves that take you someplace new. The more your eyes drift upward, the lighter the blue becomes as white patches of color become more frequent, and it seems as if the ocean has gradually turned into the sky. Between these blue and white swirls of color lies a horizon filled with more blue – a new world where nature and its colors are intertwined with one another, almost indistinguishable.

And as you stare more closely into this horizon, you become immersed into its everlasting world, where all nature is one and you are one with nature. In this world, the soul transcends the body through this experience of the intense blue of the ocean and the sky, their bodies interlaced, shifting into one another, becoming united.

However, the dark blue of the ocean and its oscillating waves also contain a certain chaos and danger. This new world we are entering is unfamiliar territory. By becoming one with nature, we are unraveling the folds of our body and mind, revealing the darkness within ourselves. Looking into the painting, we are confronted by our deepest desires and fears. If we allow ourselves to be drowned by the heavy blue and chaotic waves, there is no certainty that we will come back. Suddenly, the horizon between the ocean and the sky becomes a bottomless hole that pulls us inward. There is a darkness that lies beyond this world, which we may not be strong enough to confront.

Now, the image of becoming united with nature suggests the necessity for death. The indistinguishable shapes and forms of the painting portray a spectacle of nature, where every body is part of another and another, and together they create one mesmerizing and engulfing world of chaotic nature. It is only through death may return to this nature and nourish the next generation of life.

Whether Beauford jumped into the ocean in order to escape life and become united with nature will never be known. But Greece expresses a yearning for unity – with oneself, with those around us, with nature – despite the darkness that it involves, because it may be only through this way that we achieve peace.

Hanna Gressler is a senior at the American University of Paris. She served as a 2017 summer intern for the Wells International Foundation.

Sunlight Drifters

By Hanna Gressler

Untitled
(1966) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

My inspiration for this prose poem comes from the shapes created by the bright yellow and deep red colors in Beauford’s painting, Untitled, that seem to be telling a story. When I look at this painting, the bright colors radiate like the sun, and I am overcome by a sense of humility as I am reminded of the beauty of nature. In my prose poem, I wanted to evoke this sense of beauty and humility by describing one of the stories I find in the painting.

The sun rose as the peasants gathered. Above scattered fields, a wind blew, whistling under the wakening sky. Sunflowers flowed in the wind, brushing against each other’s petals as if swaying to a song underneath the sun. The peasant women trotted along unpaved roads with only the footsteps of previous mornings to guide them. Here, in the downtrodden streets of an impoverished French countryside, they gathered, religiously, with bare heels poking out of torn shoes, early morning on their backs and babies underneath their breasts, hovering together as if to protect one another.

Their heavy steps pressed into the mud, on and on, toward the rich yellow of the sunlight awakening above them. Gradually, limb by limb, the women could feel the sun’s warmth fill their bodies, reminding them of another life. With mouths shut tight, for it was too early in the morning to speak yet, only creases along their faces spoke of distant memories, when struggle was not a part of survival. And if both their hands were not safely holding the bums of their children, naked underneath the cloth that held them close to their mothers’ wombs as if to help them retreat back inside, then the rugged skin of the other hand, beaten and clumsily stretched onto their bodies, swung along beside them, free, the only limb not yet put to use for the day’s work. They leaned into this arm with the weight of two bodies, depending on it to hold them together, like the last surviving branch of a tree in winter that must succumb back to earth.

Like this the women walked, moving further and further toward the edge of the countryside, forming a horizon of their own where the earth will not end, but continue on for centuries, like the rise and fall of the sun, like the mothers, like these mornings. And beyond the women and the flowers, laid thick layers of hills overlapped into more distant spectacles. They glistened with such a tender texture against the dewy sky that if one were to point his finger toward the green grass wrapped around the hills, he would feel the bodies of nature rise like strokes of thick paint on a canvas, prickling the bottom of his finger, touching him with their own reality; and for a moment, intertwined with nature, he would become one with the hills, the sunflowers, the women, everlasting.

