Beauford (Not) on View
Three major museums are showing a Beauford Delaney work in temporary exhibitions this spring. Unfortunately, all the exhibitions are closed at present due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A vibrant work from Beauford's New York years is on display at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art as part of Awakened in You: The Collection of Dr. Constance E. Clayton. The exhibition showcases works from the museum's March 2019 acquisition of more than seventy artworks by African American artists from the collection of American educator and arts advocate Constance E. Clayton.
Untitled (abstract)
(1945) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Awakened in You opened on February 20, 2020 and is scheduled to run through July 12, 2020.
The Phillips Collection has included an untitled Beauford Delaney abstract in Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition , an exhibition that opened on February 29 and is scheduled to run through May 24. In a Washington Post article dated March 12, 2020, Phillip Kennicott describes this work as "a burst of yellow, orange and red, with subtle blue tones in the interstices of a vibrant field of brush work." (No photo of the work is displayed in the article or on the Phillips Collection Web site.)
Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem is a major traveling exhibition comprised of over one hundred works by nearly eighty artists from the 1920s to the present. One of these works is Beauford's Portrait of a Young Musician.
Portrait of a Young Musician
(1970) Acrylic on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Studio Museum in Harlem; Gift of Ms. Ogust Delaney Stewart, Knoxville, TN 2004.2.27
Photo: Marc Bernier
The Studio Museum in Harlem and the American Federation of Arts have partnered to take this exhibition to six venues across the U.S. Currently it is hung at the Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton, Massachusetts, the only venue in the northeastern quadrant of the U.S. to host the show. It is scheduled to close on April 17 and to open at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle on May 9.
For the latest information on these exhibitions, visit the following Web sites:
Awakened in You: The Collection of Dr. Constance E. Clayton
Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition
Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem
A vibrant work from Beauford's New York years is on display at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art as part of Awakened in You: The Collection of Dr. Constance E. Clayton. The exhibition showcases works from the museum's March 2019 acquisition of more than seventy artworks by African American artists from the collection of American educator and arts advocate Constance E. Clayton.
(1945) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Awakened in You opened on February 20, 2020 and is scheduled to run through July 12, 2020.
The Phillips Collection has included an untitled Beauford Delaney abstract in Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition , an exhibition that opened on February 29 and is scheduled to run through May 24. In a Washington Post article dated March 12, 2020, Phillip Kennicott describes this work as "a burst of yellow, orange and red, with subtle blue tones in the interstices of a vibrant field of brush work." (No photo of the work is displayed in the article or on the Phillips Collection Web site.)
Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem is a major traveling exhibition comprised of over one hundred works by nearly eighty artists from the 1920s to the present. One of these works is Beauford's Portrait of a Young Musician.
(1970) Acrylic on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Studio Museum in Harlem; Gift of Ms. Ogust Delaney Stewart, Knoxville, TN 2004.2.27
Photo: Marc Bernier
The Studio Museum in Harlem and the American Federation of Arts have partnered to take this exhibition to six venues across the U.S. Currently it is hung at the Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton, Massachusetts, the only venue in the northeastern quadrant of the U.S. to host the show. It is scheduled to close on April 17 and to open at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle on May 9.
For the latest information on these exhibitions, visit the following Web sites:
Awakened in You: The Collection of Dr. Constance E. Clayton
Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition
Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem
Beauford - Exhibitions Online
More and more museums are expanding opportunities to see works and even exhibitions online in the face of COVID-19. Today I want to remind you of one exhibition of Beauford’s work that was originally conceived for online viewing and share news of another that is being shared with the world via Facebook!
Beauford Delaney: A Study in Portraiture is an outstanding online study of Beauford's portraiture created by Maija Brennan, a senior at Smith College.
Maija curated the exhibition during her 2019 summer internship in Paris with the Wells International Foundation. She chose to examine a selection of portraits - including several self-portraits - from Beauford's Boston, New York, and Paris years. She included scholarly commentary for each segment of the exhibition and on each work presented. She also created a timeline of Beauford's life to put the entire presentation into context.
Beauford Delaney: A Study in Portraiture is available for viewing indefinitely. Click HERE to read more about the process behind the creation of the exhibition.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Through the Unusual Door, the live exhibition that the Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA) mounted to explore the relationship between Beauford and James Baldwin.
Signage at Through the Unusual Door
Image by Les Amis de Beauford Delaney
Fortunately, the opening and a host of additional events honoring Beauford and Baldwin took place during the month of February, before COVID-19 became a pandemic. Hundreds of people came to see the exhibition throughout February and early March. But on March 16th, KMA announced that it would close until further notice. On the following day, it posted the following announcement on its Facebook page:
Almost every day since then, the museum has published a post about some aspect of Beauford's or Baldwin's life path that includes one or more photographs or images of Beauford's art. All posts are being "liked" and shared.
This is a marvelous way to have the exhibition unfold!
KMA now expects to remained closed to the public until at least July 1. On April 3, I received the following information from Stephen Wicks, Barbara W. and Bernard E. Bernstein Curator at the museum:
"During this dark period we are trying everything we can to stay connected with the public and continue to celebrate the creative collaboration of Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin in this time of social isolation. With that in mind, we are hoping to release the exhibition catalog as a free e-book available on the museum’s website, the publisher UTPress’s website, and any lender’s website that would also like to feature the e-catalog."
Through the Unusual Door catalog cover
The print version of the catalog is superb, so news of the possibility of a free electronic version being released is more than welcome.
I hope you're staying close to home and will take the time to enjoy a virtual visit to both exhibitions. They will bring you joy!
Beauford Delaney: A Study in Portraiture is an outstanding online study of Beauford's portraiture created by Maija Brennan, a senior at Smith College.
Maija curated the exhibition during her 2019 summer internship in Paris with the Wells International Foundation. She chose to examine a selection of portraits - including several self-portraits - from Beauford's Boston, New York, and Paris years. She included scholarly commentary for each segment of the exhibition and on each work presented. She also created a timeline of Beauford's life to put the entire presentation into context.
Beauford Delaney: A Study in Portraiture is available for viewing indefinitely. Click HERE to read more about the process behind the creation of the exhibition.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Through the Unusual Door, the live exhibition that the Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA) mounted to explore the relationship between Beauford and James Baldwin.
Image by Les Amis de Beauford Delaney
Fortunately, the opening and a host of additional events honoring Beauford and Baldwin took place during the month of February, before COVID-19 became a pandemic. Hundreds of people came to see the exhibition throughout February and early March. But on March 16th, KMA announced that it would close until further notice. On the following day, it posted the following announcement on its Facebook page:
WE ARE BRINGING OUR NEWEST EXHIBITION TO YOU! Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin: Through the Unusual Door.
While you are at home please follow along with us every morning as we share this amazing story. We hope this brings a little brightness in this unsure time.
And so it begins... The story of Beauford Delaney born in Knoxville, Tennessee on December 30th, 1901 to Delia Johnson Delaney and the Reverend John Samuel Delaney, 815 East Vine Avenue. He was eighth of ten children. @VisitKnoxville #BringingBeaufordHome
Almost every day since then, the museum has published a post about some aspect of Beauford's or Baldwin's life path that includes one or more photographs or images of Beauford's art. All posts are being "liked" and shared.
This is a marvelous way to have the exhibition unfold!
KMA now expects to remained closed to the public until at least July 1. On April 3, I received the following information from Stephen Wicks, Barbara W. and Bernard E. Bernstein Curator at the museum:
"During this dark period we are trying everything we can to stay connected with the public and continue to celebrate the creative collaboration of Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin in this time of social isolation. With that in mind, we are hoping to release the exhibition catalog as a free e-book available on the museum’s website, the publisher UTPress’s website, and any lender’s website that would also like to feature the e-catalog."
The print version of the catalog is superb, so news of the possibility of a free electronic version being released is more than welcome.
I hope you're staying close to home and will take the time to enjoy a virtual visit to both exhibitions. They will bring you joy!
January 1957 - Battling the Voices of Despair
"Painting is tremendously physical and vital and naturally calls for all your mental and physical strength and devotion."
Beauford wrote these words to his friend Larry Wallrich in a letter dated January 8, 1957.
In the same letter, he wrote that he had been withdrawn for the past several months and wanted "somehow to even withdraw more, as deep introspection and [the] search for me is vitally necessary."
This information comes from David Leeming's biography, Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney
. Leeming reports that Beauford suffered an emotional crisis involving the resurfacing of his "inner voices of despair" at the end of 1956 and disappeared for several days. When it passed, he returned to painting "with new energy."
1957 was the year that Beauford produced what I consider to be his most masterful abstract expressionist work. Untitled (1957) is part of the Centre Pompidou collection and was displayed during Multiple Modernities 1905-1970 exhibition (also called Plural Modalities) at the museum from October 2013 to January 2015.
