Where to find Beauford's Art: Swann Galleries

Swann Galleries launched its African-American Fine Art department in 2007. It is the only major auction house conducting regular sales of African-American fine art today. The works that it sells are consigned by individuals, libraries, schools, museums, and dealers the world over.

Since 2007, Swann Galleries has put twenty-eight (28) of Beauford’s paintings up for auction. Over 60% of them sold, with prices ranging from $8,400 to $102,000. Here are a few images of works that sold:

Street Sweeper (Le Balayeur)
(1968) Oil on canvas
Photo courtesy of Swann Galleries
Swann Galleries describes this painting as “poetic and modernist,” and says that it is a “culmination of Beauford Delaney's important work in both figurative and abstract painting in Paris, and an outstanding example of his later work.” The author of this description considered that Beauford portrayed himself metaphorically in this work as “an isolated man of African descent working in a foreign place, with the broom representing the artist's paint brush.”

Street Sweeper (Le Balayeur) was auctioned in February 2011. The sale price was $96,000.

The painting below was auctioned this month (October 2011). It sold for $9600.

Untitled (Gray, Red and Yellow Abstraction)
(1962) Gouache and watercolor on cream wove paper
Photo courtesy of Swann Galleries
Swann Galleries' Web site indicates that the auction house acquired this work directly from Beauford’s brother, Joseph. The date of acquisition was not mentioned.

The work below is an abstract expressionist painting in which Beauford’s favorite color – yellow – predominates. The sale value from its auction in February 2008 was $102,000.

Untitled
(ca. 1958) Oil on canvas
Photo courtesy of Swann Galleries
Additional images of the Beauford Delaney paintings auctioned by Swann Galleries can be found on their Web site. Look for them in the online auction catalogs for February 2007, February 2008, February 2009, February 2010, October 2010, February 2011, and October 2011. In addition, see the catalog for an auction held in June 2010 entitled Out of the Blue: Modern Art and Jazz, where Beauford’s Untitled (Composition in Blue) sold for $19,200.

The prices that you see will see in the catalogs for the works discussed above are lower than those quoted in this article. Swann Galleries' Hillary Brody explained why:

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

Swann Galleries reports the "hammer price" for each painting in its catalogs, while prices that include the buyer's premium can be found on its sales results page.

Swann Galleries’ African-American Fine Art auctions are generally held in February and October of each year. Items that are up for sale can be viewed at the auction house for several days prior to each auction. The auction house encourages any and all interested parties to come to their facility to visit the preview exhibitions.

Swann Galleries
104 East 25th Street
New York, NY 10010
Telephone: 212-254-4710

Where to Find Beauford's Art: New England

If you live in New England, or are planning a visit there, note that you can see works by Beauford at the following museums:

Worcester Art Museum - Worcester, Massachusetts
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art - Hartford, Connecticut
Bowdoin College Museum of Art - Brunswick, Maine

The Worcester Art Museum holds a portrait entitled Portrait of Gaylord. It is on view in the Rose Gallery on the fourth floor of the museum.

Portrait of Gaylord
(1944) Oil on canvas mounted on artist board
Here is the description of the painting furnished by the museum:

When Beauford Delaney moved to New York City in 1929 he quickly fell in with the writers and artists of the time including Charles Alston, Henry Miller, James Baldwin, and musicians Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Marian Anderson. Throughout his life he painted portraits of the friends he had made, though the identity of some, including Gaylord in this painting, remains a mystery. Gaylord is thought to have been a musician, a pianist with two fingers missing on one hand, who played at a club that Beauford frequented. To the right of Gaylord’s face is an image of a piano player, perhaps Gaylord himself, while on the left is a figure, possibly Delaney, standing in front of an easel. This work, with its bright colors and swirled brushstrokes is reminiscent of one of Delaney’s main influences: Vincent van Gogh.

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art owns an abstract expressionist painting by Beauford that it currently holds in storage.

Untitled (Green)
(1961) Oil on canvas
This work was selected to be shown in the exposition The Color Yellow, mounted by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia in 2002. The exhibit traveled to the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Anacostia Museum and Center for African History and Culture at the Smithsonian, and the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. The Wadsworth Atheneum museum describes it as “an abstracted composition of pink and green swirls.”

Those wishing to see this painting should contact Patricia Hickson, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Wadsworth Atheneum museum.

The work owned by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art is an abstract expressionist painting that was given to the museum by halley k. harrisburg (alumma of Bowdoin, Class of 1990) and Michael Rosenfeld. It is not currently on view.

