Stephen Wicks and Rachel Cohen Discuss Baldwin Portrait - Part 2
Rachel Cohen: Brief Introduction to Part II
(Read Part 1 HERE.)
What’s written here is transcribed and edited from the second part of a conversation I had with Knoxville Museum of Art curator Stephen Wicks. The conversation began from Wicks’s close observations of Beauford Delaney’s Portrait of James Baldwin, 1966, and the discoveries Wicks had made about the way Delaney was evidently thinking not only about James Baldwin, but also about Alberto Giacometti and Giacometti’s biographer James Lord, mingling ideas about the three men and their work in his painting.
Delaney had long admired Giacometti’s work, knew him in Paris, made a pastel sketch of him, and mourned his passing when Giacometti died in January 1966. Delaney also knew another figure in Giacometti’s world, James Lord, who would eventually write a magisterial Giacometti biography, and had, the year before, in 1965, published his A Giacometti Portrait about the experience of being painted by Giacometti. Delaney knew Lord well enough to have fed him what he wrote to Lord apologetically had been an “awful lunch” at Delaney’s studio in Clamart. After Giacometti’s death, Delaney read Lord’s Giacometti Portrait with interest and spoke of it in this letter he wrote to Lord, also in 1966.
At the same time, Delaney’s dear friend James Baldwin was entering a new period in his renown, and Delaney was keeping files of press clippings of Baldwin’s activities – including the coverage and cover photo of Baldwin in Time Magazine. After a long time apart, in the summer of 1966, Delaney spent two important months with Baldwin in Istanbul, and began his 1966 painting of Baldwin there.
Thus, ideas about mortality, legacy, and what Delaney described to Lord as the “delicate ambiance between two friends,” are in the background, and the foreground, of Delaney’s Portrait of James Baldwin, 1966.
(1966) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
For this part of our conversation, I have transcribed a section where Stephen Wicks talks about the actual blending of different figures in the painting itself, and others where he and I spoke together about the atmospheres and techniques of Giacometti and Delaney, about the great essay by James Baldwin on Beauford Delaney’s work, "On the Painter Beauford Delaney," that was published in 1964, and about how Wicks worked from that essay to curate the important show Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin: Through the Unusual Door at the Knoxville Museum of Art in 2020.
— Rachel Cohen, Chicago
December 8, 2021
Rachel Cohen: I found it striking, and kind of delightful, that you think you’ve found some of James Lord’s facial features in the painting. Tell me about that.
Stephen Wicks: I was actually looking at the 1965 press photograph of Baldwin (that I think was the basis for the blue ink sketch of Baldwin by Delaney) and at period photographs of James Lord from around the time that the book was written and the sitting was happening, and I found frontal shots of Lord that appeared to align with Delaney’s 1966 painting of Baldwin.
And I just kept looking at Lord’s tight mouth that's tucked up right underneath the nose and the nose actually has this fairly bulbous base and I thought that's the way the nose looks in the Delaney painting. Baldwin doesn't have a nose like that, Baldwin's mouth isn't like that and it led me to think Delaney might have been looking at Lord’s image for some of the key features.
Blue ink on sketchbook paper, 5 ½ x 3 ½ inches
Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee
Photograph by Bruce Cole
© The Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
RC: I wondered if Delaney might have been laughing to himself as he was doing it, kind of making Giacometti's Lord, at the same time that he was making Delaney’s Baldwin. This kind of overlapping… there’s also overlap in the two painters’ artistic interests, I think.
SW: According to David Leeming’s Delaney biography [Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney], as early as 1953 or ‘54, Delaney is supposedly admiring Giacometti’s work for quote “its simple lines of African sculpture.” Both Giacometti and Delaney place great attention on the volume of the head of their sitters, and in some ways that’s reflective of their mutual interest in African sculpture. And both thought about depicting people in ways that represented a spiritual or psychological portrait rather than a physical portrait. Certain traits or qualities seen as important such as the mind, the eyes, and the head would be enlarged – it's the same thing you see in a lot of medieval art where this presence of an enhanced spiritual awareness is denoted by enlarged eyes.
RC: I find it really fruitful to think about Delaney and Giacometti together, because there’s something similar about their intentions, about how they understood abstraction and figuration, and what they were able to bring through, the way they worked so long on their canvases.
SW: And the end result is as much or more a record of that struggle, and their internal atmosphere during the time that the work is going on, as it is a record of the sitter or the subject matter. The sitter usually is consumed or withered away in the process of all that energy coming out.
Usually as you create someone's portrait, you're putting marks, matter, together, you're building up and out fleshing out. In the case of Giacometti, the more he goes at that figure and tries to bring it into shape the more it ends up eroded, and with Delaney a lot of his figures are “dissolved” by the veils of abstract brushwork.
At the Galerie Lambert show [important Delaney show in Paris in 1964], people were confused about the difference between a painting that's just total abstraction and another one that appears 80% abstraction but yet there's clearly the profile or silhouette of a figure. Delaney viewed them all as “studies in light.” I think ultimately Delaney dissolves and erodes a lot of his sitters in a way that’s similar to what Giacometti does, but the effect is very different.
RC: Say a little more about the contrast.
SW: With Delaney, it is almost as if he's depicting the light within sitters that seems to radiate or break the boundaries of their outer shell, or that bombards them from the outside in a way that makes them appear spectral rather than a solid figure sitting in space.
RC: And what would you say that Giacometti is...
SW: With Giacometti, it seems more like he's tugging at the raw material that he's using to represent the sitter, he's pulling it, in elongating it, attenuating it, peeling back the skin, pulling the muscle away, getting at the center, getting at the truth, maybe, of the figure ... taking away any likeness, leaving only the raw architecture of the figure. And yet somehow, when you look at those abstracted elongated sculptures or paintings by Giacometti, you're still able to see who's being depicted. Somehow he's left enough trace there for you to make the connection.
RC: I think that's a wonderful comparison, that seems right, because Giacometti is so architectural and sculptural, and in Delaney, it’s …
SW: it's light and color.
The surface of Giacometti’s sculptures and paintings are built up and textural and gestural in a way that you see in quite a few of Delaney’s paintings, but again, the handwriting is different. You've got that same desire not to hide the mark, not to suppress it. To leave that record of it, an honest record that an artist of integrity wouldn't want to erase.
Alberto Giacometti in his Montparnasse studio in Paris,
photographed by his wife, Annette
Author: FAAG Paris
Archives Fondation Giacometti
© Succession Alberto Giacometti (Fondation Giacometti, Paris + ADAGP, Paris) 2019
CC-BY-SA-4.0
RC: I’m really interested in the quality of time – time in the painting and the time of painting.