Monique and Beauford's Untitled
(1957) Oil on canvas
114,2 x 162 cm / 44.9 x 63.8 in
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo © Discover Paris!
Signature for Beauford's Untitled
(1957) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo © Discover Paris!
More recently, it was loaned to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain for the exhibition Lost, Loose, and Loved: Foreign Artists 1944-1968, which ran from November 20, 2018 through April 22, 2019.
Untitled (second painting from left) at
Lost, Loose, and Loved: Foreign Artists 1944-1968
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia
Screenshot from Lost, Loose, and Loved video
This painting is likely as wide as Beauford was tall. The juxtaposition of colors and the richness of textures are stunning. One can easily imagine the "mental and physical strength and devotion" it took for him to create this work.
Photos of Beauford with Untitled and Untitled
Private collection
Beauford wrote these words to his friend Larry Wallrich in a letter dated January 8, 1957.
In the same letter, he wrote that he had been withdrawn for the past several months and wanted "somehow to even withdraw more, as deep introspection and [the] search for me is vitally necessary."
This information comes from David Leeming's biography, Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney
. Leeming reports that Beauford suffered an emotional crisis involving the resurfacing of his "inner voices of despair" at the end of 1956 and disappeared for several days. When it passed, he returned to painting "with new energy."1957 was the year that Beauford produced what I consider to be his most masterful abstract expressionist work. Untitled (1957) is part of the Centre Pompidou collection and was displayed during Multiple Modernities 1905-1970 exhibition (also called Plural Modalities) at the museum from October 2013 to January 2015.
Monique and Beauford's Untitled
(1957) Oil on canvas
114,2 x 162 cm / 44.9 x 63.8 in
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo © Discover Paris!
(1957) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo © Discover Paris!
More recently, it was loaned to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain for the exhibition Lost, Loose, and Loved: Foreign Artists 1944-1968, which ran from November 20, 2018 through April 22, 2019.
Lost, Loose, and Loved: Foreign Artists 1944-1968
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia
Screenshot from Lost, Loose, and Loved video
This painting is likely as wide as Beauford was tall. The juxtaposition of colors and the richness of textures are stunning. One can easily imagine the "mental and physical strength and devotion" it took for him to create this work.
Private collection
1964 Abstract Sold at ADER Nordmann Auction
LES AMIS DE BEAUFORD DELANEY!
The Paris auction house ADER Nordmann sold a Beauford Delaney work on paper during its Art d'après-guerre & contemporain (Post-war and contemporary art) auction on December 13, 2019.
Lot 60 is a predominantly green gouache dated 1964. It may have been one of ten abstract gouaches that Beauford showed in the Copenhagen exhibition called 10 American Negro Artists.
(1964) Gouache
Signed, dated, and dedicated at bottom left
75 x 56 cm
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
This piece sold for 8320€, including 28% taxes and charges. The estimated sale price was 3,000€ - 4,000€.
A second abstract by Beauford remained unsold.
To learn more about the ADER auction, click HERE.
Two Beauford Delaney Abstracts Up for Auction at ADER Nordmann
The Paris auction house ADER Nordmann has two Beauford Delaney works on paper listed for sale during its upcoming Art d'après-guerre & contemporain (Post-war and contemporary art) auction on December 13, 2019.
Both date from Beauford's Paris years and were likely created at his rue Vercingétorix studio.
The red and black aquarelle shown below (Lot 59) is dated December 1962. It is somewhat reminiscent of a black and white aquarelle from 1963 that ADER sold at auction last year.
Composition, 1962
(1962) Watercolor
Signed and dated at bottom left
63 x 48 cm
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Estimated sale price: 4,000€ - 6,000€
Photo courtesy of ADER
Composition, 1963
(1963) Watercolor
Signed at bottom right, dated, and
annotated "Souvenir" at bottom left
50 x 33.5 cm
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Both works may have been part of series of watercolors that Beauford created during 1962-63, through which he experimented with the coalescence of pigments.
Lot 60 is a predominantly green gouache dated 1964. It may have been one of ten abstract gouaches that Beauford showed in the Copenhagen exhibition called 10 American Negro Artists.
Composition, 1964
(1964) Gouache
Signed, dated, and dedicated at bottom left
75 x 56 cm
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Estimated sale price: 3,000€ - 4,000€
To learn more about the ADER auction, click HERE.
Both date from Beauford's Paris years and were likely created at his rue Vercingétorix studio.
The red and black aquarelle shown below (Lot 59) is dated December 1962. It is somewhat reminiscent of a black and white aquarelle from 1963 that ADER sold at auction last year.
(1962) Watercolor
Signed and dated at bottom left
63 x 48 cm
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Estimated sale price: 4,000€ - 6,000€
Photo courtesy of ADER
(1963) Watercolor
Signed at bottom right, dated, and
annotated "Souvenir" at bottom left
50 x 33.5 cm
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Both works may have been part of series of watercolors that Beauford created during 1962-63, through which he experimented with the coalescence of pigments.
Lot 60 is a predominantly green gouache dated 1964. It may have been one of ten abstract gouaches that Beauford showed in the Copenhagen exhibition called 10 American Negro Artists.
(1964) Gouache
Signed, dated, and dedicated at bottom left
75 x 56 cm
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Estimated sale price: 3,000€ - 4,000€
To learn more about the ADER auction, click HERE.
All That Jazz
Last week's post on "Beauford at the 'L'Age du Jazz' exhibition" inspired me to look at all the works published on this blog that have the word "jazz" in the title. I have regrouped them below. Enjoy!
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
Untitled (Jazz Club)
(c.1950) Oil on canvas
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Jazz Band
(1965) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(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
(c.1950) Oil on canvas
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1965) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Jazz
(1966) Oil on canvas
French Embassy of Taipai, Taiwan
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo courtesy of France's Fonds national d'art contemporain
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo courtesy of France's Fonds national d'art contemporain
Beauford at the 1967 "L'Age du Jazz" exhibition
In Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, biographer David Leeming reports that "In November the Ministry of Cultural Affairs in France bought a Delaney painting entitled Jazz from 'L'Age du Jazz' exhibition."
This show was held at the Palais Galliera, which is also known as the Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris. It ran from April 29 to May 24, 1967.
Palais Galliera
Image in the public domain
I was fortunate to find the catalog for the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou's Kandinsky library, but was disappointed to see that it is a small publication and that with the exception of the cover, it is printed in black and white.
Catalog cover for L'Age du Jazz exhibition
© Discover Paris!
The names of the artists whose works were shown at the exhibition are printed in alphabetical order and I quickly found the page where names beginning with the letter "D" were printed. Beauford is not mentioned on this page.
I found his name on the last page of the catalog, under the header "Addendum." It gives Beauford's information as follows:
BEAUFORD-DELANEY
né en 1910 [sic] à Knoxville, Tennessee chanteur de blues [sic]
Portrait. huile sur toile 1965
The entry does not include a photo of the work he contributed.
Despite the errors in Beauford's listing, the description of the work (blues singer, portrait, 1965 oil on canvas) is evocative of Beauford's portrait of Marian Anderson, which is now part of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts' permanent collection.
Marian Anderson
(1965) Oil on canvas
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
A second listing under "Addendum" in the catalog attributes Jazz to another artist.
Interestingly, a dossier compiled in 2010 by the Fonds national d'art contemporain on Beauford Delaney works owned by the French government mentions "Portrait of Marian Anderson" as though it might be part of the title ofJazz, but only presents an image and details for Jazz.
Given this tangled web of circumstances, it is tempting to speculate that Beauford's Portrait of Marian Anderson was shown at the Palais Galliera during l'Age du Jazz!
, biographer David Leeming reports that "In November the Ministry of Cultural Affairs in France bought a Delaney painting entitled Jazz from 'L'Age du Jazz' exhibition."Jazz
(1966) Oil on canvas
French Embassy of Taipai, Taiwan
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo courtesy of France's Fonds national d'art contemporain
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo courtesy of France's Fonds national d'art contemporain
This show was held at the Palais Galliera, which is also known as the Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris. It ran from April 29 to May 24, 1967.
Image in the public domain
I was fortunate to find the catalog for the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou's Kandinsky library, but was disappointed to see that it is a small publication and that with the exception of the cover, it is printed in black and white.
© Discover Paris!
The names of the artists whose works were shown at the exhibition are printed in alphabetical order and I quickly found the page where names beginning with the letter "D" were printed. Beauford is not mentioned on this page.
I found his name on the last page of the catalog, under the header "Addendum." It gives Beauford's information as follows:
BEAUFORD-DELANEY
né en 1910 [sic] à Knoxville, Tennessee chanteur de blues [sic]
Portrait. huile sur toile 1965
The entry does not include a photo of the work he contributed.