Untitled
(1960) Oil on canvas
I will update this posting when I am able to obtain further information about the paintings at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

Celebrating Beauford - 1st Anniversary!

On Friday, October 14, 2011, Les Amis de Beauford Delaney hosted a small gathering to mark the first anniversary of the gravesite ceremony and reception that celebrated the laying of the tombstone at Beauford’s eternal home at Thiais Cemetery. Several friends gathered at the Select Café in Montparnasse to share food and drink and to honor Beauford’s memory. The Select was one of Beauford’s favorite cafés in Montparnasse.

Select Café
© Discover Paris!
U.S. Ambassador Charles Rivkin extended his regrets, as he was out of the country and could not join the festivities. Last year he wrote a strong letter of support for the Beauford Delaney Gravesite Project when Les Amis was in the midst of its fundraising campaign.

Velma Bury, advisor to Les Amis de Beauford Delaney, spoke briefly about Ed Clark, a great friend of Beauford. Like Beauford, Ed often frequented the Select.

The Reverend Doctor Scott Herr, who presided at the gravesite ceremony last year, spent part of the evening with us.

I hope you’ll enjoy these photos that were taken at the event.

Beauford spies the pain surprise
© Discover Paris!

The gathering
© Discover Paris!

Velma Bury addressing the crowd
© Discover Paris!

Listening attentively
© Discover Paris!

Monique addressing the crowd
© Discover Paris!

James Morant and Reverend Scott Herr
© Discover Paris!

Monique and Beauford calling it a night!
© Discover Paris!

Visit the Entrée to Black Paris Facebook page to see the complete photo album!

Where to Find Beauford's Art: Museums in the Tri-state Area

Those living in the tri-state area (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware) will be pleased to learn that there are three museums that hold works by Beauford!

I've already presented the portrait of James Baldwin at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in a recent posting. There is a second painting by Beauford at this museum as well. It is an oil-on-canvas portrait of two women named Marian and Betty. Though neither painting is currently being displayed, you can get a close-up view of them on the PMA Web site by clicking on the hyperlinks in this paragraph.

There are two pieces at the Newark Museum: The Burning Bush (1941) and Portrait of a Man (1943).

The Burning Bush
(1941) Oil on paperboard

Portrait of a Man
(1943) Pastel on paper
Only The Burning Bush is currently displayed for public view. It can be found in the American Art section. The museum provided the following description of it:

The Burning Bush deals with the biblical subject from the Book of Exodus. This multicolored painting has a wonderful expressive style that vibrantly evokes the underlying energies animating this subject. The paint is applied very thickly on the surface, which may not come across in the photographs.

If you would like to arrange a private viewing Portrait of a Man, you may make a request in advance of your visit. The museum makes every effort to accommodate various scholars and individuals. The staff needs to know the reason and the nature of inquiry of every individual so that it can better serve you.

The Delaware Art Museum holds a Delaney on reserve. It was given to the museum by Michael Rosenfeld in 1995.

Untitled
(1961) Oil on canvas

The museum provides this description:

This 1961 painting was produced in Paris. It is inscribed “pour mon frère M. Bigud [?]” and bears the label of Paul Facchetti’s Paris gallery. Like many of Delaney’s paintings from this period, it features subtly modulated color and active brushwork. The small canvas is covered from edge to edge in shades of yellow, white, and pale green. From a distance, it seems to resolve into a pattern, but, as the viewer approaches, the artist’s delicate touch becomes apparent. In some areas, the weave of the canvas is exposed, while in others thick, scumbled paint projects from the surface. With its monochromatic palette, active surface, and all-over composition, this painting fits comfortably into the abstract expressionist idiom.

*******
Share this posting by clicking on one of the social media buttons below.
Be sure to leave your comments in the space below!

Where to Find Beauford's Art: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery

The Michael Rosenfeld Gallery (MRG) has the most extensive collection of Beauford's work in the world today. As I've previously reported in this blog, MRG frequently presents Beauford's paintings in its expositions, and has mounted two solo exhibits of his work. The gallery was a major contributor to the Beauford Delaney Gravesite Project, and provided the donation that allowed Les Amis to reach its fundraising goal.

In its current exposition entitled Evolution in Action, MRG presents "art pairings" of works created by several of its preferred artists, where an early painting by each artist is juxtaposed with a later painting that represents that artist's "signature" style. The gallery has selected the paintings below to compare Beauford's earlier work with that of the abstract expressionist work of his later years.