SW: Take cubism and its radical approach, for instance. Instead of having this fixed view of the world, you are getting multiple views in one image in a manner that conveys an element of time. In the works we’re discussing here, Giacometti and Delaney create an image that has some resemblance to what they actually saw with their eyes, but then with that are their perceptions of the sitter’s essence or inner likeness, all the while conveying something of their own internal world in the way they shape the image. These elements are constantly working to resolve themselves or maybe maintain a state of tension and often it’s the tension that we love.
RC: In both cases, Delaney and Giacometti, there’s not only the long work on individual paintings, there’s also long work with certain sitters, and in that way I think the real comparison with the way Delaney painted Baldwin, over and over, is the way Giacometti painted his own brother Diego, over and over, through his whole career. James Lord wrote a book about being painted, but he wasn’t in that relationship of sitting, through the whole life of the painter, the way Diego was, and the way Baldwin was for Delaney. I mean I think Baldwin and Delaney did think of each other as family.
SW: What I find interesting too is, you know as you were mentioning Baldwin was just becoming this international figure in the mid 1960s and yet at that time, I think we have maybe the greatest number of Baldwin portraits by Delaney in this window of time. You've got the 1967 painting that Rosenfeld Gallery displayed recently [James Baldwin in Be Your Wonderful Self], you’ve got The Sage Black (James Baldwin), 1967. Of course, there's the 1966 portrait that we've been talking about, and the one that's held by the Chrysler Museum [Portrait of James Baldwin, 1965]. These are among the most significant portraits of Baldwin and they happened during this time, when, as you say, Delaney and Baldwin maybe had a hard time finding time to be in each other's presence with the exception of the 1966 summer trip to Istanbul.
(1967) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image from Michael Rosenfeld Gallery Website
(1967) Oil on canvas
Private collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image from Artsmia Website
(1965) Oil on canvas
Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
I think about what Delaney said to James Jones when Jones was visiting him in Paris, and looking at Delaney’s painting of Ella Fitzgerald – this brilliant yellow orange abstraction, and then some eyes and nose and the mouth. And Jones is going what is this about and it says Ella Fitzgerald but doesn't look at all like her, why did you make it look this way, and Delaney said, “Oh no, I've never laid eyes on Ella Fitzgerald. I just painted something ‘I saw in my mind.’”
(1968) Oil on canvas
Permanent collection of the SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah
Gift of Dr. Walter O. and Mrs. Linda J. Evans
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
I see this in the 1966 James Baldwin painting. It's really something he saw in his mind after digesting and absorbing and internalizing all of these different elements that had been in his thoughts around the time that this portrait began to take shape.
RC: You know, you’ve mentioned that you think Delaney was hoping that Baldwin would be his “chronicler” the way that Lord was Giacometti’s. And that that hope might be present in the 1966 portrait. But I wonder if maybe also Delaney felt Baldwin already was that chronicler, because of the important essay for the catalogue of what was probably the biggest show of Delaney’s work in his lifetime, the 1964 Galerie Lambert show, for which Baldwin wrote the catalogue essay. That essay was beautiful and Delaney knew it was beautiful and that it showed great reverence for his work.
SW: Delaney probably understood that based on Baldwin's schedule and the demands that his life was under as a leading international figure, getting that essay for the show was equivalent to what Lord did for Giacometti.
It’s hard to overstate the significance of that essay. To take the 38-year relationship and squeeze it down into an essay that speaks volumes about the lasting lessons Delaney taught him, what Baldwin owed him and what one should see when looking at Delaney’s art.
I feel like Baldwin's words have actually taken a body of Delaney’s work—the Clamart abstractions, in particular— and elevated it in terms of people's ability to see and appreciate it.
In the exhibition we presented here in Knoxville [Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin: Through the Unusual Door, 2020] I tried to, what's the word, channel James Baldwin. He was kind of my co-curator and when I was reading that essay for the 1964 Galerie Lambert show, I thought, how would I approach the Clamart abstractions, how would I lay them out in a way that James Baldwin would have and I tried to go about it in a way that gave you this feeling of sequential atmospheres seen through Delaney’s Clamart studio window that Baldwin describes as this portal of artistic ideas.
Through the Unusual Door catalog cover
RC: In that essay, Baldwin really brings the reader to the studio in Clamart, where Baldwin stayed with Delaney one whole summer, and brings the light and darkness through that window.
SW:I tried to arrange the paintings, some reminiscent of the brilliant first light of day and some maybe right before it becomes almost too dark to see anything but deep blue. I wanted to suggest a sequence of views of light as Beauford experienced them looking through that window. To me those words of Baldwin’s were so helpful and so meaningful.
RC: That's a wonderful insight into the exhibition. The way you staged that room of the late abstractions.... I found that extremely illuminating and I was so glad you devoted that space to that. I remember standing there with you also and really talking those over.
© Les Amis de Beauford Delaney
SW: Delaney often painted the abstractions with a dark base layer and then he would add brighter veils of gestural brushwork in circular patterns. His letters from Clamart indicate a new interest in conveying movement as well as light, and in the union of the two. Somehow, by combining movement and light, he was unlocking something that was taking him where he wanted his art to go and eventually those top layers become brilliant while somehow still allowing us to glimpse the darkness at the base of the composition.
It makes me think of a letter that Baldwin wrote on behalf of Delaney. I think it was for a fellowship that Delaney wanted to actually go out away from the city and work from nature. And Baldwin says something about, how, coming out of the darkness of Tennessee and his roots into the light, no one has endured a greater struggle or more difficult journey than Delaney, and I almost feel like in many ways, some of the abstractions of Clamart and some of his later portraits that have that same abstract brushwork. It's as if he's working each image from its own darkness into its own light.
Rachel Cohen is a professor of creative writing at the University of Chicago. She writes about art for the New Yorker, Apollo Magazine and other places, and you can find her art notebook at www.rachelecohen.com or on IG @rachelcohennotebook.
Stephen Wicks is the Barbara W. and Bernard E. Bernstein Curator at the Knoxville Museum of Art, and organized the 2020 exhibition Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin: Through the Unusual Door, which examined the life and art of painter Beauford Delaney within the context of his thirty-eight-year relationship with writer James Baldwin and the ways their ongoing intellectual exchange shaped one another’s creative output and worldview.
Stephen Wicks and Rachel Cohen Discuss Baldwin Portrait - Part 1
Rachel Cohen: A Word of Introduction
In February of 2020, just before all locked down, there was a wonderful conference, organized by Amy Elias at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, about the relationship of Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin.
Delaney grew up in Knoxville, and the museum there, under the direction of Stephen Wicks, has gradually and carefully accumulated one of the most important collections of Delaney’s work in the world. The conference was planned to be simultaneous with an extraordinary exhibition, curated by Wicks, called Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin: Through the Unusual Door.