Despite the errors in Beauford's listing, the description of the work (blues singer, portrait, 1965 oil on canvas) is evocative of Beauford's portrait of Marian Anderson, which is now part of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts' permanent collection.
(1965) Oil on canvas
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
A second listing under "Addendum" in the catalog attributes Jazz to another artist.
Interestingly, a dossier compiled in 2010 by the Fonds national d'art contemporain on Beauford Delaney works owned by the French government mentions "Portrait of Marian Anderson" as though it might be part of the title ofJazz, but only presents an image and details for Jazz.
Given this tangled web of circumstances, it is tempting to speculate that Beauford's Portrait of Marian Anderson was shown at the Palais Galliera during l'Age du Jazz!
Swann Auction Galleries African American Fine Art Sale - Results Are in
Swann Auction Galleries' Fall African American Fine Art Sale was held on October 8, 2019. All three Beauford Delaney works on paper that were available for purchase were sold.
Untitled (Composition in Green, Red and Black) (Lot 39) sold for $10,000, including buyer's premium. The estimated sale price was $10,000 - $15,000.
Untitled (Composition in Green, Red and Black)
(Circa 1958-60) Gouache and watercolor on Schollershammer paper
457x298 mm; 18x11 3/4 inches
Signed and inscribed "Clamart" in ink, lower center
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
Lot 54, a predominantly green untitled work on paper dated 1962, sold for $10,000 with buyer's premium. The estimated sale price was $8,000 - $12,000.
Untitled
(1962) Gouache and watercolor on wove paper
640x490 mm; 25 1/4x19 1/4 inches
Signed and dated in ink, lower left.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
And No. 1, Yellow and Green (Lot 55) sold for $15,000, including buyer's premium. The estimated sale price was $10,000 - $15,000.
No. 1, Yellow and Green
(1964) Gouache on Arches paper
762x572 mm; 30x22 1/2 inches
Signed and dated in pencil, lower right.
Titled in pencil, lower left verso.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
Swann's buyer's premium for items sold at up to and including $100,000 is 25% of the purchase price.
Untitled (Composition in Green, Red and Black) (Lot 39) sold for $10,000, including buyer's premium. The estimated sale price was $10,000 - $15,000.
(Circa 1958-60) Gouache and watercolor on Schollershammer paper
457x298 mm; 18x11 3/4 inches
Signed and inscribed "Clamart" in ink, lower center
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
Lot 54, a predominantly green untitled work on paper dated 1962, sold for $10,000 with buyer's premium. The estimated sale price was $8,000 - $12,000.
(1962) Gouache and watercolor on wove paper
640x490 mm; 25 1/4x19 1/4 inches
Signed and dated in ink, lower left.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
And No. 1, Yellow and Green (Lot 55) sold for $15,000, including buyer's premium. The estimated sale price was $10,000 - $15,000.
(1964) Gouache on Arches paper
762x572 mm; 30x22 1/2 inches
Signed and dated in pencil, lower right.
Titled in pencil, lower left verso.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
Swann's buyer's premium for items sold at up to and including $100,000 is 25% of the purchase price.
Three Beauford Delaney Works at Swann Auction Galleries' Fall African American Fine Art Sale
It's that time again!
Swann Auction Galleries' Fall African American Fine Art Sale is being held on October 8, 2019. Three Beauford Delaney works on paper are now available for purchase.
Untitled (Composition in Green, Red and Black) was created when Beauford lived in Clamart. It comes from the original collection of James and Gloria Joyce, whom James Baldwin introduced to Beauford in July 1958. The Joyces would go on to commission several paintings from Beauford, including a portrait of James Joyce.
Lot 39
Untitled (Composition in Green, Red and Black)
(Circa 1958-60) Gouache and watercolor on Schollershammer paper
457x298 mm; 18x11 3/4 inches
Signed and inscribed "Clamart" in ink, lower center
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
The predominantly green untitled work on paper that Swann has designated as Lot 54 was created during Beauford's first year at his studio on rue Vercingétorix. He experienced many ups and downs during this year, which was devoted to establishing a "new normal" after his suicide attempt and hospitalization in 1961.
Lot 54
Untitled
(1962) Gouache and watercolor on wove paper
640x490 mm; 25 1/4x19 1/4 inches
Signed and dated in ink, lower left.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The third work dates from 1964. The provenance notation on Swann's Web site indicates that it is currently part of a private collection in London. From Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, we know that Beauford received a Fairfield Foundation grant of $3500 that began in 1964. His brother Emery visited him that summer, accompanied by wife Gertrude and daughter Imogene. And the year culminated with his one-man show at the Galerie Lambert on rue Saint-Louis-en-l'Ile.
Lot 55
No. 1, Yellow and Green
(1964) Gouache on Arches paper
762x572 mm; 30x22 1/2 inches
Signed and dated in pencil, lower right.
Titled in pencil, lower left verso.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
For more information about the auction, click HERE.
Swann Auction Galleries' Fall African American Fine Art Sale is being held on October 8, 2019. Three Beauford Delaney works on paper are now available for purchase.
Untitled (Composition in Green, Red and Black) was created when Beauford lived in Clamart. It comes from the original collection of James and Gloria Joyce, whom James Baldwin introduced to Beauford in July 1958. The Joyces would go on to commission several paintings from Beauford, including a portrait of James Joyce.
Untitled (Composition in Green, Red and Black)
(Circa 1958-60) Gouache and watercolor on Schollershammer paper
457x298 mm; 18x11 3/4 inches
Signed and inscribed "Clamart" in ink, lower center
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
The predominantly green untitled work on paper that Swann has designated as Lot 54 was created during Beauford's first year at his studio on rue Vercingétorix. He experienced many ups and downs during this year, which was devoted to establishing a "new normal" after his suicide attempt and hospitalization in 1961.
Untitled
(1962) Gouache and watercolor on wove paper
640x490 mm; 25 1/4x19 1/4 inches
Signed and dated in ink, lower left.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The third work dates from 1964. The provenance notation on Swann's Web site indicates that it is currently part of a private collection in London. From Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney
, we know that Beauford received a Fairfield Foundation grant of $3500 that began in 1964. His brother Emery visited him that summer, accompanied by wife Gertrude and daughter Imogene. And the year culminated with his one-man show at the Galerie Lambert on rue Saint-Louis-en-l'Ile. No. 1, Yellow and Green
(1964) Gouache on Arches paper
762x572 mm; 30x22 1/2 inches
Signed and dated in pencil, lower right.
Titled in pencil, lower left verso.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
For more information about the auction, click HERE.
Beauford Delaney: A Study in Portraiture
On August 6, 2019, the Wells International Foundation (WIF) announced the opening for Beauford Delaney: A Study in Portraiture. This digital exhibition, curated by Maija Brennan, examines the evolution of Beauford’s style as he rendered images of persons he loved and admired.
Brennan is WIF’s 2019 summer intern. A rising senior at Smith College, she is majoring in art history – with a concentration in museum studies – and French. She is interested in learning how non-profit organizations work to fund artists and help them show their work and is passionate about making art available to the general public. She is especially interested in exploring how contemporary artists who struggle to promote their work can “even the playing field” using technology.
Maija Brennan
Wells International Foundation 2019 Summer Intern
Image courtesy of Wells International Foundation
WIF’s founder and CEO, Dr. Monique Y. Wells, learned of Brennan’s interest in WIF’s Summer Internship Program through Columbia Global Centers | Paris. Brennan was finishing her junior year abroad there when her French professor, who also served as Associate Director of Smith College in Paris, introduced her to Dr. Wells. She had been made aware of the 2016 art exhibition, Beauford Delaney: Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color, that WIF organized at Columbia Global Centers | Paris, and was excited about the prospect of creating a project around this artist’s work.
Brennan spent six weeks compiling research on Delaney’s art production, focusing on his portraiture and how these works represent some of the most important relationships in his life. She investigated the evolution of the composition and style of Delaney’s portraits as he matured as an artist and produced increasing numbers of Abstract Expressionist paintings. Based on this research, she selected several works for the exhibition.
Beauford Delaney: A Study in Portraiture presents portraits from three periods in Delaney’s life – the years he spent in Boston, New York City, and Paris. A fourth segment of the exhibition presents several self-portraits from the New York and Paris years. A timeline of the artist’s life provides additional perspective on each segment of the exhibition.
A large part of the challenge of creating this exhibition in a format that is easily navigable and pleasing to view on all kinds of devices, from widescreen desktop computers to smartphones. Viewers can click on each portrait to access a larger image and one to two paragraphs of information on a dedicated page about the work.