Hanna Gressler is a rising senior at the American University of Paris. She is serving as a 2017 summer intern for the Wells International Foundation.

Untitled, 1959: Finding the Light

By Hanna Gressler

If you compare a painting by Beauford from the 1920s with a painting by him from the 1950s and onward, there is a chance you may think the paintings come from two different artists. The older he became, and the more art he produced, the more Beauford moved toward abstraction.

In the 1930s, Beauford found himself heavily influenced by the French artist Henri Matisse, whose use of saturated colors and distorted spaces inspired Beauford’s own artwork. Paris was the perfect city to allow Beauford to indulge his passion in modern art as he frequented galleries and studios in La Rive Gauche and looked at Greco-Roman sculpture at the Musée du Louvre. In this culturally artistic environment, Beauford’s painting style matured and flourished as he developed a new sense of color and space.

We can see this flourish of color and space in Untitled, from 1959. Dark shades of green, blue, and purple outline this painting. The colors then become lighter as they move across the canvas - a clear white and bright yellow - creating an inward movement toward the center of the painting.

Untitled
(1959) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

As a viewer, your gaze is immediately drawn to this center of white and yellow, whose light seems to be swallowing the darkness of the colors around the painting, suggesting the image of a black hole. But instead of a black hole infused with darkness, this hole is infused with light, and we must enter into it in order to discover what we become on the other side.

This inward movement of the bright colors also suggests a sense of home, the image of a womb in which the light of life exists. The viewer feels a desire to return to this home, where she can be lulled by the painting’s “gentle blue and darling yellow.”

The brush strokes of the painting, Untitled, are also particular in their loose and musical style. Instead of serving to fill up bodies of space with the color, the brush strokes form spiral-like bodies of their own. Across the canvas, the white colored strokes develop a lyrical aspect as they form shapes akin to letters, as if they are trying to speak to the viewer.

These white bodies of color hold a mystery the viewer must solve in order to see past them and become engulfed by the bright yellow in the background. The sun-pierced yellow holds a spiritual power as it evokes the spirit Helios, providing a sense of holiness. In fact, each color contains a symbolic meaning.

It is Beauford’s combination of colors in this painting that creates a personal narrative and informs the imagination of the viewer. The inward movement created by the bright white and yellow colors pull the viewer toward a place she can call home, a place of light and rebirth, resulting in a sense of regeneration and redemption.

Throughout his entire life, Beauford was forced to face racism and homophobia, two potent forms of social rejection. In his more abstract paintings, Beauford paints his escape from this rejection, flying toward colors of light with the same movement as his brush strokes. The energy in his paintings comes from the visible and invisible interactions that happen between the many shapes and colors. These interactions evoke a universal spirituality that allows the viewer to look inside herself and discover that she is her own source of light and power.

Hanna Gressler is a rising senior at the American University of Paris. She is serving as a 2017 summer intern for the Wells International Foundation.

Still Lifes by Beauford

The Tate Gallery defines still life painting as follows:

One of the principal genres (subject types) of Western art – essentially, the subject matter of a still life painting or sculpture is anything that does not move or is dead.

Beauford rarely painted stiil lifes. There are two that I find particularly remarkable:

Still Life with Pears
(1946) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Still Life with Eggplant & Fruit
(1949) Pastel on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Both of these works were painted prior to Beauford's relocation to Paris. Still Life with Pears is bold and crisp, while Still Life with Eggplant & Fruit is soft and sensual.

Both are revelations of Beauford's brilliant use of color.

Gathering Light: Knoxville Museum of Art's Beauford Delaney Exhibition Now Open

Over 250 people turned out for the opening of Gathering Light - the exhibition of the Knoxville Museum of Art's permanent collection of Beauford Delaney works last week!

