Where to Find Beauford's Art: Swann Auction Galleries African American Fine Art Auction - October 2013

After selling a Beauford Delaney self-portrait at its African American Fine Art Auction in February, Swann Galleries is pleased to offer three magnificent paintings by Beauford at its October 2013 auction: Point of Departure: Postwar African-American Fine Art.

The first work that appears in the auction catalog is entitled Embrun:

Embrun
(1963) Watercolor on wove paper
641x501 mm; 25 1/4x19 3/4 inches
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
This painting was exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, with the label on the frame back. The estimated sale price is $8,000 - $12,000.

The second of the three paintings is entitled Untitled (Composition in Blue).

Untitled (Composition in Blue)
(1963) Watercolor on wove paper
641x501 mm; 25 1/4x19 3/4 inches
Signed, dated and inscribed "Paris" in ink, lower right
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The estimated sale price for this work is $8,000 - $12,000.

The third painting, also called Untitled, is the pièce de résistance – the showpiece of the three works. It was created in Beauford's favorite color - yellow.

Untitled
(1968) Oil on cotton canvas
610x502 mm; 24x19 3/4 inches
Signed and dated in oil, lower left
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It was also exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, with the label on the frame back.

Swann Auction Galleries describes Untitled as follows:

In this striking canvas, Beauford Delaney combines a representation of an African fertility figure within a saturated yellow color field painting. Delaney had an interest in African sculpture going back to his reading of Alain Locke's New Negro, and visiting artist Cloyd Boykin's Primitive African Arts Center in the 1930s. Having seen the influence of African art on Picasso and other modernist painters in both New York and Paris, Delaney often incorporated African motifs and figures, including Earth Mother, 1950 and Mokonde Figure, 1952. This oil is from the same year as his Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald in the Walter O. Evans Collection of African-American Art, the last fully productive year of his Parisian period. In both paintings, the figure is subsumed within the dominant yellow swirls of color. Three years later, Delaney even portrayed himself as an African figure in his Self-Portrait, 1971. Leeming p. 41 and 102; Powell p. 58.

Its estimated sale price is $50,000 - $75,000.

All three paintings were acquired directly from the artist by James and Gloria Jones in Paris. From the estate of Gloria Jones, New York, they were acquired for a private New York collection. American writer James Jones and his wife Gloria were close friends, collectors and supporters of Beauford while he lived in Paris.

Point of Departure: Postwar African-American Fine Art is listed as Sale 2323 on Swann Auction Galleries Web site. For details, click here.

Where to Find Beauford's Art: Christie's Paris October 2013 Rendez-Vous / Intérieurs Contemporains Auction

Sylvain Briet - an expert on Beauford’s art who has been called upon by Christie's in Paris and London to authenticate works for sale - has graciously provided Les Amis with the following information about a singular Delaney painting that will be offered at auction by Christie's Paris on October 9, 2013:

Untitled, 1970Oil on canvas, 65 x 54 cm.
© Christie's Images, 2013© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Painted at the artist’s studio : 53 rue Vercingétorix, Paris 14ème
Signed, dated, and situated in blue ink ‘Beauford Delaney 1970 Paris’ (lower middle)
Signed and dated in red paint ‘Beauford Delaney 1970’ (lower right)
Beauford Delaney was a total artist, an inventive artist. This painting (done at the age of 68) shows his perpetual interest in researching and experimenting with new techniques and visual effects—in what I call creating. The organization of forms on the canvas, the use of bright yellow that can even be found on one of the edges of the back of the painting, as well as the clear border that frames the composition, are all elements that affirm that this painting was created by Beauford.

Rear of Untitled, 1970
© Christie's Images, 2013 © Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The double signature is not unique to Delaney. His red signature can be found on All the Races, another painting dated 1970 that my brother Philippe and I showed at the Philippe Briet Gallery. The form of the letters in blue ink (made with a pen) is also characteristic of Beauford's style during that era.

When we enlarge the reproduction to its maximum we have a true feeling of the painting, its texture, and how Beauford Delaney managed to combine its colors with softness, which is quite remarkable.

Provenance:
There is unfortunately no record between the moment the painting left Beauford’s studio and its purchase by the actual owner in the south of France. The work was sold to the actual owner in 1998 by Michel Martiniani at Art Trade, an antique shop in La Garde. This small city is located in the Var department, not far from the French Riviera and Saint-Paul de Vence, where Beauford stayed and painted at James Baldwin’s home on several occasions in 1971, 72 and 73. But this was long after the painting was created.