Another important aspect of the process was planning and implementing the marketing strategy that would make the exhibition known to the public. Brennan evaluated how to maximize her existing social media connections, strengthen profiles and make new connections that she will heavily rely upon in her professional life, and incorporate the many blog posts she wrote about Delaney’s portraits into her strategy. She formulated a plan over the course of a week and implemented the plan during the last week of her internship.
Instagram post announcing A Study in Portraiture
Detail of Café Scene (1966)
Image courtesy of Maija Brennan
On July 29, Brennan presented an extensive preview of the exhibition to a study abroad group from the University of Tennessee Knoxville. (Knoxville was Beauford’s hometown.) The students were enrolled in the "Art History in Paris" course taught by Professor Mary Campbell. Professor Campbell wrote the critique of A Study in Portraiture found on the exhibition Web site.
Maija Brennan presents exhibition to UTK students
Image courtesy of the Wells International Foundation
A total of twenty-one (21) portraits are displayed in the exhibition. The full depth and breadth of Delaney’s artistic genius are represented in the works selected for this online show.
Brennan had the following to say about the exhibition:
To access Beauford Delaney: A Study in Portraiture, click HERE.
Brennan is WIF’s 2019 summer intern. A rising senior at Smith College, she is majoring in art history – with a concentration in museum studies – and French. She is interested in learning how non-profit organizations work to fund artists and help them show their work and is passionate about making art available to the general public. She is especially interested in exploring how contemporary artists who struggle to promote their work can “even the playing field” using technology.
Wells International Foundation 2019 Summer Intern
Image courtesy of Wells International Foundation
WIF’s founder and CEO, Dr. Monique Y. Wells, learned of Brennan’s interest in WIF’s Summer Internship Program through Columbia Global Centers | Paris. Brennan was finishing her junior year abroad there when her French professor, who also served as Associate Director of Smith College in Paris, introduced her to Dr. Wells. She had been made aware of the 2016 art exhibition, Beauford Delaney: Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color, that WIF organized at Columbia Global Centers | Paris, and was excited about the prospect of creating a project around this artist’s work.
Brennan spent six weeks compiling research on Delaney’s art production, focusing on his portraiture and how these works represent some of the most important relationships in his life. She investigated the evolution of the composition and style of Delaney’s portraits as he matured as an artist and produced increasing numbers of Abstract Expressionist paintings. Based on this research, she selected several works for the exhibition.
Beauford Delaney: A Study in Portraiture presents portraits from three periods in Delaney’s life – the years he spent in Boston, New York City, and Paris. A fourth segment of the exhibition presents several self-portraits from the New York and Paris years. A timeline of the artist’s life provides additional perspective on each segment of the exhibition.
A large part of the challenge of creating this exhibition in a format that is easily navigable and pleasing to view on all kinds of devices, from widescreen desktop computers to smartphones. Viewers can click on each portrait to access a larger image and one to two paragraphs of information on a dedicated page about the work.
Another important aspect of the process was planning and implementing the marketing strategy that would make the exhibition known to the public. Brennan evaluated how to maximize her existing social media connections, strengthen profiles and make new connections that she will heavily rely upon in her professional life, and incorporate the many blog posts she wrote about Delaney’s portraits into her strategy. She formulated a plan over the course of a week and implemented the plan during the last week of her internship.
Detail of Café Scene (1966)
Image courtesy of Maija Brennan
On July 29, Brennan presented an extensive preview of the exhibition to a study abroad group from the University of Tennessee Knoxville. (Knoxville was Beauford’s hometown.) The students were enrolled in the "Art History in Paris" course taught by Professor Mary Campbell. Professor Campbell wrote the critique of A Study in Portraiture found on the exhibition Web site.
Image courtesy of the Wells International Foundation
A total of twenty-one (21) portraits are displayed in the exhibition. The full depth and breadth of Delaney’s artistic genius are represented in the works selected for this online show.
Brennan had the following to say about the exhibition:
Beauford Delaney was an astonishingly talented painter whose works hang in some of today’s most culturally and artistically important institutions. I hope that this digital exhibit can be a reference point and educational tool for those who want to further their understanding of his life and art in the same way they would have had they visited one of these institutions. I also hope that visitors find the exhibition to be a place to simply celebrate the beautiful and sensitively rendered portraits he created throughout his lifetime.
To access Beauford Delaney: A Study in Portraiture, click HERE.
Beauford Delaney and the Mysterious Odalisque
By Maija Brennan
Maija Brennan is the Wells International Foundation's 2019 summer intern. A rising senior at Smith College, she majors in French and art history with a concentration in museum studies. Her eight-week internship focuses on researching the life and art of painter Beauford Delaney and creating an online exhibition of a selection of his works.
As a way to capture likeness or a moment in time, or to represent some key element regarding their identity and the art they create, self-portraits of visual artists date back hundreds of years. Beauford Delaney is known for his elegant and thoughtful portraits of others; he memorialized his friends and family through the loving nature in which he put paint down on the canvas. Alongside those around him, he represented his own face dozens of times throughout his career. His self-portraits are reflections of how he perceived himself outwardly and inwardly.
Self-Portrait with Odalisque, a painting completed in 1943, is a thought-provoking work of art in terms of the subject matter and the intentions behind it. The oil painting depicts Beauford seated on a stool in the lower right hand corner, a guitar in his lap. To his right, a few feet away, is a topless black woman lounging on a mattress. They are surrounded by trees and foliage, a body of water behind them. The portrait is done in a painterly manner - the brush strokes are visible and free, the colors lively and bright.
Untitled (Self-Portrait with Odalisque)
(c. 1943) Oil on panel
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
The original definition of an “odalisque” is a chambermaid in a Turkish seraglio. Seraglios were the living quarters of the women in Turkish households, and odalisques served the women and mistresses of the home. Beginning in the 19th century, many artists from Western civilizations began traveling to countries where odalisques lived - places dubbed “oriental”: The Middle East, Asia, and North Africa. Because of European political interests in “The Orient,” artists and writers from countries such as France and Great Britain became fascinated with the culture and aesthetics of Eastern civilizations that were worlds away from what they knew as familiar. Some of the most notorious and celebrated works by Eugène Delacroix and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, two French 19th-century painters, were “oriental” scenes: Turkish baths, village scenes, and richly decorated interior spaces.
Odalisques became frequent subjects in such paintings, and the definition of their social standing and occupation took on new meanings through a Western lens as European artists depicted them as concubines or consorts to the wealthy men with whom they resided. From Ingres, to Picasso and Matisse later in the 20th century, it became common practice to represent these women as sultry and erotic, more often than not lounging on their sides naked and gazing at the viewer. Depictions of “oriental” scenes and people fascinated Western artists and viewers; the “exotic nature” of different ways of life allowed Europeans to both admire the aesthetics of certain things and judge practices that did not correspond with their Western values and beliefs.
Within the context of odalisques in the canon of art history, it is curious that Beauford would decide to depict such a figure in one of his paintings, let alone a self-portrait. During the 1940s, he was in New York City, in the midst of his Greene Street era, and animated works of art representing the scenes and objects he saw in his everyday life were often experiments in abstraction and use of color. It was during this time that Beauford was becoming increasingly interested in modern artists and the techniques they used, both the United States and abroad. A big fan of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, it is possible that he studied and admired their works with odalisques. Perhaps he painted the woman in his self-portrait to create an image of himself as a global modernist, one knowledgeable in the trend of “Orientalism” that had been prominent at the turn of the century.
Self-portraits are oftentimes explorations of new techniques for artists, a way to navigate new methods of creating art. Self-Portrait with Odalisque is more figurative and narrative than the abstract cityscapes and portraits Beauford was completing at the time, so he could have been experimenting with a new method of storytelling in his paintings.
As a gay man wary of sexual promiscuity and eroticism, it is unusual that Beauford would choose to depict a woman that was a symbol for such traits in Western art history. Before completing Dark Rapture (1941), his first portrait of James Baldwin, the girlfriend of Emile Capouya (the man who introduced Baldwin and Beauford) insisted that he paint a nude portrait of her. Beauford was always shy in the figure drawing classes he took at the Art Students’ League with regard to nude portraits and was relieved to know it was against the rules for black artists to be present when there was a white model. The presence of the odalisque, who is black, may be a nod to his painting experience with Emile’s girlfriend, or to the racist rules that were in place in artistic organizations at the time.
Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon on the Grass)
Edouard Manet
(1863) Oil on Canvas
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France
Google Art Project - Image in Public Domain
The immediate comparison that comes to mind when viewing Self-Portrait with Odalisque is its similarities with Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863), the ground-breaking painting by Edouard Manet. Producing an outcry from the Paris Salon for the distorted use of perspective and the “pornographic” scene of two business men with scantily-clad women, this painting became infamous in Manet’s time. Certain parallels between Beauford’s self-portrait and Manet’s scene are striking. Beauford’s disengagement with the woman is reminiscent of the dynamics among the figures of Le déjeuner sur l’herbe - the two business men seem to be oblivious of the two naked women accompanying them on the picnic. The setting of Manet’s painting, a forest with a body of water in the distance, appears in Beauford’s self-portrait as well.