Knoxville Museum of Art
© Wells International Foundation

Entrance to exhibition gallery
© Knoxville Museum of Art

Inside the exhibition gallery
© Wells International Foundation
On Wednesday, May 3, roughly 90 persons attended the invitation-only, VIP opening. Chief Curator Stephen Wicks presented his concept for the exhibition, which brilliantly links photos and sketches displayed on a centrally located table with selected paintings and works on paper displayed on the walls of the gallery.

Photos and sketchbooks on central table
© Wells International Foundation

Artwork on wall of gallery
© Wells International Foundation
I followed by presenting the story of how I came to learn about Beauford's life as an African-American expatriate in Paris and why I became passionate about his personal and artistic legacy.

The general vernissage, or opening, was held on Thursday, May 4. Once again, the museum filled with visitors who were curious and eager to see the exhibition.

Opening night attendees
© Wells International Foundation

A child observes an abstract oil painting
© Knoxville Museum of Art

Contemplating Dante Pavone as Christ
© Knoxville Museum of Art
Photo ops abounded!

Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero and Monique Y. Wells
© Wells International Foundation

From left to right: Steve and Ann Bailey, KMA patrons
and sponsors of Gathering Light; Richard Jolly, artist
© Knoxville Museum of Art

From left to right: Wokie Wicks, KMA Chief Curator Stephen Wicks;
Douglas McCarty of MHM Architects and Interior Designers,
sponsor of Gathering Light
© Knoxville Museum of Art
On the evening of May 5, I joined several members of KMA's millennial group, Art House, to celebrate the opening. We gathered for dinner at Bistro on the Tracks - an acclaimed Knoxville dining establishment.

Dinner with Art House
© Knoxville Museum of Art
Art House's mission statement is the following:

Connecting a new generation to the Knoxville Museum of Art by providing exclusive opportunities to learn through art.

Throughout our exquisite meal, conversation was lively. Between exchanges of personal information and anecdotes, I shared stories from Beauford's biography and the Les Amis blog that centered on food.

Gathering Light will be shown at the Knoxville Museum of Art through July 23, 2017.

Beauford's Reflections on Abstraction in Art

... that which they call abstract is the most realist, because what is real is not the exterior form, but the idea, the essence of things.
~Constantin Brancusi

Beauford was known for his philosophical musings. In Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, biographer David A. Leeming talks about Beauford's acquaintance with Constantin Brancusi and his agreement with Brancusi's opinion about abstraction in art (see quote above). Leeming says that Beauford had made similar statements since the 1930s, long before he met Brancusi in Paris.

Beauford expressed the following about abstraction in art in a 1970 conversation with Richard A. Long:

The abstraction, ostensibly, is simply for me the penetration of something that is more profound in many ways than rigidity of a form. A form if it breathes some, if it has some enigma to it, it is also the enigma that is the abstract, I would think.

In Amazing Grace, Leeming discusses how Beauford's abstractions and portraits were extensions of each other. He describes Beauford's portraiture as being "more about masses of color and the 'enigma' of form than about likeness." Beauford's portraits of James Baldwin (Dark Rapture) and Ella Fitzgerald are two exquisite examples of this.

Dark Rapture
(1941) Oil on canvas
33 1/2" x 27 3/8"
Private collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald
(1968) Oil on canvas
24" x 19.5"
Permanent collection of the SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah
Gift of Dr. Walter O. and Mrs. Linda J. Evans
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

After his breakdown, a visit to the Musée d'Art Moderne to see an exhibition of Joan Miró's work in July 1962 inspired Beauford to begin painting in earnest again. He wrote to Henry Miller of needing "to work with the problem of trying to get color into proper form and texture on canvas" so that it corresponded to "the form in our mind and life." Biographer Leeming notes that Beauford began producing the large yellow abstractions of his rue Vercingétorix period at this time.