I had begun writing about the relationship between Baldwin and Delaney in 2003, as part of a book called A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists, and for me the conference and exhibition were a rare opportunity to be immersed in artistic work I had cared about for a long time.
On a wonderful afternoon at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Stephen Wicks and I stood together in front of a yellow painting with a curious hatch work of very black lines, Portrait of James Baldwin from 1966, in the collection of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. It is unlike any other Delaney painting.
(1966) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Stephen’s ideas about that painting – about the ways you can see in it a confluence of Delaney’s ideas about portraiture and abstraction, his relationship to James Baldwin, his interest in the writer James Lord, and his long admiration for the painter Alberto Giacometti – really surprised me and stayed with me. So, I was delighted when Monique Wells got in touch about this 1966 painting, giving Stephen and me the chance to revisit that conversation. This allowed me to learn about the new research and thinking he’s done about this work since that time.
I’ve edited our conversation to appear in two parts here as part of the record that we are all so grateful to the Les Amis blog for keeping for the community around Beauford Delaney, in the present and for the future.
— Rachel Cohen, Chicago
November 30, 2021
*****************
Rachel Cohen: Stephen, tell me a little about this painting, Portrait of James Baldwin, 1966 and how the research on it has been coming together, before the exhibition and since.
Stephen Wicks: Well, what I knew about first was the sketch [of Baldwin by Delaney] that I came across when we did the exhibition here in Knoxville. It felt like it was the only thing I had seen that appeared to be a precedent for Delaney’s 1966 Baldwin portrait that I thought was so remarkable.
Blue ink on sketchbook paper, 5 ½ x 3 ½ inches
Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee
Photograph by Bruce Cole
© The Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
As I began looking through the archive, I stumbled upon another work, this pastel sketch of Giacometti in a batch of things from that same time, and started seeing these different characters in this cast stepping on to the stage.
Pastel on paper, 20 x 16 inches
The Estate of Beauford Delaney, Knoxville, Tennessee
© The Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(Image horizontally flipped and cropped from original)
Poll Art Foundation, legal successor of photographer Erhard Wehrmann
CC BY-SA 3.0 DE
And then there was a letter that I saw when I was at the Schomberg Center in New York. I was looking for Baldwin letters, from Delaney to Baldwin, and I see one addressed to this “James,” and I think here’s a Baldwin letter, oh, James Lord, who is that, and then I started doing more research and realized what this meant.
RC: That letter from Delaney was written in the year Giacometti had died, and the year after James Lord had just published his book, A Giacometti Portrait, that’s like a diary of being portrayed by Giacometti. It’s really about the kind of studio practice we’ve talked about. Giacometti hurling himself at the canvas, and taking it apart, sometimes he will paint and sometimes he won’t and he’s just ...
1964 Oil on canvas
45,66 x 31,69 inches
Image courtesy of l'Institut Giacometti
SW: Wrecking it every day.
RC: Like a sine curve. Making and unmaking a painting. I think that book would have fascinated Delaney. Like what you were saying about “leaving a record of the struggle.”
SW: At the same time, even though Delaney’s process went on over a long time, making and making again, even still, from the letters from Clamart, I don’t ever really get the sense of struggling. It’s as if he’s finding this new voice. The view of nature outside his Clamart studio window is feeding him, but he also writes repeatedly of turning within himself looking within himself. Delaney is channeling this natural imagery through the window in ways that are just filled with power and momentum.
RC: It’s true, that’s really a different atmosphere of work than what we know of Giacometti.
SW: Delaney was aware of Giacometti’s work and admired it as early as his New York years, and then was acquainted with him in Paris. But the degree to which they knew each other, whether they visited each other’s studios, I just don’t know ...
Delaney and Lord had evidently known each other for years. In the letter to Lord, Delaney talks about how he regretted the awful lunch he fed to Lord when Lord visited him at Clamart.
That letter, in addition to the pastel sketch of Giacometti, and the fact that these sketches for the Baldwin portrait before it was completed looked almost as much like Giacometti sketches as they did like a Delaney sketch, all these factors just fell into place in a way that I think helped me resolve my view of the 1966 James Baldwin painting.
Never in Delaney’s production have I seen a portrait where the background and the figure are so divorced from one another. It’s as if he creates this yellow green orange abstraction and then decides later to lay down these marks in black to define this framework figure that almost looks like it’s been scored or branded into the field of yellow.
RC: Here I think might be a good place just to say that great artists have a facility for “trying out” other artists’ styles, which doesn’t at all mean that their work is derivative of those other artists. When Picasso tries out Braque, he’s not derivative of Braque, he’s expanding his own possibilities, maybe making a commentary.
SW: Yeah, I don’t think it was possible for Delaney to shift into a realm where he was just plugging in someone else’s style. Anything that he saw or came into contact with he might pick up elements of that, they might be swirling around his mind, but what came off of that brush or what came out of those hands was always his authentic deeply felt response to whatever subject he was trying to depict – whether his own internal atmosphere in turmoil, or that turmoil that he read in someone else that he was portraying, it’s always authentic and it's always deeply felt. The same is true of Giacometti – always deeply felt.
In that letter to Lord, Delaney is talking about how he marvels at “the delicate ambiance between” the two men, Giacometti and Lord. And I think at this time Delaney was thinking about Baldwin – thinking “How do I find a way to be around him … he’s not in my life as much as I’d like … how wonderful it would be if he would write a piece about my studio practice ....
RC: Baldwin is becoming an international activist and celebrity – The Fire Next Time is published in 1963, Baldwin and Buckley debated in February of 1965, Baldwin is in demand, traveling a lot.
SW: In this period, Delaney is actually making Baldwin portraits based on press images, photographs, and other secondhand images of Baldwin … not that he needed them, because clearly, in his vivid memory, he had all kinds of images of Baldwin, and he was also creating portraits from memory.
RC: Maybe, in a way, it interested him, or was emotionally necessary to him to reconcile this new public Baldwin with the intimate and remembered and sketched Baldwin.
SW: During this time, Delaney is saving clippings of Baldwin being in the news – he appeared at this rally, or he’s having this head-to-head with William F. Buckley – in some cases, even sending the clippings to Baldwin…. I think I’m the person who suggested that the Chrysler Museum portrait of Baldwin from 1965 was a reverse image of the Baldwin Time Magazine cover of March 17, 1963.
(1965) Oil on canvas
Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
May 17, 1963
Fair Use claim
And then it goes from drought to flood, when Delaney gets to go to Istanbul and hang out with Baldwin, for an extended period, I guess it was July 7th through late August of 1966. I know from [Delaney’s friend and biographer] David Leeming that he started the portrait there in Istanbul, but I don’t know whether that means he did the beginning sketch on that trip, or whether he had an actual canvas that size that he was lugging around, but anyway he finished it after he returned to Paris.