Untitled
Beauford Delaney (1901-1979)
(1945) Oil on canvas
25" x 30", signed
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

Untitled
Beauford Delaney (1901-1979)
(1963) Oil on canvas
39 1/2" x 32", signed and dated
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

MRG describes these two paintings as follows:

The bright yellow lemons of Delaney's untitled still life (1945) provide the inspiration for the vibrant yellows and soft blues and greens that make up his untitled abstraction from 1963; a subsequent glance back at the lemons then reveals that Delaney's treatment of color was always complex, that he always saw and was able to reveal the variety of shades, tones, and hues within what seemed to be a single color.

Visit the gallery to see and appreciate these works! Evolution in Action is on view until October 29, 2011.

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
24 West 57th Street, 7th floor
New York, NY 10019
Tel: 212-247-0082
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday 10 AM - 6 PM; Mondays by appointment

If you like this posting, share it with your friends by using one of the social media links below!

Beauford’s Portrait of Colin Gravois

In December 2010, I published an account of Colin Gravois’s friendship with Beauford as Colin relayed it to me in an interview. Colin describes the experience of sitting for a portrait with Beauford and regretting that he did not return to Beauford’s studio to recuperate it before Beauford was committed to Saint Anne’s Hospital.

Here is the portrait that Beauford painted of Colin:

Portrait of a Man in Green
Beauford Delaney
Oil (undated)
Photo from catalog of Beauford Delaney: A Retrospective
Studio Museum in Harlem
Colin has managed to obtain a photograph of him sitting in front of the portrait that Beauford created. He sent it to me to share with all of you! Here it is:

Photograph of Colin Gravois in front of his portrait painted by Beauford Delaney
Photo courtesy of Colin Gravois
This photo was taken at Beauford’s studio on rue Vercingétorix. (Note the other paintings on the wall behind Beauford’s portrait of Colin.)

Unlike the abstract nature of some of his portraits of James Baldwin, Beauford rendered a true likeness of Colin in this painting. Its whereabouts are currently unknown.

Where to Find Beauford’s Art: Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts

In Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson’s chapter on Beauford in A History of African-American Artists – From 1792 to the Present, the authors state that “Beauford Delaney has no long list of museum credits, prizes, or awards.” While Beauford may not have won many prizes, he certainly has numerous museum credits to his name. Many date after the publication of Bearden and Henderson’s book; all deserve to be brought to light. This is what I will attempt to do in the next several postings on this blog.

Let’s begin with a work that belongs to the Musée cantonal des Beaux Arts in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Mémoire (Memory)
Beauford Delaney
(ca. 1964) Oil on canvas, 192 x 129.5 cm
Lausanne, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts
© Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne
Photo: J.-C. Ducret

Monsieur René Berger, director of the museum from 1962-1981, learned of Beauford’s work during an exposition organized by the museum in 1963. The “1er Salon international de galeries-pilotes” (1st International “Pioneer Galleries” Salon) was held from June 21 – September 22, 1963, where Beauford’s Composition (1958) was presented by the Paul Facchetti Gallery. Berger selected the Facchetti Gallery and three other galleries from New York, Milan, and Paris for this first of three expositions that he organized to showcase galleries with a spirit of openness and discovery regarding art and artists.

Berger subsequently visited Beauford at his studio on rue Vercingétorix.

Mémoire was acquired by the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts in 1964 (Inv. 1964-011). According to Beauford’s biographer,
David A. Leeming, the sale was arranged by Beauford’s dear friend Ahmed Bioud. The painting is currently archived at the museum.

Beauford at the Centre Pompidou

I recently discovered that the Centre Pompidou is in possession of one of Beauford's paintings:

Untitled
Beauford Delaney
(1957) Oil on canvas, 1.62 m x 1.14 m
(C) Collection Centre Pompidou, Dist. RMN / Philippe Migeat

This is a phenomenal work; when I first saw the image of it, I was dazzled! I wanted to go immediately to the Pompidou Center to see it, but unfortunately, I learned that the painting is not currently being displayed.

The painting was donated sous reserve d'usufruit (under usufruct) to the museum in 1994 by M. and Mme du Closel, who were devoted patrons of Beauford for much of his life in Paris. "Usufruct" means that the museum has the legal right to use and derive profit or benefit from the painting, as long as it is not damaged. Ownership is retained by the du Closels until their death.

September - A Milestone Month for Beauford and Les Amis

A year has already passed since I proudly announced on this blog that Les Amis de Beauford Delaney had been successful at placing a tombstone at Beauford's previously unmarked grave! The date was September 2, 2010. View the blog posting here:

http://lesamisdebeauforddelaney.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html

September 2 is also Beauford's presumed arrival date in France, given that he sailed on the SS Liberté on August 28, 1953 and that this ocean liner generally made the transatlantic voyage in five days.