Untitled
Beauford Delaney (1901-1979)
(1963) Oil on canvas
39 1/2" x 32", signed and dated
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

Untitled (Abstraction #7)
(1964) Oil on canvas
51 1/4" x 38 1/4", signed and dated
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

Beauford's Portrait of Larry Calcagno Sold at Auction

Last Saturday, Tyler Fine Art x Ripley Auctions presented Beauford's portrait of Larry Calcagno for sale at its "African-American Artists - A Fine Art Auction."

Portrait of a Young Man (Larry Calcagno)
(1953) Oil on canvas
31.75" x 25.5" (80.6 cm x 64.8 cm)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The painting sold for $15,000. At the time of this writing, I am not able to confirm whether this price includes a buyer's premium.

To read about the friendship shared by Beauford and Larry Calcagno, visit the following links:

A Boundless Love: Beauford Delaney's Letters to Larry Calcagno (2016)

Beauford and Larry Calcagno (2011)

Beauford's Portrait of Larry Calcagno to Be Auctioned

Tyler Fine Art x Ripley Auctions is presenting "African-American Artists - A Fine Art Auction" at 11:00 AM on March 18, 2017 (today). Beauford's Portrait of a Young Man (Larry Calcagno) is among the works for sale.

Portrait of a Young Man (Larry Calcagno)
(1953) Oil on canvas
31.75" x 25.5" (80.6 cm x 64.8 cm)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Two extensive articles on Beauford and Calcagno's relationship can be found on this blog:

A Boundless Love: Beauford Delaney's Letters to Larry Calcagno (2016)

and

Beauford and Larry Calcagno (2011)

Calcagno painted a portrait of his friend in 1975:

Larry Calcagno's Portrait of Beauford (2011)

The Calcagno portrait was part of the Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris exhibition, which was shown at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Knoxville Museum of Art, the Greenville County Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2004-2006.

The portrait has been assigned Lot Number 24. Its estimated value is $15,000-20,000.

A Beauford Delaney lithograph (Lot 25) entitled Lithography Afrique is also up for auction in this show (estimated value is $1500-$2500).

Ripley Auctions
2764 East 55th Place
Indianapolis, IN 46220

For additional information, call 317-251-5635.

More Beauford Delaney Works at Auction

Beauford's work is growing ever more popular with auction houses in the U.S. and France.

Last week, his Untitled (Green) was sold by Quinn's Auction Galleries during their "African American Artists: Featuring the Inventory and Collection of Merton D. Simpson" sale.

Untitled or Green
(1963) Watercolor on paper
26" x 19 1/2" (66 cm x 49.5 cm)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The work (Lot #3) fetched $8,400, including a 20% buyer's premium. The estimated bid range was $2000-$4000.

Earlier this month, the purchase price for a stunning still life from Beauford's New York years far exceeded its estimated bid of $6000 to $8000.

Still Life with Eggplant & Fruit
Pastel on paper
signed and dated ’49 lower left
Framed, sight: 19 in. x 25 in. (48.3 cm x 63.5 cm)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Still Life with Eggplant and Fruit (Lot #1123) was auctioned by Sloans & Kenyon in Chevy Chase, MD on February 12th. It sold for $25,095, including a 19.5% buyer's premium.

On February 22nd, an unusual watercolor (Lot 324) was auctioned by Expertisez.com in Paris, France.

Untitled
Aquarelle signed et dated 1961, lower right
51 x 65 cm (20.1" x 25.6")
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It sold for 3,200€. The estimated price was 3000€ to 4000€.

Beauford's Untitled (Green) at Quinn's Auction Galleries

Untitled (Green) is up for auction at Quinn's Auction Galleries. The sale is entitled "African American Artists: Featuring the Inventory and Collection of Merton D. Simpson."

Untitled or Green
(1963) Watercolor on paper
26" x 19 1/2"
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
This watercolor on paper is signed and dated 1963. To the left of his signature, Beauford dedicated the work to Dr. Ferdière and his family in a note dated 1965.