RC: All these things are coming together in the painting – Giacometti’s death, James Lord’s book, Baldwin’s essay about Delaney, the visit with Baldwin, and the distance from Baldwin.
Come back to the blog next week for more of what Stephen Wicks and Rachel Cohen had to say about this in Part II.
Rachel Cohen is a professor of creative writing at the University of Chicago. She writes about art for the New Yorker, Apollo Magazine and other places, and you can find her art notebook at www.rachelecohen.com or on IG @rachelcohennotebook.
Stephen Wicks is the Barbara W. and Bernard E. Bernstein Curator at the Knoxville Museum of Art, and organized the 2020 exhibition Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin: Through the Unusual Door, which examined the life and art of painter Beauford Delaney within the context of his thirty-eight-year relationship with writer James Baldwin and the ways their ongoing intellectual exchange shaped one another’s creative output and worldview.
Rediscovering Style through Beauford's Work
On November 22, 2021, art historian Karima Boudou presented research that explored the double-sided concept of "style as a function of meaning" and "meaning as a function of style" when the two pertain to the work of art historians and art critics.
Funded by the Collège des Bernardins in Paris for a project called "L'Art au présent" ("Art in the Present"), Boudou examined this topic using several Beauford Delaney works as her proverbial lens. Her paper is entitled "Redécouvrir le Style et l'Implication dans l'Œuvre de Beauford Delaney" ("Rediscovering Style and Its Implication in the Work of Beauford Delaney").
Karima Boudou presenting her research© Les Amis de Beauford Delaney
Boudou began working with the intent to answer two questions:
What does Beauford Delaney's œuvre expect from us in 2021 from a French perspective?
and
What can we expect from his œuvre?
Some of the paintings she used to investigate these questions were Village (Saint-Paul de Vence), Portrait of Irene Rose, and Portrait of Jean Genet.
(1972) Oil on canvas
Bequest of James Baldwin
Image courtesy of Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries
(1944) Oil on board
45 1/2 in x 35 in
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo courtesy of ACA Galleries, New York
(1972) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Boudou supported her analysis with elements drawn from the philosophy of Erwin Panofsky, the 19th-20th-century art historian known for his iconographic approach for evaluating visual art works. She created scenarios that demonstrate how the art historian's work relies on that of the art critic and vice versa, comparing them to two halves of an arc that require each other to be able to stand erect and bear weight.
She spoke of the art historian's work as searching for "facts" and the art critic's work as making "value judgments," pointing out that both professionals rely heavily on their knowledge of previously identified works to evaluate newly discovered ones. And she contended that viewers of Beauford's work cannot truly "see" (interpret) it without knowing his story.
Regarding Beauford's œuvre, Boudou observed that Beauford may have considered the inclusion of messages in his art to be aesthetically restrictive, despite the fact that he was profoundly affected by the events of his time. She described these messages as subtle, saying that they push the viewer to reflect and look at his work more closely and attentively.
Boudou said that Beauford's œuvre proves that he constantly pushed himself to discover new ways to express himself. She described his works as technically and aesthetically excellent and says that these qualities place them in the "universal domain."
Beauford's "The Burning Bush" in "The Dirty South" Exhibition
Valerie Cassel Oliver, who currently serves as the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA), has included Beauford's The Burning Bush in her exhibition entitled The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse.
(1941) Oil on paperboard
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The painting is part of the "Sinners and Saints" section of the exhibition, which "explores the belief systems that have emerged from this country's unique mixing of cultures, particularly West African, European, and Indigenous American spiritual traditions."
While working at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Oliver became intrigued by the content of Southern hip-hop (aka Dirty South) videos and conceived the exhibition as a means of examining "100 years of call and response between visual artists and musicians." Her selection of the themes presented in the exhibition - "Landscape," "Sinners and Saints," and "Black Corporality" - was inspired by content presented in these videos. She describes "Dirty South" as "something which embodies ... the contemporary expression of Southern sensibilities."
Most of the works shown in The Dirty South were created by southerners or persons who are one to two generations removed from the U.S. South. Most are contemporary pieces. Others, such as The Burning Bush, represent the work of artists of previous generations upon which the framework of contemporary art is constructed.
In her Virtual Curator's Talk, recorded on May 20, 2021, Oliver explains in detail her effort to examine the connection between sonic and visual artists in the exhibition. A number of the artists whose works appear in it were/are also "engaged in music" as singers, composers, and/or musicians. Beauford is one of these artists; he sang beautifully and as a child and a teenager, he proclaimed that he wanted to pursue music as a career.
The Dirty South originated at VMFA. It is now being show at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, where it opened on November 5 and will remain on display through February 6, 2022. From there, it will travel to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, where it will show from March 12 - July 25, 2022.
X-Ray of Beauford's 1944 Self-portrait at the Art Institute of Chicago
Beauford's 1944 self-portrait is one of my all time favorites.
(1944) Oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
By permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Wells International Foundation intern Maija Brennan selected it as the banner image for her online exhibition of Beauford's portraiture: Beauford Delaney: A Study in Portraiture
The Art Institute of Chicago has published a Web page that describes how it x-rays works in its collection, and it too has selected the 1944 portrait for the featured image on this page. It has included a fascinating interactive image that shows the x-ray "behind" the full color image of the painting.
To see this and to read the museum's description of the x-ray, click here and scroll down the page to the section entitled "X-RAYS OF SELECTED WORKS."
Autumn Colors II
Last October, I published an article called "Autumn Colors," in which I shared images of works by Beauford that made me think of the beauty of fall.
The fabulous weather that Paris has experienced over the past few days inspired me to look for more such images. I found several among the works the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery recently showed at the Frieze Masters exhibition in London.
Enjoy!
(c. 1968) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(c. 1962) Gouache and watercolor on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1961) Watercolor on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1963) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(c. 1960) oil on canvasboard
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC is Special Advisor and Representative of the Estate of Beauford Delaney.
Friese Masters 2021 - 1st Solo Beauford Delaney Exhibition in the UK
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery (MRG) has organized the first solo exhibition of Beauford's work in the UK at Frieze Masters 2021 in Regent's Park, London. Laura Hoptman, Executive Director of The Drawing Center, curated the show, which is entitled Beauford Delaney An American in Paris.
This magnificent exhibition consists of nine works on canvas and twenty-two works on paper. It was previewed on October 13 and 14 and opened to the public on October 15. It will be on display through Sunday, October 17.