Beauford on the deck of the SS Liberté
Photo from David Leeming’s Amazing Grace

I plan to continue posting about Beauford here for the next several weeks as I share information that I am uncovering about Beauford's art. I have invited a few people to provide guest postings on this topic, and am encouraging them to keep their commitments to submit their articles. So stay tuned!

I would really appreciate your feedback on the blog, and strongly encourage you to leave your comments in the space below. I also hope that you will share this blog with friends by clicking on one of the social media buttons below. Thanks very much!

Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson on Beauford

Romare Bearden, an African-American artist and writer, co-authored a book called A History of African-American Artists – from 1792 to the Present with Anglo-American journalist Harry Henderson. The book contains a brief chapter (seven pages) devoted to Beauford.

The chapter is primarily biographical, but there are also several scholarly descriptions of Beauford’s works. Bearden and Henderson include a frank criticism of Henry Miller’s essay “The Amazing and Invariable Beauford Delaney,” which they describe as a patronizing article that gives a false picture of Beauford as “a mindless, visionary artist.”

There are interesting tidbits of information about Beauford in this chapter and scattered throughout the book, such as the fact that Beauford’s parents named him after the town of Beaufort, South Carolina, from which they migrated during the Civil War. In the six-page chapter on Beauford’s brother Joseph, we learn that some 300 Americans attended Beauford’s funeral service at the American Church in Paris and that the pastor presiding over that service was from the brothers’ home state of Tennessee.

One of the color plates in the book displays Beauford’s portrait of James Baldwin entitled The Sage Black, and cites it as belonging to Mrs. James Jones of Sagaponack, N. Y. at the time the book was published. A black and white photo of Beauford’s 1962 self-portrait (below) is also cited as belonging to Mrs. Jones, who is undoubtedly the wife of writer James Jones, a great friend of Beauford during his Paris years.

Beauford’s 1962 self-portrait as shown on the invitation card of the
1992 Darthea Speyer exposition of Beauford’s works
Card courtesy of the Darthea Speyer Gallery

But my greatest discovery in perusing this book is a photo of a young Beauford looking over the shoulder of Palmer Hayden as Hayden paints at a 1930s outdoor art show in Washington Square in New York City.

Palmer C. Hayden and Beauford Delaney at Washington Square, NYC (1930s)

Photo from the National Archives, Harmon Collection

It is rare to find photos of the young Beauford!

Beauford's Portraits of James Baldwin - Part 2

Last week, Dr. Catherine St. John commented on two of Beauford's portraits of James Baldwin. both of which are in private collections. Today, I present images of two Baldwin portraits that belong to major museums and one from a private collection that traveled the U.S. in a major exposition of Beauford's works, along with excerpts from descriptions that the museums present(ed) with these works. I invite you to compare and contrast these portraits, including the ones discussed last week, and submit a comment about which one(s) you appreciate most.

*************
The portrait owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art is part of the museum's permanent collection, but it is not currently on view. The label for the painting reads:

This iconic painting is a very early depiction of the famous writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin, who was twenty-one when Delaney created this portrait. Closely cropped and vibrantly painted, it jumps out from the canvas, presenting an up-close encounter with the sitter. As in Delaney's self-portraits, he painted one eye slightly different from the other, a pictorial device also found in Pablo Picasso's paintings. Of the many portraits Delaney made of Baldwin, this one is among his most direct and expressive.

Portrait of James Baldwin
(1945) Oil on canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art

The National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute owns the portrait shown below. Part of its description of the painting reads as follows:

Although Delaney loved Baldwin, his portrait is not about nostalgic affection. Heated and confrontational, its harsh colors roughly applied, the pastel hints at the inner anxieties that would ultimately land Delaney in a psychiatric hospital. His pastel glows with the vibrant, Van Gogh–inspired yellow the artist often used after he moved to Paris in the 1950s. One of perhaps a dozen portraits that Delaney made of Baldwin over thirty years, it is both a likeness based on memory and a study of light.

James Baldwin
(1963) Pastel on Paper
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute

The Sage Black was a key oeuvre shown at the exposition mounted by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 2004-2005. The museum's description of this remarkable painting mentions Beauford's technique as well as comments on his choice of colors:

Delaney superimposed a calligraphic outline on an abstract composition of reds, greens, yellows, and blues. Filled with all the colors of a flame, this incendiary, combustible background peers through Baldwin's form, conveying the passion and fire that was such an integral part of the author who penned, just a few years before, the foreboding essay titled The Fire Next Time.