Untitled or Green - signature
(1963) Watercolor on paper
26" x 19 1/2"
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford's message to the doctor reads:

Pour Dr. Ferdière a sa famille avec boucoup amour pour 1965. [sic]
(Translation: For Dr. Ferdière and his family with much love for 1965.)

Dr. Gaston Ferdière was the physician who treated Beauford at La Maison du Santé de Nogent sur Marne, a psychiatric clinic located in a southeast Paris suburb, beginning in 1961. In Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, biographer David A. Leeming says:

Ferdière spoke English and had a good knowledge of painting and the arts . . .

Eventually, in the course of regular appointments during the years immediately after Beauford's hospitalization, Ferdière and his family also became Beauford's social friends.

The year 1963 was a relatively good one for Beauford in terms of his mental health. With Dr. Ferdière's help, he was able to begin exploring his sexuality more deeply and he was able to open up and discuss it with close friends such as James Baldwin and Howard Swanson.

In 1965, Beauford found it increasingly difficult to follow Dr. Ferdière's orders and began missing scheduled doctor's appointments. Yet he enjoyed visits with several friends that year and made works available for a group show at the American Cultural Center in Paris.

The "African American Artists" auction will take place on February 18, 2017 at 11 AM EST.

For more information, click HERE.

Central Park, 1950

Celeste Hampton recently contacted me about Central Park, the beautiful pastel on paper from Beauford's New York period that is shown below.

Central Park
(1950) Pastel on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
She recognized the work as one that had been given to her many years ago by her friend and mentor, Jordan Massee, and generously shared her story about Massee and the pastel. I have summarized it below.

Jordan Massee was a native of Macon, Georgia. He had a finely-tuned appreciation for all things cultural and he shared this passion with Hampton.

Massee lived in New York City for several years and ran an art gallery on 57th Street for a time. He knew Beauford and appreciated Beauford's art. Hampton says that Beauford gave Central Park to Massee as payment for a debt.

Massee framed the work and eventually gave it to Hampton as a high school graduation present in 1987. Hampton proudly hung it in her home.

Some time after Massee's death, Hampton remembered that Massee had told her the pastel could be "worth something" - perhaps one or two thousand dollars. In April 2002, she took it to the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery (MRG) in New York City for appraisal, accompanied by a representative of the Harriet Tubman Museum in Macon. The museum considered acquiring the work, but because it is a work on paper as opposed to an oil painting, it was not the "right fit" for their collection.

Michael Rosenfeld provided additional details to this story, stating that the pastel was mounted to a piece of acidic cardboard and was removed from the mount. He purchased it from Hampton when she determined she could not pay for its restoration and would not be able to provide the appropriate care for it in her home.

MRG considered including Central Park in the gallery's exhibition entitled African American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, IX, which traveled to the Tubman Museum and opened on April 29, 2002. Because the work was purchased soon before the exhibition opening, it was not possible to have it conserved and re-framed in time to be included in that show.

In 2003, MRG displayed Central Park in its exhibition titled African American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, X and an image of the work was published in the exhibition catalog.

During the 2003 exhibition, MRG sold the pastel to a private collector.

I asked Hampton if she could share information about Beauford's and Massee's relationship and she consulted her uncle, Bismarck Reine, for details. Reine was a dear friend of Massee and spent a great deal of time with him.

According to Reine, Massee had great respect for Beauford. The two men had "more of an intellectual relationship than anything else." They likely met through an introduction by Paul Bigelow, who was Massee's partner at the time.

Regarding the gift of Central Park to Massee, Reine said the following:

The painting was definitely Beauford's way of repaying Jordan for supplies, paints and more. Delaney never had money for supplies, but he always repaid his debts with work. [I do] not know the nature of the specific debt, but Jordan bought him paints and colored pencil and art supplies more than once. It was not a question of Jordan wanting or needing the money back - in Jordan's eyes the money was a gift.

Hampton and Reine recall that Beauford painted a portrait of Paul Bigelow, but neither of them knows its whereabouts today.