Tickets to Frieze Masters are limited and only available online. Purchase them here: Frieze Masters 2021.The online catalog opens with the following quote:
“[I have] worked terribly hard here in Europe and much has sundered and exploded, but now it coalesces with lava-like smoke and fluid color, sometimes a veritable flame, other times subdued essences… yes, I am again painting in my old feeling – tense, difficult, but compulsive, and I love it.”
—Beauford Delaney, 1964
Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney
(1963) Oil on canvas, signed
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1963) Watercolor and gouache on paper, signed
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
View the online catalog here (use "full screen" for maximum effect): Beauford Delaney An American in Paris
MRG is showing Be Your Wonderful Self: The Portraits of Beauford Delaney concurrently in NYC. Read the NYTimes review of the show HERE.
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC is Special Advisor and Representative of the Estate of Beauford Delaney.
Bon Naissance Howard
While perusing the Internet for painterly descriptions of Beauford's Portrait of Howard Swanson, I found an online catalog that mentioned the portrait in the context of an African American Fine Art Auction.
(1967) Oil on canvas
Museum of Modern Art, NYC
Image courtesy of Levis Fine Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The catalog was created by Thom Pegg of Black Art Auction in support of the "inaugural sale of art by African Americans at the Toomey/Treadway Auction." I reported the sale of the Beauford Delaney abstract offered during this auction on December 5, 2015: Where to Find Beauford's Art: Art Basel Miami Beach and Treadway Toomey Auctions
The catalog presents beautiful photos of the framed work and the unframed work.
Oil on canvas
Image courtesy of Thom Pegg, Black Art Auction
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Oil on canvas
Image courtesy of Thom Pegg, Black Art Auction
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
In my 2015 article, I reported that the work was untitled. So I was intrigued to see that the catalog lists the title of the painting as Bon Naissance Howard. It provides a photo of the rear of the painting in support of this assignation, and mentions the horizontal lines and circles that Beauford drew above his name and what is taken as a message to Swanson as being reminiscent of a musical clef with notes. (Swanson was a classical composer who studied under Nadia Boulanger in Paris.)
Oil on canvas
Image courtesy of Thom Pegg, Black Art Auction
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The word "naissance," which means "birth," is misspelled in the inscription. The dedication likely indicates that Beauford created the painting as a birthday gift for Swanson, who was a close friend of Beauford. Read the Les Amis article about their relationship here: Beauford and Howard Swanson
Colin Gravois' Portrait
I have written about Beauford's portrait of Colin Gravois many times over the course of the life of the Les Amis blog. Until two weeks ago, I illustrated the posts with an image that appears in the 1978 catalog of Beauford's retrospective at the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Oil (undated)
80 x 64.5 cm
Photo of page from Beauford Delaney: A Retrospective catalog
Studio Museum in Harlem
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
In my most recent article, I posted an image which appears on the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery (MRG) Website as part of its promotion of the Be Your Wonderful Self exhibition of a selection of Beauford's portraits.
31 7/8" x 25 1/2" / 81.0 x 64.8 cm
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The difference in color is so striking that I began to wonder whether there might be two versions of this work. So, I contacted the gallery to ask some questions about this as well as additional differences in the information published in the Studio Museum catalog (name and dimensions of work) compared to the information published in the MRG fact sheet.
MRG commented on these difference as follows:
There is a Studio Museum exhibition label affixed to a stretcher bar on the verso of the painting, which lists the title Portrait of a Man in Green.
The images reproduced in the 1978 Studio Museum catalogue are generally quite inaccurate in color and quality compared to the appearance of the works in-person or with modern digital photography .... With the major advancements made in digital photography and printing over the past forty years, many of the works in our current show that were published by the Studio Museum look quite different in-person than as printed in the 1978 catalogue. Once acquired by Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, the painting was cleaned by a painting conservator.
There are often small discrepancies between published dimensions for an artwork and the dimensions we measure here at the gallery. The difference between these dimensions is minute.
The coloring of the MRG image closely corresponds to that of a photo I took of the portrait when I visited Knoxville in 2016.
Photo © Wells International Foundation
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Derek Spratley, Court Appointed Adminstrator of Beauford's estate, informed me that the portrait was not restored before it was sold. He indicated that MRG confirmed the identity of the subject of the portrait, notified the Estate, and made the name change, while acknowledging the prior name.
MRG also commented on the current name of the painting, as follows:
The title we have for the painting, Colin Gravois (aka Portrait of a Man in Green), names the sitter (Colin Gravois) followed by the title given to the painting for the Studio Museum retrospective in 1978. We include this previous title in our current title in order to make clear that this work is the same one that was exhibited in that show, as we have done with other works that have similar title differences. The artist did not title this painting.
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC is Special Advisor and Representative of the Estate of Beauford Delaney.
Watercolors by Beauford
In the March 14, 2015 article entitled "More on Knoxville Museum of Art Acquisition of Beauford Delaney Paintings," Barbara W. and Bernard E. Bernstein Curator Stephen Wicks talked about the large number of watercolors that were part of Beauford's estate.
I recently re-read this article and was inspired to have a look at images of the watercolors that I've published on the blog over the years. Here are a few of my favorites.
(1965) Watercolor on wove paper
Signed, dated and inscribed "avec amour" in ink.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1961) Watercolor on paper
Signed and dated "Beauford Delaney 61. San Telmo Mallorca" in the bottom right corner.
© Christie's Images
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1962) Watercolor
Signed and dated at bottom left
Photo courtesy of ADER
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1963) Watercolor on thick wove paper
Signed, dated and inscribed "Clermont Seine" in blue ink at the lower left.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1961) Watercolor on paper
© Christie's Images
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1963) Watercolor on wove paper
Signed and dated "July 19, 1963" in ink, lower right
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford on Art Sphere Inc.
Over the past few years, I've written a couple of posts about art lessons inspired by Beauford's work:
Museums Use Beauford's Art to Reach Out to Children
Today I found another example of this.
Art Sphere Inc. has a section on its Web site called Art Basics, through which it encourages youth to build art skills and express creativity through a series of brief online lessons and downloadable handouts. They have created a handout that presents Beauford's relationship with James Baldwin, talks about Beauford's painterly style, and encourages readers to use their imaginations to color images of Beauford and Baldwin. The black and white tracings are inspired by Errol Sawyer's photo portrait of Beauford and Beauford's 1945 portrait of Baldwin.
Rue Guilleminot
France 1973
© Errol Sawyer
(1945) Oil on canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Find the Art Sphere Inc. page here:
Brandeis University's Greene Street Painting on Display at Rose Art Museum
Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University is proudly touting its Beauford Delaney abstract, entitled Abstraction (Greene Street), as part of its re: collections, Six Decades at the Rose Art Museum exhibition.