The Sage Black
(1967) Oil on canvas
Private collection
Image from Artsmia Web site

Of the portraits displayed last week and the ones shown above, I personally favor the 1963 portrait (shown above) because it makes Baldwin look youthful and accessible. Which do you prefer? Leave your comments in the space below!

Beauford's Portraits of James Baldwin - Part 1

I recently received a letter from Dr. Catherine St. John, Doctor of Arts, Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at Berkeley College in New Jersey, and long time supporter of Les Amis de Beauford Delaney. In it, she states:

Beauford Delaney’s life-spanning friendship with James Baldwin is well known. A rewarding topic of focus for me is the dozen or so portraits he did of Baldwin, his muse. They give us unique glimpses into specific moments in Delaney’s art making practice but, even more, the incontestable truth of how we construct identity, how we make it visible and how we experience a sense of belonging.

Dr. St. John also mentions how Beauford's subjects are often painted in strikingly different colors.

Dr. Catherine St. John at
Beauford's Gravesite Ceremony - October 2010
© Discover Paris!

In reading this letter, I was reminded of how many portraits Beauford painted of James Baldwin, how colorful they are, and how different they are from each other. Dr. St. John graciously consented to comment on two of them - Dark Rapture (1941) and a 1965 portrait of Baldwin - and to share further thoughts on Beauford's work.

About these portraits, Dr. St. John states:

Both portraits, Dark Rapture (James Baldwin), 1941, oil on canvas or board, 34 x 28 inches, and James Baldwin, 1965, oil on canvas, 30 x 21 inches, are modest in dimensions. Both paintings are signed and dated. Their intimate scales draw us more closely to the virtuosity of Delaney’s painterly touch. They are created with straightforward media and give viewers an immediate sense of the paintings as physical objects.

Dark Rapture
(1941) Oil on canvas
Private collection

Portrait of James Baldwin*
(1965) Oil on canvas
Private collection

Dark Rapture is an especially dynamic and luminous painting that shows Beauford Delaney’s preferred palette, a range of colors and white chosen for symbolic, emotional and aesthetic reasons. It is the first portrait that Beauford Delaney did of James Baldwin and it marks a new and original approach to the male nude, a subject generally less frequently addressed by artists.

It is a composition that combines gesture and chromatic intensity with the silhouette of Baldwin, one side in shadow lit from the right, against a background of light emanating from color. It is a deeply affecting work, one of a number of portraits that Delaney created of his muse. Pieced together, they record the personal journeys of two great artists and form a collective field of memory.

While the 1965 portrait of James Baldwin, completed decades later, is not nearly as explosive as Dark Rapture, it is charged with human presence. The isolated, self-contained image of Baldwin is the special intersection of the world of light and the subjective consciousness that Beauford Delaney brought to his portraits. It is a supremely expressive portrait in which the eyes, the most intimate and powerful feature of the face, act like magnets, bringing us close to the mind, soul and emotions of a great writer who finds his place in history through his literature as well as the unique visual language of his mentor, Beauford Delaney.

Beauford Delaney worked with the materiality of paint with color and texture applied in an abstract gestural style, filling the entire pictorial space. His tactile surfaces of brilliant colors are prime carriers of light and space and it is in his use of yellow - ochre, cadmium, lemon - that we discover the substance of light in relation to spirit. It is the concreteness of his color rather than its illusionistic potential that is the essence of Delaney’s art.

*Beauford's 1965 portrait of Baldwin was shown at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1978 during the first retrospective of his work. It is Number 18 in the catalog of the show, and is simply listed as Portrait of James Baldwin. The provenance is shown as "Private Collection of Beauford Delaney: Paris."

Bob Shigeo Remembers Beauford

Bob Shigeo is an American artist and WWII veteran who has lived in Paris since 1953. Inspired by the kinetic art of Alexander Calder and the paintings of Jackson Pollack, he took advantage of the GI bill to study at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura y Escultura in Mexico, the Art Students’ League in New York, and finally the Ecole de la Grande Chaumière in Paris.

Bob Shigeo at the reception following
the gravesite ceremony in October 2010
© Discover Paris!
Bob’s memory of meeting Beauford is intricately tied to Beauford’s friend Earl Kirkham. (Kirkham was the New York painter that Beauford happened to run into at the Dôme café on his first night in Paris.)