Yet another compelling aspect to Beauford’s work of art is the space he and the woman are occupying. Is this an allusion to Manet, or did he have a specific location in mind, perhaps a special place from Knoxville or New York?
Beauford did not create art in a vacuum. He was entrenched in the political, social and artistic implications of the United States and Europe of the time, and Self-Portrait with Odalisque reflects many aspects of this reality. The painting is intriguing in that it raises more questions than answers when examined closely. A gorgeous exploration of color and painterly brushstrokes, it is peculiar in the context of his other works. Whether a way to put himself in the shoes of the modernist icons before him, or an exercise in painting the elusive nude female figure, the inclusion of the odalisque in this self-portrait is a fascinating choice with no clear rationale.
Maija Brennan is the Wells International Foundation's 2019 summer intern. A rising senior at Smith College, she majors in French and art history with a concentration in museum studies. Her eight-week internship focuses on researching the life and art of painter Beauford Delaney and creating an online exhibition of a selection of his works.
As a way to capture likeness or a moment in time, or to represent some key element regarding their identity and the art they create, self-portraits of visual artists date back hundreds of years. Beauford Delaney is known for his elegant and thoughtful portraits of others; he memorialized his friends and family through the loving nature in which he put paint down on the canvas. Alongside those around him, he represented his own face dozens of times throughout his career. His self-portraits are reflections of how he perceived himself outwardly and inwardly.
Self-Portrait with Odalisque, a painting completed in 1943, is a thought-provoking work of art in terms of the subject matter and the intentions behind it. The oil painting depicts Beauford seated on a stool in the lower right hand corner, a guitar in his lap. To his right, a few feet away, is a topless black woman lounging on a mattress. They are surrounded by trees and foliage, a body of water behind them. The portrait is done in a painterly manner - the brush strokes are visible and free, the colors lively and bright.
(c. 1943) Oil on panel
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
The original definition of an “odalisque” is a chambermaid in a Turkish seraglio. Seraglios were the living quarters of the women in Turkish households, and odalisques served the women and mistresses of the home. Beginning in the 19th century, many artists from Western civilizations began traveling to countries where odalisques lived - places dubbed “oriental”: The Middle East, Asia, and North Africa. Because of European political interests in “The Orient,” artists and writers from countries such as France and Great Britain became fascinated with the culture and aesthetics of Eastern civilizations that were worlds away from what they knew as familiar. Some of the most notorious and celebrated works by Eugène Delacroix and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, two French 19th-century painters, were “oriental” scenes: Turkish baths, village scenes, and richly decorated interior spaces.
Odalisques became frequent subjects in such paintings, and the definition of their social standing and occupation took on new meanings through a Western lens as European artists depicted them as concubines or consorts to the wealthy men with whom they resided. From Ingres, to Picasso and Matisse later in the 20th century, it became common practice to represent these women as sultry and erotic, more often than not lounging on their sides naked and gazing at the viewer. Depictions of “oriental” scenes and people fascinated Western artists and viewers; the “exotic nature” of different ways of life allowed Europeans to both admire the aesthetics of certain things and judge practices that did not correspond with their Western values and beliefs.
Within the context of odalisques in the canon of art history, it is curious that Beauford would decide to depict such a figure in one of his paintings, let alone a self-portrait. During the 1940s, he was in New York City, in the midst of his Greene Street era, and animated works of art representing the scenes and objects he saw in his everyday life were often experiments in abstraction and use of color. It was during this time that Beauford was becoming increasingly interested in modern artists and the techniques they used, both the United States and abroad. A big fan of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, it is possible that he studied and admired their works with odalisques. Perhaps he painted the woman in his self-portrait to create an image of himself as a global modernist, one knowledgeable in the trend of “Orientalism” that had been prominent at the turn of the century.
Self-portraits are oftentimes explorations of new techniques for artists, a way to navigate new methods of creating art. Self-Portrait with Odalisque is more figurative and narrative than the abstract cityscapes and portraits Beauford was completing at the time, so he could have been experimenting with a new method of storytelling in his paintings.
As a gay man wary of sexual promiscuity and eroticism, it is unusual that Beauford would choose to depict a woman that was a symbol for such traits in Western art history. Before completing Dark Rapture (1941), his first portrait of James Baldwin, the girlfriend of Emile Capouya (the man who introduced Baldwin and Beauford) insisted that he paint a nude portrait of her. Beauford was always shy in the figure drawing classes he took at the Art Students’ League with regard to nude portraits and was relieved to know it was against the rules for black artists to be present when there was a white model. The presence of the odalisque, who is black, may be a nod to his painting experience with Emile’s girlfriend, or to the racist rules that were in place in artistic organizations at the time.
Edouard Manet
(1863) Oil on Canvas
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France
Google Art Project - Image in Public Domain
The immediate comparison that comes to mind when viewing Self-Portrait with Odalisque is its similarities with Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863), the ground-breaking painting by Edouard Manet. Producing an outcry from the Paris Salon for the distorted use of perspective and the “pornographic” scene of two business men with scantily-clad women, this painting became infamous in Manet’s time. Certain parallels between Beauford’s self-portrait and Manet’s scene are striking. Beauford’s disengagement with the woman is reminiscent of the dynamics among the figures of Le déjeuner sur l’herbe - the two business men seem to be oblivious of the two naked women accompanying them on the picnic. The setting of Manet’s painting, a forest with a body of water in the distance, appears in Beauford’s self-portrait as well.
Yet another compelling aspect to Beauford’s work of art is the space he and the woman are occupying. Is this an allusion to Manet, or did he have a specific location in mind, perhaps a special place from Knoxville or New York?
Beauford did not create art in a vacuum. He was entrenched in the political, social and artistic implications of the United States and Europe of the time, and Self-Portrait with Odalisque reflects many aspects of this reality. The painting is intriguing in that it raises more questions than answers when examined closely. A gorgeous exploration of color and painterly brushstrokes, it is peculiar in the context of his other works. Whether a way to put himself in the shoes of the modernist icons before him, or an exercise in painting the elusive nude female figure, the inclusion of the odalisque in this self-portrait is a fascinating choice with no clear rationale.
Beauford and the Flapper Girl
by Maija Brennan
Maija Brennan is the Wells International Foundation's 2019 summer intern. A rising senior at Smith College, she majors in French and art history with a concentration in museum studies. Her eight-week internship focuses on researching the life and art of painter Beauford Delaney and creating an online exhibition of a selection of his works.
Beauford Delaney’s numerous and vastly diverse portraits were not only a way to capture the outer and inner vision of the subject, but also a means for him to express personal thoughts and emotions. During the first formative years of his new life in New York City, which began in 1929, he earned income by drawing portraits of the dancers at Billy Pierce’s Dancing School and the high society women who came through the establishment. These pencil and charcoal drawings reflect the classical training he received during his Boston years, when he learned how to realistically render facial features.
Charcoal of a Black Woman (1929)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Charcoal of a Black Woman (Flapper Girl) from 1929 is representative of this period in Beauford’s life. This drawing is a profile of a girl adorned in a cloche hat, the headpiece symbolic of flappers from the decade. The term “flapper” was invented during the 1920s to describe a new wave of Western society women who were defying the societal norms and behavior of the era. Flapper girls were characterized by their short dresses and skirts (a departure from the more modest women’s fashion of the 19th century), their short bobbed hair, and their love of jazz music and dancing. Seen as more flamboyant and promiscuous than what was acceptable for women in the past, flappers represented a movement of women taking control of their own autonomy and sexuality.
Flapper Dresses by Lidiqnati
Gold Yellow Dress
FANDOM Community CC-BY-SA license
When we think of depictions of flapper girls today, even in 2019, our minds oftentimes follow this narrative. John Held, a well-known cartoonist during the 1920s, popularized the image that we associate them with in the 21st century: brazen and free-spirited girls dancing with and kissing men. With this in mind, Beauford’s portrait of a flapper girl becomes a thought-provoking one, as its technique and depiction contrast starkly with other illustrations of these women that were being produced at the time.
Delia Delaney's photo of Beauford
Fair use claim
This photograph of a young Beauford Delaney, which belonged to his mother, Delia, creates an interesting juxtaposition with the above portrait. Even at first glance, the physical similarities between Beauford’s profile and those of the flapper girl are apparent. There is no photographic evidence of the woman in the charcoal drawing to compare with this artistic portrayal, but her prominent nose and slightly protruding upper lip bear a striking resemblance to Beauford’s features in Delia’s photograph. One can imagine that he used his own facial profile as a guide for the portrait.