(1950) Oil on canvas
Gift of Mr. Maurice Geller, -.1050.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Curatorial Intern Sam Forman describes the work as follows:
Greene Street (1950) is filled with swirling colors that evoke a sense of motion around its stationary black figures, reflecting the vibrancy of city life even in still moments. One cannot quite tell who is who and what is what—where are these figures? Why are they together? What is nearby? The green-yellow-orange mound in the center appears to be a fire à la Can Fire in the Park (1946), an example of Delaney placing explicit focus on a community-building and -sustaining source of warmth and light. Every object in this piece, human or otherwise, feels slightly out of focus due to the meandering lines and multi-hued outlines, bringing the viewer back to those questions about the scene and its contents. The abstract nature of Greene Street (1950) lets the scene reflect an infinite number of moments as the figures can be anyone and anywhere.
The Rose’s Greene Street (1950) is rather different from some other Greene Street paintings. The Greene Street (1940) in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, features more defined objects, although it maintains the abstraction of the Rose’s. A Greene Street (1946) sold by art collector Jonathan Boos retains this characteristic: a streetlight, fire hydrant, and food carts are readily identifiable. These other pieces of the same name also lack the human focus that the Rose’s does: whereas ours features prominently three people, there is one person in the 1946 piece and none in the 1940 piece.
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, 2021
Photograph by Isometric Studio, Brooklyn, New York
Image courtesy of the Rose Art Museum
Rose Art Museum granted Les Amis an exclusive interview regarding Abstraction (Greene Street) 1950. Find it below.
Les Amis: When did the museum acquire Greene Street, 1950?
Rose Art Museum: Greene Street belonged to Brandeis University prior to 1961, when the museum was founded. It was gifted to the University with the credit line, “Gift of Mr. Maurice Geller.” Upon the Rose’s founding, it entered the museum’s collection. It was first displayed on January 18, 1971 at Brandeis University in the Morton May Memorial Hall, now the Shapiro Admissions Center.
Les Amis: Is the painting on permanent display?
Rose Art Museum: No. The Rose does not display any works permanently, but it is currently on view within the exhibition re: collections, Six Decades at the Rose Art Museum.
Les Amis: Has it ever been displayed at the Rose Museum prior to the current exhibition?
Rose Art Museum: It has been displayed on the Brandeis campus, but there is no record of it being exhibited at the Rose prior to May 2021, when we opened re: collections.
Les Amis: What is the full exhibition history of the painting?
Rose Art Museum: Aside from its display in the Morton May Memorial Hall in 1971, one exhibition is in our record: "Beauford Delaney: The New York Years / [1929-1953]," April 9-May 28, 1994, Philippe Briet Gallery, New York. This is the exhibition in which University officials discovered the whereabouts of Greene Street two decades after it was stolen.
Beauford Delaney: The New York Years
Invitation card (interior)
Courtesy of Sylvain Briet
Les Amis: Might your Greene Street painting be the one shown in a 1950 exhibition at the Whitney Museum?
Rose Art Museum: We are unsure—Whitney research and archives experts may be able to help. I found a “catalogue number 88” listed with Delaney’s name in that exhibition but cannot access anything specific. The New York Times also potentially has an article on the exhibition, accessible with a subscription to the newspaper.
Les Amis: What is the full provenance of the painting?
Rose Art Museum: There is no provenance record at the Rose, aside from the gift by Maurice Geller.
Les Amis: I understand that Greene Street was stolen in 1971 and the whereabouts of the painting were unknown for several years before it was recovered in 2000. Please provide details about the theft and the recovery.
Rose Art Museum: The November 21, 2000 edition of The Justice, Brandeis’ oldest newspaper, ran “Stolen painting’s brush with adventure ends” about how Greene Street was stolen around April 1971 after its display in the Shapiro Admissions Center. In 1994 the work appeared in a gallery show in New York City, detailed above. Brandeis General Counsel Judith Sizer worked for six years to bring it back, contacting the New York Police Department which held the painting in that time, and fighting another claimant to ownership of the painting. In 2000 Ed Callahan, Brandeis’s director of public safety, got the NYPD to release the work and return it to the University.
Les Amis: Did Beauford name the painting or was the name ascribed by someone else?
Rose Art Museum: Delaney had numerous paintings that are now called Greene Street, either as their name or connected to their actual untitled status. The full name of the Rose’s is Abstraction (Greene Street) and I can find no information on who named it, Delaney or otherwise.
Installation view, re: collections, Six Decades at the Rose Art Museum
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, 2021
Photograph by Isometric Studio, Brooklyn, New York
Image courtesy of the Rose Art Museum
re: collections will be on view for three years, with several rotations.
Rose Art Museum
Brandeis University
415 South Street
Waltham, MA 02453
Telephone: 781-736-3434
roseartmuseum@brandeis.edu
Hours: Wednesday - Sunday 11 AM - 5 PM
Admission is free.
Case Antiques Sells Beauford Delaney Abstract for $348,000
On July 24, Case Antiques placed an "unusual" Beauford Delaney painting up for auction.
Untitled
(c. 1972) Oil on canvas
63 3/4 x 51 1/4 inches
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The estimated sale price was $60,000-$70,000.
On Monday evening, July 26, Sarah Campbell Drury, Vice President of Fine and Decorative Arts at Case, contacted me to tell me that the painting sold for a whopping $348,000!
Case's press release describes the work as "a rhythmic abstract oil on canvas" that is "a bit of departure from the modernist urban scenes and atmospheric abstractions which typically define Delaney’s work."
On the sales page for the painting, Case posted an image of Beauford's niece, Ogust Delaney Stewart, sitting in the storage facility in which the painting had been stored. The painting can be seen at the right side of the image.
Barbara W. and Bernard E. Bernstein Curator of the
Knoxville Museum of Art
Multiple phone and internet bidders competed for the abstract, with the hammer eventually falling to an anonymous phone bidder. The sales price includes a 20% buyer's premium and applicable taxes and fees.
The painting resembles an abstract acquired by San Francisco MoMA last year.
(1974) Oil on canvas
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
63 3/4 x 51 1/4 inches
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford's African Motif
This month, France is wrapping up a pan-African and multidisciplinary project called Africa2020, which focuses on innovation in the arts, sciences, technology, entrepreneurship and the economy.
In thinking about innovation, the arts, and Africa, I thought about Beauford's many works that were inspired by the continent throughout the years. I share images of a few of them below.
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esq.,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Sylvain Briet
Untitled (Fang, Crow and Fruit)
(1945) Oil on canvas
Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn, NY
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esq.,
Court Appointed Administrator
(c. 1968) Oil monoprint on paper
Knoxville Museum of Art
Knoxville, TN
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Self-portrait in a Paris Bath House
(1971) Oil on canvas
Knoxville Museum of Art
Knoxville, TN
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Man in African Dress
(c. 1972) 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
Case Antiques to Auction Beauford Delaney Painting on July 24
Case Antiques is placing an "unusual" Beauford Delaney painting up for auction on July 24.