According to Bob, Kirkham was well-known and respected among the American artists in Paris. He taught at the Académie Colarossi, sister school to the Académie de la Grande Chaumière located two doors down the street, where Bob was enrolled. Bob met Beauford either at the Académie Colarossi or the adjacent Wadja Restaurant, but he does not recall the details. Wadja was a very modestly priced restaurant during the 1950s and served as the “headquarters” for those studying at the Grand Chaumière and the Colarossi. Beauford lived nearby at the Hôtel des Ecoles and was always in search of a low-cost meal, so it is likely that the two men met there.

Wadja Restaurant
© Discover Paris!
Though Bob now knows that Beauford was no more than 52 years old when they first met, at the time, he thought that Beauford was around 80 years of age! He thought the same thing about Kirkham, and attributes this to the fact that both men had a certain reputation in the New York art world. He did not know that Beauford and Kirkham had known each other prior to coming to Paris, and said that he found both men to be unpretentious and approachable, despite their “stature.”

Bob visited Beauford many times in Beauford’s studios at the Hôtel des Ecoles and at rue Vercingétorix. He recalls the latter studio being about twice the size of the former, but says that the two places had one special thing in common – the color white. At the Hôtel des Ecoles studio, the walls were covered with traditional French wallpaper (which generally had a busy, colorful pattern). Bob remembers that Beauford covered the walls with white paper so as “not to be distracted” by the walls when he worked. Similarly, at rue Vercingétorix, Bob recalls that Beauford draped everything in the apartment that he could with white sheets.

Bob’s fondest memories of Beauford are at rue Vercingétorix, where he would often stop by on his way home between 5 PM and 7 PM. He said that Beauford was a good cook and he would often prepare a meal that he and Bob would share. Bob noted that though Beauford liked wine, he would never serve wine with these meals.

Beauford had a nice chair in his studio and an easel set up nearby. Bob recalls that Beauford would invite him to sit down and then immediately go over to the easel and begin to sketch or paint him. He always thought it was interesting that Beauford would never ask permission to paint him – he’d just begin working. He painted Bob several times without asking! Unfortunately, the whereabouts of these portraits are unknown.

Once, Bob sat for a portrait in a black pullover one time, but when he saw it, he found that Beauford had painted the pullover in red. Bob indicated that he recognized this as an example of a very important aspect of Beauford’s artistic persona – he said that Beauford did not feel the need to paint “reality” – to copy exactly the forms and colors in front of him. He painted what he “felt,” which is what made him the important artist that he was.

Joseph Delaney Remembers Beauford

Joseph Delaney was Beauford’s younger brother. Born in 1904, he and Beauford were the closest in age of the Delaney siblings. Both became artists and were part of a community of artists living in NYC during the Great Depression. Both have their works exhibited at the Knoxville Museum of Art in their hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee.

Image of a portrait of Joseph Delaney
by Beauford Delaney
in Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney
by David A. Leeming
Joseph was asked to contribute remarks to the catalog that was published in conjunction with the first retrospective of Beauford’s work, held at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1978. He described Beauford as “one of the most sensitive and talented of all artists of all times,” and said that if he were to qualify that statement, he would need to explore “all of the qualities which make for the enigma which genius is . . .” He noted that Beauford was recognized early in life as being a special person with unique talents, and that “teachers and other professional people of high rank gave Beauford time and understanding.”

Catalog for Beauford’s 1st Retrospective at the
Studio Museum in Harlem 1978
Joseph also described Beauford as being multitalented, saying that Beauford could “sing like mad,” and play the ukulele, and that he was an excellent mimic. Beauford was the extrovert, while Joseph was the introvert of the two brothers.

Another distinction that Joseph makes in his tribute to his brother is that Beauford developed an appreciation for opera and “other great classics in music and literature.” He states that Beauford was never happier than on the day in 1969 when Joseph visited him in Paris and Beauford took him to the opera.

To read the complete text of Joseph Delaney’s remarks, click on the following link: http://sunsite.utk.edu/delaney/beauford.htm

Larry Calcagno's Portrait of Beauford

Larry Calcagno's portrait of Beauford is one of the rare examples of someone other than Beauford committing Beauford's image to paper. (See the posting on the Georgia O'Keeffe portraits for other examples.)

Portrait of Beauford Delaney
Lawrence Calcagno
(1972) Acrylic
I wrote about Beauford's friendship with Calcagno in April of this year. The first image in that article is the cover of the catalogue from an art exposition that presented Calcagno's and Beauford's works together as a tribute to their friendship. Calcagno's portrait of Beauford was shown in this exposition.