Untitled, 1970, Lot 146, will be offered for sale at Christie’s, 9 avenue Matignon, Paris 8ème, during the Rendez-Vous / Intérieurs Contemporains auction, Sale 3557, on October 9, starting at 2:30 PM. Estimate: €4,000 - €6,000 ($5,316 - $7,975).

re-Searching Beauford Delaney: A Final Reflection

This post is contributed by E. L. Kornegay, Jr., Ph. D., author of the many "re-Searching Beauford" articles and other posts that you'll find on the Les Amis blog. Though it is the final article in the "re-Searching Beauford" series, I will continue to ask Dr. Kornegay to share his musings about Beauford's legacy as it pertains to inspiration and service in the workings of the Baldwin-Delaney Institute.

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You could not have told me nearly three years ago that I would be where I am now, in great part, because of Beauford Delaney.

My study of James Baldwin and my desire to understand the man who taught him how to write so colorfully led to me “meet” Beauford.

James Baldwin and Beauford
at the American Cultural Center, Paris
Photo: U.S. Information Service
Through that introduction I have met wonderful people – friends of Beauford, seen beautiful works of art – Beauford’s paintings, and encountered wonderful memories – Beauford’s spirit. And like James Baldwin, I have been inspired to write by the man whom he called his mentor. I have earned my Ph.D., written my first book (to be released in December of this year), and established the Baldwin-Delaney Institute for Academic Enrichment and Faith Flourishing at Chicago Theological Seminary. Needless to say, I have walked through the unusual door!*

When my soul looks back over this time, I find myself in the grasp of Beauford’s model of manhood; a manhood that dares to live within the grace given by God to pursue the fulfillment of your gift. It takes great energy to maintain the worldly identities that are thrust upon us and the pursuit of one’s vocation beyond the stifling dependency on these identities often comes at great cost. Yet, that cost is minimal when put up against the madness of pursuing mediocrity, the middle ground, the easy life, the safe thing to do.

The door that Beauford opened is one that few walk through completely and the path he pioneered is one that few navigate successfully. I see Beauford and imagine his exhaustion: an exhaustion that comes with carrying the great burden of manhood encumbered by blackness and being misunderstood sexually. Yet, his craft did not fail him nor does it fail us. In spite of it all, the rage never limited the beauty of his art or the import of his sacrifice, even if it cost him his sanity.

Untitled (Composition in Blue)
1963 Watercolor on Wove Paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
I think that more than anything, the purpose of the paintings Beauford left for us is to inspire us to live our greatest vision of ourselves. So here I am at the end of one thing and the beginning of another. It is Beauford that guided me here, giving me the strength to go through the unusual door and unto the path of greatness. It is not a path for the faint of heart and Beauford reminds us of what can happen, but not that it has to happen. So, I move forward wanting to make the world a better place, desiring to be a good steward of the path of vocational freedom, and to love well while I live.

Beauford Delaney
Rue Guilleminot
France 1973
© Errol Sawyer
Every time I look at Beauford’s face, every time I look at one of his paintings, I am reminded of this. Thank you Beauford, for showing me the way and for being my friend.

*According to James Baldwin, the “unusual door” is a lyric from a song that “Beauford would often sing.” Baldwin speaks of this in his essay “The Price of the Ticket” in Collected Essays ed. Toni Morrison.(New York: Library of America, 1998), p. 830.

Where to Find Beauford's Art: Dolan/Maxwell Gallery

On Thursday I had the pleasure of speaking with Ron Rumford, director of the Dolan/Maxwell Gallery in Philadelphia. Dolan/Maxwell is proud to offer two Beauford Delaney paintings for sale:

Untitled (Grape Motif)
(1946) Pastel on paperimage: 17 x 23.125 inches
sheet: 18 x 24 inches
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Untitled (Yellow series)
(1962) Oil on linen26 x 21 inches Annotated in verso
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Both works were obtained from a private collector whose husband knew Beauford personally.

About these paintings, Rumford writes:

Beauford Delaney's pastel was made in New York c. 1946 and reflects a dynamic, frenzied energy often associated with that city. He contradicts our expectations of what a simple bunch of grapes might imply by surrounding the delicately colored fruit with zigzagging lines that echo the jagged edges of the grape leaves. Powerful, contrasting bands of pinks, purples, blue, and brown shatter the notion that we are looking at a mere still life.

Untitled (Yellow series) 1962 was painted in Paris, where Delaney allows the objective world to escape from his work. Now painting is about light, about applying the paint and finding meaning within the act of mixing color and orchestrating brushstrokes. Yellow is the brightest color of the spectrum and in making this radiant choice Beauford assigns himself the greatest painting challenge of inventing a new visual reality out of oil paint. He rises to that challenge again and again with the yellow paintings he made in Paris.

Dolan/Maxwell specializes in work by artists from the 1930's to the present, ranging from WPA, Modernist, European, and New York School to African-American and International Contemporary.