Untitled
(c. 1972) Oil on canvas
63 3/4 x 51 1/4 inches
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The estimated sale price is $60,000-$70,000.
(1974) Oil on canvas
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
63 3/4 x 51 1/4 inches
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Pre-approval is required to bid on this lot. Contact Case Antiques, Inc. for details at 865-558-3033 or BID@CASEANTIQUES.COM.
Musing with a Master Abstract Expressionist - Part 2
In Part 1 of this article, I presented images of three Beauford-inspired paintings created by Osiris Munir, President/CEO of Ankh Entertainment, host of the 15 Minutes interview series, and visual artist. Based on an interview with her, I began to explore the similarities between her life and that of Beauford.
Part 2 looks at more of these similarities and share her musings about the conversation she'd like to have with Beauford.
TRAVEL
Beauford traveled extensively in France and in Europe, often through invitations by friends. As often as possible, he painted wherever he went.
(1966) Oil on thick, cream wove paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Munir enjoys traveling as well:
One of the similarities in the life of myself and Beauford Delaney’s is our love of travel and living outside of a box. I traveled and lived in Europe for a year. When I found out about the St. Germain district of Paris, I lost it. It seemed far more interesting and engaged than anything I had experienced in the U.S. The experience left me longing for deeper engagement with international culture and cultural activities and lifestyle outside the U.S.
APPRECIATION OF COLOR
In his New York Times obituary on Beauford, C. Gerald Fraser quotes NYT art critic John Russell, who said that Beauford was an “uninhibited colorist (though never an unintelligent one).” Biographer David Leeming refers to Beauford's primary interest in light and color many times in Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney.
Munir speaks eloquently about her interpretation of the "muted" colors of The Three Are One and certain works by Beauford:
Orange is the color of the Sun - it offers hope and sheds light on untruths so that truth may be seen and lies may be exposed. Raw umber is an earth color - Giving a sense of belonging to something greater than myself and living a grounded and organic lifestyle as close to natural as possible. It is the darkness that hides beneath a smile or behind teeth that laugh. White for me is the clarity in thought and vision one gains after hours of looking deeply into a web of shapes, designs, and patterns . . . the visions that come and go as quickly as they came . . . the pain experienced when trying to fit into a world that is unwilling to allow you to just be.
(c. 1958-1959) Oil on paper, laid down on canvas
Image courtesy of Aaron Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Osiris Munir
(2021) Oil on paperboard
WRITING
Beauford journaled extensively about his harshly critical inner voices and his use of art to appease them, to silence them, and finally, to represent them on canvas as one would a person sitting for a portrait.
(1965) Oil on canvas
Private Collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
He often shared feelings of loneliness and frustration in letters to his closest friends.
Through her book entitled Nita, Munir "painstakingly deals with topics of the human soul such as anger, forgiveness, loneliness, fear, depression, and mental health."
LACK OF FINANCIAL RESOURCES
Beauford was often without sufficient funds to pay for the paints and other supplies that would allow him to work and keep his inner voices at bay. Because of this, and because had a propensity to give money away when he did have it, his friends would buy him canvases and other art supplies so he could continue to work. The story of his "raincoat painting," which he created by painting on an old raincoat that he cut up and used for canvas, is well known.
(1954) Oil on raincoat fragment
Photos courtesy of Sue Canterbury
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Munir recounts a similar experience:
I use brick paperboard for lack of having all of what I need . . . I never have additional money to buy great canvas, brushes and paints to use. They are either given to me or I have to overlook an important bill to buy what I need instead. Occasionally, I am able to get extra money to buy supplies to use for my one-room studio.
**********
When asked what she would discuss with Beauford if she were able to sit down with him today, Munir responded:
If I could sit down with Beauford Delaney in 2021, we would talk about his being born too early and being prepared to fight for the rights of the LGBTQIA+ and the freedom for all people.
We would laugh about how the movement of the African aka Black American to free himself of slave mentality and to release the pain of the past and move towards the future without fear and how long and hard the journey has been and how much further we may or may not have to go. How slavery and the stigma of color and may never end but certainly has garnered global attention.
We would talk about politics and how it affects the life of the artist. How he is a muse and comfort to many. What he thought about European’s perspective on abstract art and its many forms of expression. How none are free until all are free.
We would talk about James Baldwin and his brilliance and how the two of them were ahead of their time.
We would talk about drug laws and whether they help or hurt us. We would talk about art. Colors. Sounds and feelings. I would ask what he thought of the philosophy of Bruce Lee.
We would talk about pain and suffering and how it makes for the brilliance and shine others see in us.
Musing with a Master Abstract Expressionist - Part 1
Osiris Munir is President/CEO of Ankh Entertainment and host of the 15 Minutes interview series. She is also a visual artist.
Munir learned about Beauford through various contacts with me. Inspired by his work, she recently created three previously unseen abstract works and shared images of them with the Wells International Foundation and Les Amis de Beauford Delaney. She calls them The Three Are One.
Osiris Munir
(2021) Oil on paperboard
They call to my mind Beauford's Untitled (Yellow Abstraction), shown below.
(c. 1958-1959) Oil on paper, laid down on canvas
Image courtesy of Aaron Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Prior to a series of challenging life events that led her to the investigation of intuitive abstract art, Munir:
. . . hated art and thought it a rip off of one’s time and money. I knew nothing of Pollock, Hofmann, Kandinsky, Rothko, Krasner, Monet, Picasso, and Georgia O’Keefe until a neighbor turned me onto Bob Ross. I began watching YouTube study channels. . . .
I did not hear of Beauford until the introduction and the telling of his story by Monique Wells, founder of the Wells International Foundation. Of course, I was fascinated. Until then I knew nothing of abstract art outside of the aforementioned. Monique told me of her search for his grave and how it was without a head stone ... how he died in a mental institute in Paris.
As a veteran diagnosed with a variety of mental disorders, Munir readily understands and resonates with the suffering of the mentally disturbed. She finds art to be a great tool and channel for releasing an abundance of creative energy. Simultaneously and intrinsically drawn to Beauford's life and work, she describes his work (and her own) as being purposeful and intentional. She says that Beauford seemed to take obscure thoughts that were disconnected in some ways and harmonized them in arrays of colorful expression.