Beauford's Acrylic Still Life on Board Sold at Case Antiques Auction

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about an unusual Beauford Delaney abstract that Case Antiques in Knoxville, TN offered at auction:

Abstract Still Life Composition
(1976) Oil on board, acrylic and mixed media
Signed and dated lower left "Beauford Delaney 1976"
13 7/8" H x 19 5/8"
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

This acrylic still life sold for a total of $8024 ($6800 bid plus buyer's premium of 26%). The winning bid was $800 above the highest predicted selling price.

The provenance for the painting is listed as "Private South Carolina collection, originally purchased from the Tree Gallery in Chicago, Illinois." It will now enter a different private collection.

Beauford's Portrait of Irene Rose

Beauford's magnificent portrait of his friend Irene Rose is one of works being shown at the ACA Galleries exhibition On Such a Night as This.

Portrait of Irene Rose
(1944) Oil on board
45 1/2 in x 35 in
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo courtesy of ACA Galleries, New York
The exhibition takes its name from Romare Bearden's 1975 collage on board, which is displayed in the show. Other artists whose works are displayed include John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Loïs Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Edmonia Lewis, Norman Lewis, Henry O. Tanner, and Hale Woodruff.

Irene and Billy Rose were friends of Beauford from Philadelphia, introduced to him by Dorothy Gates. They would maintain a lifelong friendship. With Gates, Irene drove Beauford to Saratoga for his 1950 fellowship stay at Yaddo. She visited him in Paris in 1955, when he lived at the Hôtel des Ecoles. Billy Rose gave Beauford the raincoat that Beauford turned into canvas in 1954.

Portrait of Irene Rose is currently held in a private collection. It is displayed in ACA Galleries' viewing room during the exhibition.

Originally scheduled to run from November 10 - December 22, 2016, On Such a Night as This has been extended through January 28, 2017.

ACA Galleries
529 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011
Telephone: 212-206-8080
e-mail:

Case Antiques Auction of Beauford Delaney Abstract

An unusual Beauford Delaney abstract is up for auction at Case Antiques in Knoxville, TN:

Abstract Still Life Composition
(1976) Oil on board, acrylic and mixed media
Signed and dated lower left "Beauford Delaney 1976"
13 7/8" H x 19 5/8"
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

This piece is dated 1976, which is the year after Beauford was committed to Sainte-Anne's Hospital. It is the first piece I recall seeing that dates from the last four years of his life.

Abstract Still Life Composition (detail)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

The provenance is listed as "Private South Carolina collection, originally purchased from the Tree Gallery in Chicago, Illinois."

I had hoped to interview Jim Romano, owner of the Tree Gallery, to learn how he acquired the painting. The Tree Gallery was located at 613 Tree Studios of the historically-classified Tree Studios Building and Annexes in Chicago's River North district. This property was renovated in the early 2000s and all occupants were forced to vacate the premises.

Upon researching Romano, I learned that he died in 2007.

Case Antiques has sold the following Beauford Delaney paintings in the past:

Untitled
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

Portrait of Delia Delaney
(1964) Oil on canvas
Knoxville Museum of Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Untitled (Abstract of Face)
Oil on fabric pillowcase
Photo courtesy of Case Antiques
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

The estimated sale price for Acrylic Still Life Composition is $4,000 - $6,000.

The auction is scheduled for January 21, 2017. For additional information, contact Case Antiques at

.

Beauford at the American Cultural Center's Paris Celebration of Henry Miller

Henry Miller and Beauford met for the first time in New York during the early 1940s. Miller visited Beauford's Greene Street studio in the fall of 1943 and Beauford painting a stunning portrait of him in 1944.

Beauford showed the painting during a group exhibition in New York in 1945 and had it shipped to Miller's home in Big Sur in 1946. An image of the portrait was included in a 1971 Playboy article about Miller.