Dolan/Maxwell Gallery
2046 Rittenhouse Square Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 USA
Telephone: 215-732-7787
Facsimile: 215-790-1866
Email:
www.dolanmaxwell.com

Beauford's Paris: Cité Falguière

Cité Falguière, viewed from the end of the impasse
© Ralf.treinen
Creative Commons License
Cité Falguière is an impasse located near the rear of the Montparnasse train station in the 15th arrondissement. Less than ten-minute's walk from the location of Beauford's last studio on rue Vercingétorix, it was constructed as a series of 30 ateliers for artists during the late 19th century. Urban renewal of the impasse began in the 1960s and of the original structures, only Numbers 9 and 11 remain standing today (shown above). Both buildings continue to house artists' studios.

One of Beauford's dearest friends, Charley Boggs, lived in a small studio at 5, cité Falguière. Boggs was a painter whom Beauford met during his first few weeks in Paris in 1953; the two men became close when Boggs brought Beauford chicken broth while Beauford was suffering from the flu in October of that year. Boggs, his wife Gita, and their son Gordon, became a surrogate family for Beauford, but Boggs and his wife had separated by the time he moved to the Cité.

Beauford would visit Boggs frequently at his studio and would often sleep in the loft there during the early 1970s. For a brief time in 1969, Beauford rented a studio near Cité Falguière in which to store his paintings.

Beauford would undoubtedly have been thrilled to know that Ecole de Paris painter Amadeo Modigliani had a studio at Cité Falguière (Number 14). Modigliani's name was found on one of Beauford's sketchbook journals dating from the early 1940s in connection with Beauford's studies on the use of color. Other well known artists from Modigliani's era who lived and worked at the Cité were Chaim Soutine (Number 11), Tsuguharu Foujita, and Constantin Brancusi (whom Beauford knew personally).

African-American painters Ed Clark (a personal friend of Beauford) and Sylvester Britton also worked in studios at Cité Falguière after the Second World War.

Beauford in Provence

As events begin to unfold in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, I am reminded of a brief anecdote in Beauford's biography, Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney. Author David Leeming describes how Beauford traveled to the town of Solliès Toucas, in the region of Provence in southern France, to spend time with friends Bernard Hassell, Richard Olney, and Mary Painter. He indicates that

Beauford painted a great deal and, as always, enjoyed the sun, but was upset at missing James Baldwin's quick visit to Paris to gather expatriate support for the March on Washington.

In previous posts on this blog, I published images of paintings by Beauford that bear the name (although misspelled) of this Provençal town. One of them is dated 1963 and the other is undated:

Sollis Toucan 

(1963) Oil on canvas

Signed, dated and titled, on the stretcher

16 3/8 x 13 inches

© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Soullis Toucas

(Beauford's gift to Roy Freeman)

Oil on canvas

© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Undoubtedly, one of them was painted during the time of Baldwin's visit to Paris. Given the similarity of the two works, the other may well have been painted during the same trip.

To read the articles in which these images were first published, click on the links below:

Where to Find Beauford's Art: Ink Miami Art Fair - Aaron Galleries
Roy Freeman Remembers Beauford

The Many Sidedness of Beauford Delaney's Art: Commentary

Last week, I published "The Many Sidedness of Beauford Delaney's Art," an article by Dr. Catherine St. John that discusses Beauford's art in the context of the recent solo exposition Beauford Delaney: Internal Light at the Jim Levis Gallery. Today, I bring you comments on that article by Sylvain Briet - an art expert and the brother of the late Philippe Briet, a French gallery owner and publisher who was passionate about the work of Beauford Delaney. The Briet brothers operated the Philippe Briet Gallery in SoHo, Manhattan in the late 1980s and mounted two retrospectives of Beauford's works.

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My remarks are not about Catherine Saint John's vision of the art of Beauford Delaney, which is by far more interesting than many writings published for decades. I believe in her talent in understanding Beauford's work, as my late brother did. She is a true friend and my comments are not meant to give her discrédit (discredit). But there are some points that needed some éclaircissement (clarification, explanation), as we say in French:

Catherine St. John (CSJ) wrote "...artists living abroad were more apt to explore diversity in an environment where a traditional art market was absent." I wonder why she says that, since by the early 1950s numerous art magazines were active in France, such as La Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1859-2002), Cimaise (1953 to present), L'Œil (January 1955 to present), Connaissance des Arts (1952 to present), Jardin des Arts (1954 to present), Cahiers d'Art (1926-1960), and XXe Siècle (1938-1974). There were also hundreds of galleries already in Paris. When I checked in an issue of Cimaise dating from 1956, I was able to see ads for American, Italian and English galleries. There's even a section with the articles translated into English.