Beauford’s portraits of women are far fewer in number than the ones of men, and while there is no clear reason for why this is, Charcoal of a Black Woman (Flapper girl) provides a platform for an analysis of his sentiments or wariness regarding modern women of his time. In Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, David Leeming writes that Beauford was often concerned or “offended” by his brother’s “excessive interest in women,” believing it would “drain his natural talent.” The opposing sexualities between Beauford and Joseph proved to be a point of contention, as Joe, in the same manner in which his brother didn’t trust women, did not want to associate with Beauford’s queer companions.
Eloise Johnson wrote an article on the concept of the “femme fatale” titled “Out of the Ashes: Cultural Identity and Marginalization in the Art of Beauford Delaney” for Notes in the History of Art. In it, she notes that the 19th century’s notion of promiscuous women, or “femme fatales,” was that they were capable of eroding a man’s natural and creative talents through their allure. It is possible that Beauford was wary of such women, the ones he saw in Joe’s life and in his daily excursions around New York City. Flapper girls were the “femme fatales” of the 1920s, and his portrait of this one may represent a desire to “mute” certain qualities associated with the flapper girl stereotype. Her cloche hat is visible, but that is all the information readable to discern her as a flapper. Her facial features are rather masculine, as noted in the comparison with Delia Delaney’s photograph. She is visible only from the neck up; her fashion choice is not rendered in the illustration. The bright colors Beauford became renowned for in later years were not part of his visual vocabulary at this point in time, yet it is interesting to note that he made the decision to portray this flapper girl in black charcoal, rather than pastels. Such a choice in medium creates more of a somber effect, not what is typically imagined when thinking of the vivacious colors associated with flappers of the 20s. His subject appears immersed in thought, engaged in a moment of stillness from a life of jiving and smoking in jazz clubs.
Beauford’s portrait of a flapper girl from 1929 is a fascinating juxtaposition to the culture and media representations of flappers from the era. Whether a subtle indicator of Beauford’s own sentiments revolving flapper girls, or an attempt to subvert the narrative often associated with them, Charcoal of a Black Woman (Flapper Girl) is meaningful nonetheless in the chronology of his life as an artist and portraitist.
Maija Brennan is the Wells International Foundation's 2019 summer intern. A rising senior at Smith College, she majors in French and art history with a concentration in museum studies. Her eight-week internship focuses on researching the life and art of painter Beauford Delaney and creating an online exhibition of a selection of his works.
Beauford Delaney’s numerous and vastly diverse portraits were not only a way to capture the outer and inner vision of the subject, but also a means for him to express personal thoughts and emotions. During the first formative years of his new life in New York City, which began in 1929, he earned income by drawing portraits of the dancers at Billy Pierce’s Dancing School and the high society women who came through the establishment. These pencil and charcoal drawings reflect the classical training he received during his Boston years, when he learned how to realistically render facial features.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Charcoal of a Black Woman (Flapper Girl) from 1929 is representative of this period in Beauford’s life. This drawing is a profile of a girl adorned in a cloche hat, the headpiece symbolic of flappers from the decade. The term “flapper” was invented during the 1920s to describe a new wave of Western society women who were defying the societal norms and behavior of the era. Flapper girls were characterized by their short dresses and skirts (a departure from the more modest women’s fashion of the 19th century), their short bobbed hair, and their love of jazz music and dancing. Seen as more flamboyant and promiscuous than what was acceptable for women in the past, flappers represented a movement of women taking control of their own autonomy and sexuality.
Gold Yellow Dress
FANDOM Community CC-BY-SA license
When we think of depictions of flapper girls today, even in 2019, our minds oftentimes follow this narrative. John Held, a well-known cartoonist during the 1920s, popularized the image that we associate them with in the 21st century: brazen and free-spirited girls dancing with and kissing men. With this in mind, Beauford’s portrait of a flapper girl becomes a thought-provoking one, as its technique and depiction contrast starkly with other illustrations of these women that were being produced at the time.
Fair use claim
This photograph of a young Beauford Delaney, which belonged to his mother, Delia, creates an interesting juxtaposition with the above portrait. Even at first glance, the physical similarities between Beauford’s profile and those of the flapper girl are apparent. There is no photographic evidence of the woman in the charcoal drawing to compare with this artistic portrayal, but her prominent nose and slightly protruding upper lip bear a striking resemblance to Beauford’s features in Delia’s photograph. One can imagine that he used his own facial profile as a guide for the portrait.
Beauford’s portraits of women are far fewer in number than the ones of men, and while there is no clear reason for why this is, Charcoal of a Black Woman (Flapper girl) provides a platform for an analysis of his sentiments or wariness regarding modern women of his time. In Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney
, David Leeming writes that Beauford was often concerned or “offended” by his brother’s “excessive interest in women,” believing it would “drain his natural talent.” The opposing sexualities between Beauford and Joseph proved to be a point of contention, as Joe, in the same manner in which his brother didn’t trust women, did not want to associate with Beauford’s queer companions.Eloise Johnson wrote an article on the concept of the “femme fatale” titled “Out of the Ashes: Cultural Identity and Marginalization in the Art of Beauford Delaney” for Notes in the History of Art. In it, she notes that the 19th century’s notion of promiscuous women, or “femme fatales,” was that they were capable of eroding a man’s natural and creative talents through their allure. It is possible that Beauford was wary of such women, the ones he saw in Joe’s life and in his daily excursions around New York City. Flapper girls were the “femme fatales” of the 1920s, and his portrait of this one may represent a desire to “mute” certain qualities associated with the flapper girl stereotype. Her cloche hat is visible, but that is all the information readable to discern her as a flapper. Her facial features are rather masculine, as noted in the comparison with Delia Delaney’s photograph. She is visible only from the neck up; her fashion choice is not rendered in the illustration. The bright colors Beauford became renowned for in later years were not part of his visual vocabulary at this point in time, yet it is interesting to note that he made the decision to portray this flapper girl in black charcoal, rather than pastels. Such a choice in medium creates more of a somber effect, not what is typically imagined when thinking of the vivacious colors associated with flappers of the 20s. His subject appears immersed in thought, engaged in a moment of stillness from a life of jiving and smoking in jazz clubs.
Beauford’s portrait of a flapper girl from 1929 is a fascinating juxtaposition to the culture and media representations of flappers from the era. Whether a subtle indicator of Beauford’s own sentiments revolving flapper girls, or an attempt to subvert the narrative often associated with them, Charcoal of a Black Woman (Flapper Girl) is meaningful nonetheless in the chronology of his life as an artist and portraitist.
Two Beauford Delaney Works Sold at Separate Auctions in Paris
Beauford's work is appearing more and more frequently in sales at Paris auction houses. On June 12, two of his works were sold at auction - each by a different establishment.
Both works were painted in 1963, the year during which Beauford participated in group shows at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles at the Musée d'Art Moderne and the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, Switzerland. Biographer David Leeming indicates that Beauford wrote to Henry Miller in July 1963, saying that he was "trying to merge color and form into the essences of things felt and remembered."
ADER Nordmann listed Composition, a stunning red and yellow abstract, at its Post War and Contemporary Art sale.
Composition
(1963) Oil on canvas
Signed and dated, rear
41 x 33 cm; 16.14 x 12.99 in
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
This painting belonged to Hart Leroy Bibbs, a long-term Paris expatriate who made a name for himself in literature and the visual arts as a poet, actor, painter, sculptor, and photographer.
The estimated sale price for Composition was 10,000€ to 15,000€. It sold for 27,000€ (hammer price) plus an additional 28% for buyer's fees, bringing the total purchase price to 34,560€.
Millon proposed a luminous gouache from a private collection in its Post War & Contemporary Art sale, which began 30 minutes after the ADER sale.
Untitled
(1963) Gouache on paper
Signed and dated, bottom left
32.5 x 50.3 cm; 12.79 x 19.8 in
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Its estimated price was 6,000€ to 8,000€. It sold for 7,805€, including a 30% buyer's fee.
Both works were painted in 1963, the year during which Beauford participated in group shows at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles at the Musée d'Art Moderne and the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, Switzerland. Biographer David Leeming
indicates that Beauford wrote to Henry Miller in July 1963, saying that he was "trying to merge color and form into the essences of things felt and remembered."ADER Nordmann listed Composition, a stunning red and yellow abstract, at its Post War and Contemporary Art sale.
(1963) Oil on canvas
Signed and dated, rear
41 x 33 cm; 16.14 x 12.99 in
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
This painting belonged to Hart Leroy Bibbs, a long-term Paris expatriate who made a name for himself in literature and the visual arts as a poet, actor, painter, sculptor, and photographer.