To create The Three Are One, Munir used oil on brick paperboard. This was inspired by Beauford's Burning Bush, which is currently held at the Newark Art Museum. She loves the texture of oil:It seems to find its way through my fingers into my hands and onto a canvas, brick, or piece of wood. It looks like velvet when applied to a primed canvas. It looks elegant and rich to me. It calls me and speaks to me from a place that is unexplainable. Oil seems to have the property and gift of manifestation for me. It seems to move with my eyes and fingers ... [Using it makes me feel] like another entity outside of myself is painting, not me.
Munir chose the colors for these works based on Tarot cards by Madame Marie Laveau of New Orleans, which she says are similar to colors used by Beauford and others of that time. She offered the following comment about this:
Some of his (Beauford's) pieces use muted colors wherein they seem flat until you take a closer look. After looking closer at these pieces, the feeling and sense of how each color moves on paper and canvas carries a certain exposure of light.
Next week: Osiris Munir talks in depth about similarities between her life and Beauford's, and muses about the conversation she'd have with him if they could sit down together today.
Beauford Delaney and Free Lunch - Part 2
Last week, I introduced "Beauford Delaney (Instrumental)," a track on Volume 3 of the newly released three-volume recording entitled Free Lunch,. Intrigued by the music, I interviewed recording artist Free (Lee) Tillman about it. Read Part 1 of "Beauford Delaney and Free Lunch" HERE.
Part of our interview explored Tillman's associations between "Beauford Delaney (Instrumental)" and specific pieces of Beauford's art.
I asked him what he would say if he had to describe the instrumental Beauford Delaney as a color, and he responded "It would be a cloudy gray."
He then shared links to images of some of the darker pieces of Beauford's work that come to his mind when he thinks about the song. The works are pictured below.
Watercolor
Signed at bottom right, dated, and annotated "Souvenir" at bottom left
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Oil on paper mounted on canvas
Image courtesy of www.ha.com
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The majority of music Tillman makes is instrumental, yet he was inspired to insert a mysterious voice into "Beauford Delaney (Instrumental). Listening carefully, you will hear a woman saying "Sometimes I wish we could vanish." When I asked Tillman about this, he told me that he also created a vocal version of "Beauford Delaney" for his album. He shared that recording with me and commented about it as follows:
"This song happens to be one of only two songs on the album that has alternative versions where I provided vocals. The song “Theaster Gates” has a spoken word passage and the song Beauford Delaney has me rapping on it. I provided the instrumental versions in case people didn’t want to hear my voice."
Regarding a possible relationship between the single line of spoken words in the instrumental version and the lyrics of the vocal version, he said:
"There is no direct relationship. When I originally made the song, it felt like it needed a human voice, so I added the vocal sample. It's not meant to be completely intelligible. It's meant to sound like something you might hear in a dream. I then decided to create something more direct, so I added my own vocals. One thing let me to the next, but I wouldn't say that they're directly related as far as what's being said."
Listening to the vocal version of "Beauford Delaney" and comparing it to the instrumental version, the two Beauford Delaney works shown below came to my mind. I sent images of them to Tillman and asked him to share his reactions to them.
(1967) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1967) Oil on canvas
Private collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
His response:
"The blue painting feels like the instrumental. The portrait feels like the vocal version."
To wrap up our interview, I asked Tillman the following questions:
Les Amis: Relating to the theme of your album, Free Lunch, if you could have lunch with Beauford today, what would you want to discuss with him?
Free Tillman: I would love to talk with him about the Harlem Renaissance and what it was like living in Greenwich Village.
Les Amis: What might you ask his advice about?
Free Tillman: How to convey one's political and social beliefs through abstract art.
Beauford Delaney and Free Lunch - Part 1
After listening to the recording multiple times, I contacted Tillman to ask for an interview. He responded quickly and affirmatively.
I learned that Free (Lee) Tillman became aware of Beauford because of his fascination with the Harlem Renaissance. While he is more familiar with the writers and musicians of the time, anyone who was involved with the Harlem Renaissance is an inspiration to him.
Beauford in his Greene Street studio, New York City, 1944
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Tillman is also fascinated by James Baldwin and encountered Beauford's name in connection with Baldwin. He learned about Beauford mostly from reading online articles and watching YouTube videos, and he was aware that Beauford painted several portraits of Baldwin. He has never seen any of Beauford's works in person.
Serendipitously, Tillman and Beauford share the same birthday, and Beauford died the year Tillman was born. Tillman is something of a visual artist as well - he creates his own visual backdrops for his performances and he also draws (though he has not produced anything he would be willing to show anyone yet).
The majority of the twenty-two (22) tracks on Volume 3 of Free Lunch are named after artists - people such as Amy Sherald, Faith Ringgold, Ed Clark, and Sam Gilliam. I asked Tillman why. He responded:
Over the past few years, I’ve been studying art history on my own. Trying to understand different movements and where certain ideas came from. This year there was a documentary released called “Black Art: In the Absence of Light” which focuses a lot on the 1976 LACMA exhibition Two Centuries of Black American Art. It features a lot of Black artists, new and old, that I had never heard of before. As I was wrapping up this project, Black art was on my mind, and I thought it would be an interesting idea to name all the songs after Black artists. Maybe someone would see all the names, do some research and find out something new. I’m familiar with the work of all the artists named but I do not know any of them personally.
I explained that Beauford did not want to be viewed as a black artist, or even as an American artist. He strongly felt that "ARTIST" was the only term required to define him professionally. I also explained that this in no way indicated that Beauford wanted to cast aside his identity as a black person.
Tillman then asked whether Beauford adopted Abstract Expressionism as a style because he did not want to be defined as a "Black artist." I replied that I believe Beauford became an Abstract Expressionist painter because it allowed him to express the incredible emotion and energy that always churned within him, particularly when his inner voices became more insistent and more cruel.
Come back next week to read about Tillman's associations between "Beauford Delaney (Instrumental)" and specific pieces of Beauford's art.
Judd Tully on Beauford's Studio Museum Retrospective
A few months after Beauford's death (March 26, 1979), art critic and journalist Judd Tully wrote an exposé of sorts regarding the Studio Museum of Harlem's retrospective show of Beauford's work and the disposition of his estate.
Tully says that steps were taken to eliminate French bureaucratic obstacles and settle debts so the show could take place, but he does not specifically indicate who took these steps. He indicates that Exxon Corporation and the National Endowment of the Arts funded the Studio Museum exhibition and that the tutelle responsible for handling Beauford's affairs was dissolved.
What follows is biographical information admixed with statements that various artist acquaintances made about Beauford and his work during his lifetime.
Near the end of the article, Tully states that "...Beauford Delaney remains a tantalizing enigma to the all too color-conscious art historians. He has eluded history for the moment."
Forty-two years later, fueled by the work launched by Les Amis de Beauford Delaney in 2009, history is "catching up."
Read the entire article here: https://juddtully.net/reviews/beauford-delaney/