The famous auction house Hôtel Drouot was inaugurated in Paris in 1852 and is still a flourishing business. The auctioneer House of Paris was created in 1801. Sotheby's had its first sale in the U.S. in 1955 and opened an office in Paris in 1967. Christie's in New York didn't have its first auction before 1977, and its first in Paris in 2002. And of course, until 1964 and that now famous Venice Biennal that awarded Rauschenberg, all the art American people were interested in was coming from Europe, and particularly France. So there was a strong art market when Beauford arrived in France.

The thing about Beauford was that he was in his own mental world, creating, and not interested in the art business. Also, he didn't have a partner to take care of his business. When he didn't give his works as presents to friends, he sold them for survival and to be able to produce more works. If he had had a close friend for promoting his art, his life would have been totally different.

CSJ's reference to the traditional art market was derived from an article on Gerhard Richter in Art Journal "that took into consideration a wider continental art market." One sure point is that we can't write generalities on a specific subject. And knowing the French and American culture is "indispensable" in understanding the time when Beauford Delaney was living! So, when it is written "where a traditional art market was absent," this is absolutely wrong. The image below provides evidence:

An auction in Paris including paintings and jewels, in April 1748
Image courtesy of Sylvain Briet
On another note, CSJ uses the expression "modest in size" about Beauford Delaney's paintings. As if the painter was not able to buy and then to create paintings on a larger scale, and as if this would be such a disadvantage in his career. There is nothing in them that makes them modest anyway, because size has nothing to do with quality. Dürer has never done paintings 7 meters long as did Cy Tombly and Rauschenberg. Neither did Van Gogh or Vermeer. Some people need to show big work to be seen!!!

"Modest" has a negative connotation. And the abstract paintings, the yellow ones we exhibited in New York, were not small.

I think that to imagine that Beauford was not able to buy large canvases is a false problem. I believe that he was comfortable creating works that were adapted to his natural gestures and movements and in concert with the development of his ideas. These works need not have been gigantic.

CSJ also mentions that "Untitled: Abstract in Black, Calligraphic Lines with Red, Diptych, probably completed in 1956, was inspired by an invitation from painter Larry Calcagno to join him on a trip to Ibiza, Spain." More precisely, the work was completed in Ibiza in August 1956, during a trip with painter Larry Calcagno. The name of the island is featured on the work.

It is interesting to see that the Jim Levis Gallery has put the works together, when apparently Beauford decided to make two works from the original one, signing each part. When put exactly next to each other, one can verify that Beauford reframed each part, eliminating some surface, whether on the top (work on the left) or on the bottom (work on the right).

Composite image of Untitled: Abstract in Black, Calligraphic Lines with Red, Diptych by Sylvain Briet
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
If some criticism could be made regarding the Jim Levis installation of the exhibition, it is that there is no pertinence in having the portraits presented in between abstract works.

Beauford Delaney: Internal Light
Levis Fine Art
Image courtesy of Levis Fine Art
It is as though Levis didn't believe in the portraits by themselves and thought that displaying an abstract painting next to a portrait would help people to see or to understand and be more likely to purchase the portrait! It is not a proper way to present the paintings to serve the artist.

The Many Sidedness of Beauford Delaney’s Art

Catherine St. John, Doctor of Arts at Berkeley College, brings us another review of Beauford’s work as she saw it at the recent solo exposition Beauford Delaney: Internal Light at Levis Fine Art Gallery in New York.

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Beauford Delaney produced paintings that demonstrate a multiplicity of approaches, a way of working characteristic of much postwar European art. The many sidedness of his art was clearly visible before he left New York City for Paris in 1953 and while American artists often became tied to a “signature” style, artists living abroad were more apt to explore diversity in an environment where a traditional art market was absent. Delaney’s work opens up new avenues for thinking about creativity. His range emphasizes difference which, properly understood, reveals continuity.

For Beauford Delaney, art was an internal necessity. Art mattered greatly to him and it can be said that his visually absorbing paintings reflect his own identity as a human being. The major stimulus of his work is the act of painting. His work speaks to the continual relevance of paint and canvas. He explores the boundaries between representational and abstract modes, which need not be inconsistent. There is a sense of intimacy, a truth to his pictorial gestures. His marks and lines give depth to flatness, bending form to the needs of inner content. Lightness seems to emanate from within the surface of his paintings and comes towards us, an inner illumination and spirit, especially noticed in his rich yellow grounds.

There is much to be gained from repeated looking at Delaney’s art of the 1950s and 60s at Levis Fine Art. On entering the exhibit Beauford Delaney: Internal Light in the gallery on West 24th Street in Chelsea, New York, we discover the recurring balance between the profound humanity of Delaney himself and the products of imagination that unfolded from his mind’s eye. His spirit and the world around him are experienced in paintings modest in size, scaled to small studios. With a range of formal complexity, richly colored threads of paint are interwoven in both quietly contemplative portraits and alternate abstractions, suggesting layers of absent selves.