The estimated sale price for Composition was 10,000€ to 15,000€. It sold for 27,000€ (hammer price) plus an additional 28% for buyer's fees, bringing the total purchase price to 34,560€.
Millon proposed a luminous gouache from a private collection in its Post War & Contemporary Art sale, which began 30 minutes after the ADER sale.
(1963) Gouache on paper
Signed and dated, bottom left
32.5 x 50.3 cm; 12.79 x 19.8 in
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Its estimated price was 6,000€ to 8,000€. It sold for 7,805€, including a 30% buyer's fee.
Beauford and "The Rhythm of New York"
In the book entitled Making Race: Modernism and “Racial Art” in America, author Jacqueline Francis devotes roughly two pages of text to Beauford's work from the early New York years in her chapter on "Type/Face/Mask: Racial Portraiture." She cites a quote that Beauford gave to the New York Telegraph in a 1930 interview:
"I never drew a decent thing until I felt the rhythm of New York. New York has a rhythm as distinct as the beating of a human heart. And I'm trying to put it on canvas..."
Today I'm sharing images of a few of the paintings Beauford created in the years subsequent to this interview to capture the landscape of New York.
Greene Street
(1940) Oil on canvas
Image by André Moran from the Artsmia Web site
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Greenwich Village
(1945) Oil on canvas
Image by Manu Sasoonian, from Amazing Grace
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Exchange Place
(1943) Oil on panel
Image Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York , NY
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Untitled (Washington Square Park)
(1952) Oil on canvas
Myron Kunin Collection of American Art
Minneapolis Institute of Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Untitled (Trees)
(c. 1945) Oil on canvas
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
"I never drew a decent thing until I felt the rhythm of New York. New York has a rhythm as distinct as the beating of a human heart. And I'm trying to put it on canvas..."
Today I'm sharing images of a few of the paintings Beauford created in the years subsequent to this interview to capture the landscape of New York.
(1940) Oil on canvas
Image by André Moran from the Artsmia Web site
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1945) Oil on canvas
Image by Manu Sasoonian, from Amazing Grace
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1943) Oil on panel
Image Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York , NY
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1952) Oil on canvas
Myron Kunin Collection of American Art
Minneapolis Institute of Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(c. 1945) Oil on canvas
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford's Post-War Art
Within the last six months, Beauford's work has been sold at two auctions whose titles reference the Post-war (WWII) period: Christie's Post-war to Present sale and Ader Nordmann's Art d'après-guerre & contemporain (Post-war and contemporary art) sale.
I recently came across an archival Web site for a major exhibition entitled Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic, 1945-1965, which delved extensively into what transpired in the art world in the aftermath of World War II. The site describes the exhibition as
I was pleased to find that two of Beauford's paintings were included in this show, which ran from October 14, 2016 through March 26, 2017. It was held at Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany.
One of the works was a portrait of James Baldwin, currently held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Portrait of James Baldwin
(1945) Oil on canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The other was a yellow abstract held by the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery.
Untitled
(c.1958) Oil on canvas
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
The exhibition was divided into eight chapters and the artists whose works were shown were listed in one or more of these chapters. Beauford's name was listed in the chapters "Form Matters" and "New Images of Man."
The essay for the chapter entitled "Form Matters" indicates that the exhibition
The essay that describes "New Images of Man" indicates that
In visiting the Web pages that present the works included in each chapter, I found an image of Beauford's abstract in the "Form Matters" section.
However, the image of his portrait of James Baldwin was included in the chapter called "Realisms." The essay for this section focuses primarily on art produced in socialist / communist countries, but it also mentions that the section includes "ideologically programmatic art by such U.S. artists as Norman Rockwell, who was associated with realist rendering and popular audiences."
I recently came across an archival Web site for a major exhibition entitled Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic, 1945-1965, which delved extensively into what transpired in the art world in the aftermath of World War II. The site describes the exhibition as
"an in-depth, global study, the exhibition shows painting, sculpture, installation, collage, performance, film, artist books, documents, photography, in total more than 350 works by 218 artists from 65 countries."
I was pleased to find that two of Beauford's paintings were included in this show, which ran from October 14, 2016 through March 26, 2017. It was held at Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany.
One of the works was a portrait of James Baldwin, currently held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
(1945) Oil on canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The other was a yellow abstract held by the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery.
(c.1958) Oil on canvas
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
The exhibition was divided into eight chapters and the artists whose works were shown were listed in one or more of these chapters. Beauford's name was listed in the chapters "Form Matters" and "New Images of Man."
The essay for the chapter entitled "Form Matters" indicates that the exhibition
"emphasizes the affinity of ideas and materials among artists who emigrated to the U.S. from Europe. It also documents the encounters of artists from around the world who gathered in such metropolitan centers as Paris, London, and Mexico City; and reviews the proximity and circulation of art works in international exhibitions and small press publications."
The essay that describes "New Images of Man" indicates that
"Philosophers and artists sought to inquire more deeply into human nature itself, in debates that included the discourses of négritude and existentialism, and the rights of individuals and groups within larger (often oppressive) social and political entities. 'New Images' features pictorial versions of such inquiries, in which humans often appear battered, deformed by the horror of modern life, rent by the question of their own value."
In visiting the Web pages that present the works included in each chapter, I found an image of Beauford's abstract in the "Form Matters" section.
However, the image of his portrait of James Baldwin was included in the chapter called "Realisms." The essay for this section focuses primarily on art produced in socialist / communist countries, but it also mentions that the section includes "ideologically programmatic art by such U.S. artists as Norman Rockwell, who was associated with realist rendering and popular audiences."
Another Beauford Abstract Sells at Auction
Help us finalize the first full-length documentary about Beauford and screen it at this year's Cannes Film Festival!
Click on the following link to give:
Cannes Screening for Beauford Delaney Documentary
**********
Swann Auction Galleries held its spring African-American Fine Art Sale on April 4. Three Beauford Delaney works were made available for purchase.
Untitled (Still Life) is an exquisite example of Beauford's early work and is one of the rare still lifes that he is known to have created. In 1932, the year from which this work dates, a reviewer described his work as displaying "careful, deliberate draughtsmanship."
(1932) Color pastels on green wove paper
584x419 mm; 23x16 1/2 inches
Signed and dated in pastel, lower right
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The estimated sale price for this piece was set at $25,000 - $30,000.
Beauford created the untitled abstract shown below in 1963. In Amazing Grace
, biographer David Leeming indicates that Beauford was especially inspired to paint that spring and summer.
(1963) Watercolor and pencil on thin wove paper
660x508 mm; 12 1/2x9 1/2 inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower right
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Untitled (Red and Yellow Composition), which was once owned by James and Gloria Jones, was shown in the Studio Museum in Harlem exhibition entitled Collected. Propositions on the Permanent Collection in 2009. Its estimated sale price was $6,000 - $9,000.
The final Beauford Delaney work offered for sale was Portrait of a Bearded Young Man Reading, dated 1971-1972. Leeming describes the portraiture from this period as being "vehicles for Beauford's concern with color and the production of light" and says that Beauford's purpose in painting portraits during this time seemed to have been more about celebrating the art of painting itself than about portraying the inner essence of his subjects.
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
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The estimated sale price for this painting was $7,000 - $10,000.
Untitled (Red and Yellow Composition) was the only work that sold during the auction. It fetched a hammer price of $17,000, which increased to $21,250 with the addition of the buyer's premium*.
*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.
Christie's Sells Beauford's Abstraction No. 4
Beauford's Abstraction No. 4 was auctioned by Christie's New York during its Post-War to Present sale on February 28.
Abstraction No. 4
(ca. 1965) Oil on canvas
51 x 38 1/8 in. (129.5 x 96.8 cm.)
signed 'Beauford Delaney' (upper right)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The seller acquired the painting from Beauford's brother, Joseph, who acquired it from Beauford.
Abstraction No. 4's estimated sale price was $100,000 to $150,000. It sold for $387,000, including a buyer's premium of 20%.
For more information about the Post-War to Present sale, click HERE.
(ca. 1965) Oil on canvas
51 x 38 1/8 in. (129.5 x 96.8 cm.)
signed 'Beauford Delaney' (upper right)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The seller acquired the painting from Beauford's brother, Joseph, who acquired it from Beauford.
Abstraction No. 4's estimated sale price was $100,000 to $150,000. It sold for $387,000, including a buyer's premium of 20%.
For more information about the Post-War to Present sale, click HERE.
Beauford at Christie's New York
A beautiful yellow abstract by Beauford is being auctioned by Christie's New York during its Post-War to Present sale on February 28.
Abstraction No. 4
(ca. 1965) Oil on canvas
51 x 38 1/8 in. (129.5 x 96.8 cm.)
signed 'Beauford Delaney' (upper right)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The date given for the painting is circa 1965. In November of that year, Beauford wrote the following to his dear friend, 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."