In the introduction for the catalogue, David Leeming wrote an exquisite summary of Beauford's and Calcagno's relationship:

What Beauford Delaney saw in Larry Calcagno was a soul mate and a lifeline to sanity. What Larry saw in Beauford was a remarkable case of total dedication to the mysterious process by which an individual's external and internal life and the essence of life could be re-created in paint.

Calcagno and Beauford met in 1953, when Beauford came to Paris. They were introduced by a mutual friend, and they became "devoted colleagues." Correspondence between the two men reveals the depth of their friendship, which grew and was strengthened over twenty-plus years.

Calcagno gave Beauford what is perhaps one of the finest tributes of all in a written description of the episode when Beauford disappeared in 1975 and Calcagno and many others scoured the streets of Paris looking for him:

He is about the only person in my life, who gave me generously of deep insights into life—without demanding tribute. A true artist—beyond this world!

Kelli Agodon's Tribute to Beauford

A few days ago, Les Amis de Beauford Delaney received a donation from Kelli Russell Agodon, along with a note of thanks to Les Amis for publishing this blog. When I wrote to thank her for her contribution, she responded that she planned to write about Beauford on her blog, Book of Kells. 

On Thursday, July 14th, she did just that.

Kelli's tribute to Beauford is entitled Thankful Thursday - Beauford Delaney, American Artist. In it, she describes him as her "favorite artist that many people have never heard of," and thanks the Les Amis blog for keeping Beauford's memory alive. She includes links to David Leeming's biography of Beauford and to the Artsmia Web site for images of Beauford's work. She states that she is thankful for his art and for being able to share Beauford with her readers.

Thank you, Kelli, for taking the time to write about Beauford and for your heartfelt words!

Why Artisan? Thinking about Beauford

By EL Kornegay Jr.

In a previous posting entitled "Beauford Delaney: The Artisan as Witness," EL Kornegay Jr. took a first, insightful look at Beauford's art from the vantage point of his emerging awareness of Beauford's influence on James Baldwin. Here, he elaborates on what he sees as the difference between Beauford as "artist" and Beauford as "artisan."

There may seem to be very little difference between the words “artist” and “artisan.” On the surface it is easy to see that the former proceeds from the latter. However, the application of these words can and does mean something different to the one labeling and the one being labeled. Such is the case with Beauford Delaney.ⁱ

James Baldwin once wrote that what Beauford taught him to see first was not his painting, his art, “that came later,” but the world as Beauford “caused me to see it.”ⁱⁱ It is important that we understand Beauford the artisan so that we might understand his artistic genius and the deep beauty of his art.

Portrait of Beauford Delaney
(ca. 1950)
Possibly by Gjon Mili
If we look at Beauford and his work through the lens that he taught Baldwin to use to view the world, then our initial glance frames him as an artisan who practiced first seeing and then painting. I would say his aim was not to produce fine art for us to regard from a distance, standing behind a velvet rope, while artificial light reflects the sophistication of the one viewing. Rather, Beauford the Artisan wanted to cause us to see something that we do not want to see. He wanted to teach us to see our world and to love even that which is considered the least of it.

It is at second glance that we see Beauford become an artist: a skilled practitioner whose life and work is just beginning to be recognized as “fine art.” His world went unnoticed by most; the darkness he made beautiful mattered only to him, and he remained faithful to what he saw.

It is my guess that this is the way for many who, like Beauford, practiced a craft on the margins where most do not dare to look or experience. They refuse to sacrifice the truth of what they see for the sake of acceptance – for the sake of what we perceive to be art.

Beauford Delaney becomes an artist only after we apprehend what he causes us to see – not before. He becomes an artist only after we have learned the practice of seeing the world – not merely its colors or its dimensions, but the spirit of the light shaping it in our eyes and minds. James Baldwin says of his mentor, “Beauford’s work leads the inner and the outer eye, directly and inexorable, to a new confrontation with reality.”ⁱⁱⁱ

Portrait of James Baldwin
Beauford Delaney
(1945) Oil on canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The artisan gives way to the artist only when we have accepted how he practices seeing the world and paints it. This is what makes Beauford Delaney an artisan who we are beginning to love as an artist and this is what makes his work fine art.

************
ⁱ This reflection is in response to the question of why I used “artisan” to describe Beauford Delaney. I am using James Baldwin as an interlocutor to frame this reflection, since it is he that first introduced me to Beauford as the one who taught him to see the world and to paint its beauty with his words. As such, I see myself as a student of both men.
ⁱⁱ James Baldwin, “On the Painter Beauford Delaney” in James Baldwin: Collected Essay, Toni Morrison, ed. (New York, N.Y.: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 1998), 721.
ⁱⁱⁱ Ibid, pp.720.