In selecting two specific paintings from more than two dozen to discuss, viewers are offered a recognizable sensibility as well as an opportunity to observe Beauford Delaney’s working methods. Suggestive of drawing, perhaps the most abstract medium of art, both seem like writing. Composites of strokes give the paintings surface unity.

Untitled: Abstract in Black, Calligraphic Lines with Red, Diptych, probably completed in 1956, was inspired by an invitation from painter Larry Calcagno to join him on a trip to Ibiza, Spain. It is a gouache with thinly worked red color accents that seem to be lit from behind. Areas of wove paper show through. We also see in the overlapping ovals in black, perhaps a figure eight or spiral, a striking formal repetition that adds an aspect of coherence to his works and reveal the momentum of his brush in response to impulse.

Untitled: Abstract in Black, Calligraphic Lines with Red, Diptych
(ca. 1956) Gouache on wove paper
Signed lower left and lower right
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image supplied by Levis Fine Art*
Also gouache on wove paper, Untitled: Abstract in Red, Green, Ochre and Black was completed in 1962. It is a bold, modernist flat painting. As seen in synthetic cubism, planar segments of red and green overlap in some places and fit together in others. Strokes in varying directions extend the viewer’s attention across the painted surface. There are no defined focal points but it is possible to discern an implied human or figural presence in the drawn lines that emerge in black strokes from the maze of flat areas of the color complements. Delaney’s lines and shapes interlace with a sureness of paint application.

Untitled: Abstract in Red, Green, Ochre and Black
(1962) Gouache on wove paper
Signed and dated lower right, Paris
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image supplied by Levis Fine Art Gallery*
Not exhibited chronologically, we sense in the paintings on display an all encompassing awakening of consciousness, his visual presence revealed over time by his dynamic range of marks both actual and conceptual. The reverence with which he handles paint engages viewers physically. There is a mastery of the artist’s craft. In more than two dozen paintings, we experience the material truth of color and gesture, each with a sense of individual character and an immediacy that casts its own mood. Lines and shapes are interlocked, invested with subjective perception.

There are four portraits in the exhibit. Done with great candor, they offer the inward qualities that Beauford Delaney discovered in his subjects. The same energetic paint handling that we observe in his non-figurative works can be seen in the portraits. Suggestive of the lives behind the faces they are, in essence, a collective narrative from which the emergent history of his time and place can be written. The portraits aid in illuminating the origins of this artist’s emotionally and intellectually resonant, profoundly human work. Can these paintings of aesthetic, historical and social significance be intellectualized or are their meanings too deep?

In closing, the poem “Description” by Christopher Stackhouse published in Plural (Counterpath Press, 2012) introduces lexical units of short phrases in which readers must look for connecting threads:

Af-am contribution to Abstraction, variation

Pattern making, smallness versus the typified

‘Grand gesture’, to write as one draws, geometric

Lines, subsets confined and confirmed by points

Beauford Delaney, Edward Bannister, Gerhard Richter

Ellsworth Kelly’s yellow square, infinities of touch

Can these lines provide a path toward a greater understanding of Beauford Delaney’s art?


To read additional contributions by Dr. St. John to the Les Amis blog, click on the links below:

Beauford’s Portraits of James Baldwin – Part 1
Beauford’s Portraits of James Baldwin – Part 2
Where to Find Beauford’s Art: Hampton University Museum

*Levis Fine Art, Inc.
514 West 24th St., 3-W
New York, NY 10011
Member of Fine Art Dealers Association (FADA)
Contact: Jim Levis
jim@levisfineart.com
www.levisfineart.com
T: 646-620-5000

Danny Simmons on Beauford Delaney

Danny Simmons is a contemporary, self-proclaimed, “neo-African abstract expressionist” painter as well as an author and television producer (Def Poetry Jam). Hailing from Queens, NY, he is a co-founder of Rush Galleries and co-founder and vice president of the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation. He graciously granted Les Amis an interview about Beauford and the Beauford Delaney work that is part of his private art collection.

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Les Amis: When and how did you learn about Beauford Delaney?

DS: I learned about Delaney's work about ten years ago at the black fine art show...one of the older established galleries had a few pieces for sale...I was intrigued by his abstraction. ..at the time I’d only seen figurative work by many of the artists of that period.

Les Amis: How would you describe his work?

DS: Well the work I’m most familiar with is mostly expressionist abstraction. I admit I’m not that well versed on his whole body of work. But in some of his figurative work I admire that he incorporated African images into the paintings . . . also his use of paint . . .how he thickly applied it . . . his portraits were soulful and captured the essence of his subjects.

Portrait of the Artist’s Mother
(1930) Pencil, ink and watercolor on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Les Amis: You are a “neo-African abstract expressionist” painter. What does this mean?