Abstraction No. 4 seems to embody this spirit. It is listed as Lot 3 in the Christie's catalog and its estimated sale price is $100,000 to $150,000.
For more information about the sale, click HERE.
(ca. 1965) Oil on canvas
51 x 38 1/8 in. (129.5 x 96.8 cm.)
signed 'Beauford Delaney' (upper right)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The date given for the painting is circa 1965. In November of that year, Beauford wrote the following to his dear friend, 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."
Abstraction No. 4 seems to embody this spirit. It is listed as Lot 3 in the Christie's catalog and its estimated sale price is $100,000 to $150,000.
For more information about the sale, click HERE.
Beauford in Ink
From what I've seen over the years, Beauford rarely used ink when he created colored abstract works on paper. Because of a recent inquiry regarding the sale of one of his paintings from Darthea Speyer's collection at Christie's in Paris in 2010, I was reminded of this beautiful work on paper, which was sold at the same auction.
Untitled
(1961) Ink, inkwash, and aquarelle on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford signed and dated this work and dedicated it as follows:
"Mallorca 1961 for miss Darthea Speyer"
Beauford traveled to San Telmo in Mallorca in late August 1961 with Charley and Gita Boggs; their son, Gordon, and Joe and Bernice O'Reilly. The Boggses were dear, long-time friends who had sent out a plea for funds to pay for Beauford's medical expenses after his mental breakdown in Greece the month before. They took responsibility for him upon his return to France while they and other friends sought a solution for his precarious physical and mental state. Beauford had traveled to Greece to meet Darthea Speyer; it was she who organized his medical care in Greece and his return to France.
From biographer David Leeming's account of this trip in Amazing Grace, we know that Beauford was soothed by the company of Gita and Bernice and that he "even began to do some watercolors."
In this work, the brilliant yellow background is overlaid by wide, irregular, sinuous bands of black with smudged to feathery edges, some of which are tinged with blue and / or outlined in white. These latter areas almost seem electric. Perhaps we can interpret the black bands as the darkness that permeated his spirit during these difficult days and the "electric" zones as sparks of hope that he would once again feel whole and happy in the light represented by the yellow backdrop.
The only other colored ink abstract work that I recall seeing was shown in the 2016 Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color exhibition in Paris.
Untitled
(1956) Inks on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
1956 was the first year Beauford stayed in Clamart. Richard A. Long, who organized the first retrospective of Beauford’s work at the Studio Museum of Harlem in 1978, described works from this period as being characterized “either by a somber palette or by the sheer power of clashing color masses”.
Here, we are clearly in the realm of the latter. The red mass in the center of the paper projects boldly upward at a slight angle, while the tortuous, underlying black mass leads the eye downward in opposition. The red mass seems rigid and inanimate, while the black seems fluid, even serpentine, with the head of the coiled snake poised to strike.
Swaths of lighter color soften the work while simultaneously enhancing the contrast between its two main thrusts of energy, each of which represents power in a different form.
(1961) Ink, inkwash, and aquarelle on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford signed and dated this work and dedicated it as follows:
"Mallorca 1961 for miss Darthea Speyer"
Beauford traveled to San Telmo in Mallorca in late August 1961 with Charley and Gita Boggs; their son, Gordon, and Joe and Bernice O'Reilly. The Boggses were dear, long-time friends who had sent out a plea for funds to pay for Beauford's medical expenses after his mental breakdown in Greece the month before. They took responsibility for him upon his return to France while they and other friends sought a solution for his precarious physical and mental state. Beauford had traveled to Greece to meet Darthea Speyer; it was she who organized his medical care in Greece and his return to France.
From biographer David Leeming's account of this trip in Amazing Grace
, we know that Beauford was soothed by the company of Gita and Bernice and that he "even began to do some watercolors."In this work, the brilliant yellow background is overlaid by wide, irregular, sinuous bands of black with smudged to feathery edges, some of which are tinged with blue and / or outlined in white. These latter areas almost seem electric. Perhaps we can interpret the black bands as the darkness that permeated his spirit during these difficult days and the "electric" zones as sparks of hope that he would once again feel whole and happy in the light represented by the yellow backdrop.
The only other colored ink abstract work that I recall seeing was shown in the 2016 Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color exhibition in Paris.
(1956) Inks on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
1956 was the first year Beauford stayed in Clamart. Richard A. Long, who organized the first retrospective of Beauford’s work at the Studio Museum of Harlem in 1978, described works from this period as being characterized “either by a somber palette or by the sheer power of clashing color masses”.
Here, we are clearly in the realm of the latter. The red mass in the center of the paper projects boldly upward at a slight angle, while the tortuous, underlying black mass leads the eye downward in opposition. The red mass seems rigid and inanimate, while the black seems fluid, even serpentine, with the head of the coiled snake poised to strike.
Swaths of lighter color soften the work while simultaneously enhancing the contrast between its two main thrusts of energy, each of which represents power in a different form.
Beauford in God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin
Dark Rapture is the first portrait that Beauford painted of James Baldwin.
Dark Rapture
(1941) Oil on masonite
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It is one of three featured works of art by Beauford in the exhibition entitled God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin, curated by writer Hilton Als and showing at the David Zwirner Gallery in New York. New York Times writer Holland Cotter describes Dark Rapture as the centerpiece of the show.
God Made My Face - Dark Rapture
Image courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery
God Made My Face is Als' piercingly personal look at Baldwin's life and work. The first, autobiographical section of the two-part show, called "The Walker in the City," presents Baldwin in New York and Paris. Visitors will find it in the 525 Gallery. This is the section in which Beauford's paintings are hung.
Rehearsal, a 1952 figurative painting, hangs next to a photo of Baldwin's stepfather, David Baldwin (who was a preacher).
Beauford's Rehearsal and photo of David Baldwin
Image courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery
An untitled Beauford Delaney abstract from 1963 hangs next to two black & white photos of 1900s Paris by Eugène Atget.
Beauford's Untitled and Atget photos
Image courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery
Other artists whose works appear in the show include Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Sedat Pakay, Glenn Ligon, and Kara Walker. One of these artists, Marlene Dumas, contributed a series of fourteen portraits called Baldwin and, 2014-2018 to the show - including one of Baldwin and one of Beauford. Beauford's portrait hangs at the far left of the series.
Marlene Dumas series
Image courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery
Beauford Delaney, 2018
Marlene Dumas
Ink, graphite, and metallic acrylic on paper
DUMMA0818P1
Image courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery
In an article published in The New Yorker, Als describes Beauford as Baldwin's "other father, a gay father." He is planning to curate a show of Beauford's work later this year.
God Made My Face is on display through February 16, 2019.
David Zwirner Gallery
525 and 533 West 19th Street
New York, NY 10011
Telephone: 212-727-2070
*************
Listen to this interview with Hilton Als about God Made My Face. From 5:06 to 10:22, Als and interviewer Savona Bailey-McClain talk about Beauford and James Baldwin.
(1941) Oil on masonite
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It is one of three featured works of art by Beauford in the exhibition entitled God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin, curated by writer Hilton Als and showing at the David Zwirner Gallery in New York. New York Times writer Holland Cotter describes Dark Rapture as the centerpiece of the show.
Image courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery
God Made My Face is Als' piercingly personal look at Baldwin's life and work. The first, autobiographical section of the two-part show, called "The Walker in the City," presents Baldwin in New York and Paris. Visitors will find it in the 525 Gallery. This is the section in which Beauford's paintings are hung.
Rehearsal, a 1952 figurative painting, hangs next to a photo of Baldwin's stepfather, David Baldwin (who was a preacher).
Image courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery
An untitled Beauford Delaney abstract from 1963 hangs next to two black & white photos of 1900s Paris by Eugène Atget.
Image courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery
Other artists whose works appear in the show include Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Sedat Pakay, Glenn Ligon, and Kara Walker. One of these artists, Marlene Dumas, contributed a series of fourteen portraits called Baldwin and, 2014-2018 to the show - including one of Baldwin and one of Beauford. Beauford's portrait hangs at the far left of the series.
Image courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery
Marlene Dumas
Ink, graphite, and metallic acrylic on paper
DUMMA0818P1
Image courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery
In an article published in The New Yorker, Als describes Beauford as Baldwin's "other father, a gay father." He is planning to curate a show of Beauford's work later this year.
God Made My Face is on display through February 16, 2019.
David Zwirner Gallery
525 and 533 West 19th Street
New York, NY 10011
Telephone: 212-727-2070
Listen to this interview with Hilton Als about God Made My Face. From 5:06 to 10:22, Als and interviewer Savona Bailey-McClain talk about Beauford and James Baldwin.