Photo of Henry Miller at his home in Big Sur
standing in front of Beauford's portrait of him
Photo from Beauford Delaney archives
reproduced by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image @Wells International Foundation
Beauford and Miller developed a deep and lifelong friendship and Beauford was one of the persons Miller sought out whenever he visited Paris.

So it is perhaps not surprising that when the American Cultural Center in Paris organized a birthday celebration for Miller in January 1972, Beauford would be invited to participate in the festivities.

Don Foresta was the director of the American Cultural Center, AKA "The Dragon Center," at the time. I met him in Paris and he shared the story of this event for publication in the blog.

Foresta took on the directorship of the Center in 1971 as a long-time diplomat of the U.S. Foreign Service. Shortly thereafter, he was approached by Robert Snyder, Miller's son-in-law, about screening Snyder's 1969 documentary entitled "The Henry Miller Odyssey." Inspired by Snyder's request, Foresta organized a birthday celebration for Miller that took place at the Center in January 1972. (Miller was born on December 26, 1891.)

Snyder told Foresta about Beauford and Foresta met Beauford shortly thereafter. He visited Beauford at the rue Vercingétorix studio and found him to be quite serious and not very talkative.

Foresta went on to invite four artists who knew Miller and whose work Miller appreciated to contribute works to be shown at the week-long event: Beauford, Brassaï (Gyula Halász), Michonze, and Hans Reichel. Their exhibition was called Les Amis Parisiens de Henry Miller.

The Center published a catalog of sorts, which included a printed list of the seven works that Beauford contributed to the show and a full-page color reproduction of Beauford's portrait of Miller that is signed by Beauford in blue ink at the bottom margin of the page.

Portrait of Henry Miller
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image (detail) from Abe Books Web site
Miller's favorite music was played on piano and French translations of some of his texts were read.

While the description of the event in Beauford'd biography, Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, indicates that Miller attended the event, Foresta says that Miller could not travel to Paris to celebrate his birthday. Both sources state that Miller shipped Beauford's portrait to Paris and that it served as the centerpiece of the art exhibition.

Beauford wrote a tribute to Miller for his 80th birthday, which I published previously on the Les Amis blog. Read it HERE.

"Henry Miller 80," the document that the American Cultural Center printed for the event, is a collector's item. It is available for purchase at Abe Books and at Amazon.com.

Beauford at the Musée du quai Branly's Exhibition The Color Line

Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald (detail)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford's Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald is a sparkling gem among the works of fine art being displayed at the exhibition entitled The Color Line, which is currently being shown at the Musée du quai Branly Jacques Chirac in Paris.

On loan from the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, South Carolina, it hangs in the "Black is Beautiful" section of the exhibition.

The SCAD Museum of Art describes the painting as follows:

Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald encapsulates Beauford Delaney’s range of artistic styles, marrying gestural abstract mark making with portraiture. His figurative works, which included portraits of other notable artists of the time such as Duke Ellington and Marian Anderson, turned ever more abstract and into complete non-representation after Delaney moved from New York to Paris in the early 1950s. This portrait parallels this stylistic shift as the characteristics of Ms. Fitzgerald’s face subtly emerge from, or disappear into, the expansive field of color and texture around her.

Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald
(1968) Oil on canvas
Permanent collection of the SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah
Gift of Dr. Walter O. and Mrs. Linda J. Evans
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

The Color Line is an exhibition about U.S. history in which an inordinate number of works of fine art are hung. It will be on display through January 15, 2017.

The Color Line
Musée du quai Branly Jacques Chirac
37, quai Branly
75007 Paris
Telephone: 01.56.61.70.00
Internet: http://www.quaibranly.fr
Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday - 11 AM to 7 PM; Thursday through Saturday - 11 AM to 9 PM. Closed Mondays.
Entry fee: 10€
Reduced fee: 7€

***************
Les Amis de Beauford Delaney is taking off for the holidays and will be back online in January 2017.

For a jazzy start to your Christmas weekend, click HERE to enjoy a song by Ella!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!