DS: What I meant when I coined that term many years ago is that I try to channel the intent and spiritual feeling of traditional African art and allow it to influence the abstract images that I paint. African art was created for social and religious reasons and invoked power. I try to infuse that same spiritual power into my work.

Les Amis: How much did Beauford’s work influence yours, if any?

DS: I was already on my artistic path when I encountered his work . . . but the freedom and depth I saw in Delaney's art helped to push me to relax a bit more with my painting and find a deeper voice from within to bring to the canvas.

Portrait of the Artist’s Mother (detail)
(1930) Pencil, ink and watercolor on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Les Amis: Have you used any of Beauford’s work as part of the arts education programs that you offer at Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation?

DS: I don’t believe the kids have used Delaney specifically but I am aware that they have looked at art from that period by artists of color. And I’m sure he was among them.

Les Amis: How did you come to obtain the portrait of Beauford’s mother?

DS: A great collector dealer friend of mine told me he had a client that wanted to sell a Delaney that was within my affordability. Beauford’s work is quite pricey. I was hoping for an abstraction but was pleasantly surprised when I saw the stunning portrait of his mother. I pulled the resources together and quickly purchased it before someone else snapped it up.

Les Amis: What drew you to this work?

DS: I was drawn to purchase his work for two reasons:

1. To expand my collection of African-American masters.
2. I’m still hoping to find an abstraction I can afford, but to have such a prominent historical artist in my home is a real blessing. His life in Paris is an amazing story.

Les Amis: Is there a “certain something” that motivates an artist (yourself included) to create abstract rather than figurative works?

DS: I think abstraction is a drawing on one’s soul to create the work. It’s a powerful experience to create something that comes totally from your spirit and imagination.

Les Amis: Do you think it is significant that Beauford continued to paint figurative portraits as he produced more and more abstract expressionist paintings?

DS: I think that artists have the ability to move across the creative spectrum and I admire that Beauford was able to allow himself the freedom to do so.

Les Amis: Any final thoughts?

DS: Only that I’m honored to be one of a very small group in the world that is lucky enough to have some of his work.

Les Amis Looks Back

As July 2013 comes to a close, I am awed when I look back over the past four years! It was in July 2009 that I wrote to Richard Gibson to inquire about the location of Beauford's grave. This triggered the chain of events that led to the establishment of Les Amis de Beauford Delaney.

Today I am posting several photos that bear witness to the path that we have opened to honor Beauford's life and work and to make them better known to the world. Click on the links in the captions to access the story behind each image.

Thiais Cemetery Division 86 - location of Beauford's final resting place
© Discover Paris!

Announcement for the creation of Les Amis de Beauford Delaney
© Discover Paris!

Ambassador Rivkin writes a letter of support for fundraising
© Discover Paris!

Dorothy's Gallery sells Henry Miller painting in support of fundraising effort
© Discover Paris!

Gravesite ceremony
© Discover Paris!

Program for celebration at the Hôtel Tallyrand
© Discover Paris!

Invitees enjoying the cocktail
© Discover Paris!

Burt and Pat Reinfrank talk of their memories of Beauford for filmmaker Zachary Miller
© Discover Paris!

1st anniversary celebration of the laying of the stone
© Discover Paris!

Tending Beauford's Gravesite
© Discover Paris!

re-Searching Beauford: A Penultimate Reflection for a Generation Now

This post is contributed by E. L. Kornegay, Jr., Ph. D., author of the many "re-Searching Beauford" articles as well as other posts on this blog. I consider him to be the first Beauford Delaney scholar!

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E. L. Kornegay, Jr., Ph. D.
Photo courtesy of Dr. Kornegay
I have been reflecting on Beauford for quite a while now. My first reflection was published on this site in 2011. Since then I have written a handful of short essays about my journey as I’ve searched for an understanding of Beauford. I have met a handful of people along the way, seen a handful of Beauford’s paintings, read a handful of other reflections on the work, person, and life of Beauford Delaney. A handful here, a handful there, a gathering of souls putting handfuls together offering portions of a picture of the man, the painter, the soul of Beauford Delaney – all desiring to be made whole.

I wonder, in this moment, if desire is enough to express the spaces in between the handfuls? Yes, desire is the source of both the problem and the solution to understanding Beauford as a whole. There is a desire to understand who Beauford was and the call to understand Beauford as he is. Who Beauford was is a memory held by friends, family, and admirers reminded of a history framed by maddening genius, spiritual giftedness, and human frailty. This is who Beauford was. It is something – this history – that is indisputable for it is real to those who knew Beauford. But what does this mean for those who want to know Beauford now?