Beauford Painting Auctioned at Doyle New York

Many thanks to DLeopold, who recently shared the following comment on the blog posting about Beauford and Al Hirschfeld:

Hirschfeld and Freeman were instrumental in introducing Delaney to a wide range of friends and collectors, which provided him the means to focus on his art. Several works on paper by Delaney from Hirschfeld's collection will go to the auction block on June 22nd. Check it out at http://www.doylenewyork.com/content/more.asp?id=157.

I visited the Doyle New York Web site and found a single Delaney painting that had been assigned Lot Number 151 and an estimated sale price of $4000 to $6000. It is a pastel on grey/green paper entitled Street Scene, dated 1953 (the year that Beauford sailed for Paris).

Street Scene
Beauford Delaney
(1953) Pastel on paper
The auction was held on June 22, 2011 at 10 AM. Beauford's pastel sold for $37,500!

Beauford and Friends on Greene Street

After reading last week's guest posting by Richard Gibson on sitting for his Delaney portrait, his friend Tony Hagert sent the information below regarding Beauford's studio on Greene Street in New York. It is a wonderful glimpse at what life was like for him, his roommate, Richard Hadlock, and landlord Beauford!

Greene Street
Beauford Delaney
(1940) Oil on canvas
Photo by André Moran from the Artsmia Web site

Actually, Dick Hadlock and I were on the second floor and Beauford on the third. We paid him $35 per month and later found out he was paying $25 for both floors - all from a generous friend, I think, because it was pretty cheap even for those days (1951+).

The first floor at 181 Greene Street was a twine warehouse and not a fashionable address altho' only two blocks from Washington Square, Fifth Avenue, and New York University. There was no hot water so we used to go to Grand Central Station every so often to bathe for 75 cents (plus tip). If we were invited to someone's home, we would ask if it was OK for us to bring our soap and towel, and they could watch if they wanted - or help, even.

Before we moved in, we had to empty out the second floor which was completely filled with bags of ashes from the pot bellied stove on the third floor - several years' worth. I cannot recall how we disposed of them but it must have been by stealth at night because we could not afford to have them hauled away.

Then we repainted the second floor over the four or five haphazard end-of-the-can colors that had been there before the ashes, brought in our old records, and were as happy as clams.

Richard Gibson Sits for a Portrait by Beauford

Richard Gibson met Beauford at the age of sixteen in Philadelphia and considered Beauford a friend and mentor for the rest of his life. Among the things that Beauford helped Gibson accomplish was to get accepted at the Yaddo artists’ community in Sarasota Springs, NY when he was a struggling young writer trying to produce his first book. In this posting, he talks about how Beauford came to paint his portrait, which was eventually hung at a major exposition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

****************
I visited Beauford in Paris when I was stationed outside Karlsruhe in the US Army in the last days of the allied occupation. I was fortunate enough to obtain my discharge from the Army without having to go back to the States and instead went straight to Paris, taking an overnight train to see Beauford and William Gardner Smith, another good friend. I found a room in what was then called the Hotel des Ecoles on the rue Delambre, where Beauford was staying in a bedroom that was very light and bright on the top floor. The maids had given him old white sheets to improve the light. He slept and worked in this fairly spacious room, which I remember as overlooking rue Delambre. It was hard to see the street because of the guttering on that floor of the building.

The light in the room was reminiscent of that in Beauford’s Greene Street apartment in Greenwich Village, but the space was far more comfortable. I often visited him at Greene Street and two school friends of mine from Philadelphia actually stayed on the floor above for some months. Beauford’s studio there was damp and poorly heated by a pot-bellied stove, but quite light due to the old white sheets that he scattered over furniture and hung over the dark walls.

It was at the rue Delambre apartment where Beauford said he wanted to do my portrait one day in 1955. I did not have to go to classes at the Sorbonne (where I was trying to learn and perfect my French on the GI Bill) that day.

Beauford’s custom was to listen to music of all kinds – from jazz to Marian Anderson, the great black singer of the day – while working, and so it was that day. I was astounded at how swiftly his brushes moved across the small standard canvas that one found in local Montparnasse art shops. My portrait was completed in two hours. It was little more than a sketch perhaps, but I still treasure it as the best likeness of me as a young man.

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

To read Richard’s tribute to Beauford on the Les Amis blog, click here.

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

To read more about the 2005 exposition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, click on the following links:

http://www.fallonandrosof.com/2005/11/delaney-in-paris-and-philadelphia.html
http://theartblog.org/2005/11/weekly-update-delaneys-embrace/