Beauford Delaney
Rue Guilleminot
France 1973
© Errol Sawyer*
I am not playing a game of semantics here. We know who Beauford was, but are we really willing to know who he is for us now? How do we “shake loose” the loving memory of Beauford so that we can find a new story – the story of his humanity, his blackness, his masculinity and what remains of him as an artist? How do the handfuls come together to reveal new depth, clarity and truth to who Beauford is to us now?

I have a “critical orientation” to the challenges these two perspectives pose. I believe that what gets said about Beauford Delaney today must be said about who he is to us now. I believe that his story can liberate those who have no one to peer into their souls and guide them into a truth they never dared to imagine for themselves. This is an embodiment of who Beauford is and should be to a new generation of youth that is “young, gifted, and black.”

There is a tangible meaning to Beauford’s life and art that intersects with the community and culture of his birth. That which extends beyond who he was and how his life is remembered must somehow circle back to the everyday folk he painted from memory. His art was his “amazing grace,” but his choice to become an artist against all odds is an amazing feat we can all learn from!

Beauford's Paint Box
© Discover Paris!
In a world where little black boys and girls get lost in a world where their gifts are often snuffed out early on, Beauford offers us a lasting memory and an ever present tangible hope for a way forward beyond the violence, injustice, and madness that unique ability encounters because of race, gender, sexuality and religion. Just like a young James Baldwin, this generation can benefit from a “rite of passage” consisting of Beauford’s past and present, and not a moment too soon. For youth facing the dangers of dreams deferred and the real possibility of losing their lives, the handfuls of Beauford need to come together and work toward an outcome befitting his legacy.

I am going to write more about Beauford, maybe even a book. I will have to see what comes next, but I know our youth need Beauford and we need Beauford – every last handful of him – now.

*To read about Errol Sawyer's portrait of Beauford, click here.

Beauford: His Art and His Light

Today, as I reflect on the tremendous reception that Beauford's work has received at the recent Beauford Delaney: Internal Light exposition in New York, I think of the inextricable way that his life and art were intertwined. Indeed, I believe that most people who knew him could not separate him from his art and the light that he not only saw in his surroundings, but also emanated himself and brought to his art. Here are a few brief quotes that bear witness to this.

Invitation card to 1973 exposition at Galerie Darthea Speyer
Image courtesy of Galerie Darthea Speyer
Beauford, you are the complete artist, not just in the medium of paint but in the medium of life.
- James Jones

I learned about light from Beauford Delaney, the light contained in every thing, in every surface, in every face.
- James Baldwin

Beauford was an artist from before birth; he was an artist in the womb, and even before that.
- Henry Miller

First and last Beauford is an artist - one of the most sensitive and talented of all artists of all times.
- Joseph Delaney

...this is indeed, the hallmark of Beauford's art, a joyful pursuit of the exact.
- Richard A. Long

For many years, the sparkle of his gaze shone around him and attracted a crowd of friends, fascinated by this strong, if silent, presence. It was not his discourse that captivated, but a light that emanated from him and permeated everyone. (Translated from French)
– Darthea Speyer

To see a short video of the Beauford Delaney: Internal Light exposition opening, click here.

Beauford to Be Added to Thiais Cemetery Celebrity List

A miracle has occurred!

After waiting for two years to pay the concession fee for Beauford's grave, I received notification that his grave site will henceforth be conserved by the City of Paris and that within the next few weeks, Beauford's name will be added to the list of famous persons buried at Thiais cemetery!

The story goes as follows:

When I founded the French non-profit association Les Amis de Beauford Delaney in 2009, the principal goals were to pay the fee that would keep Beauford's remains interred and to place a stone at his unmarked grave. At the time, I was told that an exception would be made so that Les Amis could pay the concession fee because only Beauford's family or a legal representative of his estate was legally allowed to do so. Les Amis paid all previously owed sums and brought accounts up to date through 2010.

Beauford's grave site in 2009
© Discover Paris!

Beauford's tombstone in 2010
© Discover Paris!
In 2011, I wrote to the cemetery to indicate that Les Amis was ready to submit the funds to cover the next ten years of the concession. I was told once again that Les Amis had no right to submit this payment and that a two-year grace period would go into effect to allow a family member or legal representative to come forth and pay (or move Beauford's remains elsewhere). I had to wait until 2013 to contact them again.

I wrote to the cemetery in March of this year, reiterating that Les Amis was ready to pay the sum due. I received a reply stating that though an exception was made in 2010, Les Amis would not be allowed to pay the concession this year. However, my contact at the cemetery, Deputy Director Marilyn Pin, took it upon herself to contact the main cemetery office at Père Lachaise in Paris and request that Beauford's name be added to the list of "celebrities" interred at Thiais. If this request were granted, the City of Paris would take responsibility for preserving his grave site and no future funds would need to be submitted.

On June 7th, I received a call from Madame Pin stating that her request had been granted and that a letter would be forthcoming. On July 4th, I received her letter confirming that Beauford's grave will now be conserved by the City of Paris. This means that Beauford's family and estate no longer need to worry about paying a fee to keep his remains buried.

From an historical standpoint, the fact that Beauford's name will be added to the list of famous persons buried at the Parisian Cemetery of Thiais is yet another milestone in the preservation of the legacy of the African-American presence in Paris.

Conversations with Beauford - Part 2

Paul Sinclair is the agent for the African-American expatriate artist Ealy Mays. He and Mays are admirers of Beauford's work and students of his life story and Sinclair's profound respect and empathy for Beauford inspired him to represent Mays. The following is a second excerpt from an article that Sinclair wrote after visiting Beauford's solo exposition Beauford Delaney: Internal Light, which was recently held at Levis Fine Art in Manhattan. I have published it here with his permission.

***********
... So as I stood at Levis Fine Arts and solemnly reached into his eyes, I found the man as complex, as soft, as tender, and as serene as the multitude of other witnesses to his existence. He refused my probes for direct answers and where he responded, it was in terms still comprehensible only by geniuses or madmen. His genteel and almost princely Portrait of a Man on White is juxtaposed to the effeminate yet rough portrayal of Howard Swanson, wherein Beauford obviously channeled much of his own inner turmoil into the almost “piggish” face with which he obscured Swanson’s neck. It was the eyes of Portrait of Man in Red that captivated me, and again I wondered while stepping back, “How did Beauford manage to fuse his own persona into this face of a white man?” In studying the portrait, an image of Beauford instantly came alive.

Portrait of a man in red / Michael Frelich, 1965
Oil on canvas
18.0 x 15.0 inches (48.7 x 38.1 cm)
Signed on reverse
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
His Portrait of Ahmed Bioud went straight to the core of Bioud’s soul. One is captivated by his eyes and thereafter, seeing the rest of the portrait becomes a blur. Portrait of a Seated Man was again the Beauford with something to hide, yet dignified and meticulous in all that he did. An untitled piece described as Seated Figure in a Café simultaneously places the individual in a forest or jungle, which forced the question of whether an artist can ever truly be anything but himself or herself. The tumult and confusion of Beauford’s mind was such that even moments seated in a city café might unleash attacking lions and tigers, monkeys swinging wildly, and birds singing his favorite tones, all from deep within rain-forest vegetation through which rays of yellow sunlight would extend to yank at his consciousness and return him to the drink in his glass or the food on his plate.

Whatever darkness he felt inside would often give way to a constant light. Where the focus was not on a realist image, Beauford would go dancing in a magical world of light-infused abstracts. Without saying so, it was clear that this was where he found the most solace. He was an abstract painter before the movement and standing there in the gallery, it became clear to me that his strokes into abstraction were the unleashing of impulses formed from deep within. You got the sense that they were not visual formations, but instead the guided manifestation of hands driven by forces from within as Beauford pranced away in some foreign universe. And then he showed me an even more surprising beauty in Abstract in Turquoise, another piece of abstract work but this time a dalliance with a light-infused shade of blue.

Abstract in Turquoise
Gouache on wove paper, 1961
25.75 x 19.75 inches (65.4 x 50.2 cm)
Signed and dated lower left
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
The man I spoke to was not necessarily insane. He was instead different, and like other geniuses, possibly quite misunderstood. In her biopic definition of the man and his work, Gertrude Stein lauded , as being at the essence of his greatness.the genius of Picasso’s ability to see things differently than the rest of us, as being at the essence of his greatness. According to Stein, “... Picasso was not like that, when he ate a tomato, the tomato was not everybody’s tomato, not at all and his effort was not to express in his way the things seen as everyone sees them, but to express the thing as he was seeing it.” In a different way, Beauford showed me that he too saw things differently from the rest of us.

James Baldwin might have been correct in the following attribution to Beauford Delaney, with the exception of the last portion:

He has been starving and working all of his life – in Tennessee, in Boston, in New York, and now in Paris. He has been menaced more than any other man I know by his social circumstances and also by all the emotional and psychological stratagems he has been forced to use to survive; and, more than any other man I know, he has transcended both the inner and outer darkness.

But what I saw and heard from Beauford was a little different. His inner darkness gave way to the outer light and there might not have been a need to transcend any of that. Should there always be an expectation of genius’ coexistence with rationality, or of light in constant opposition to darkness in regards to those who create? Can logical minds or trouble-free souls be reasonable expectations in the creation of art? Those who knew Beauford, those who loved him, and those who were uplifted by his art, were all saddened that the “companions” that drove the genius had in time also devoured the man. But the man was here, and his art now transcends both time and space, and this should be a source of happiness and inspiration for all.

As Homer once said, there can be no pledging of faith between men and lions. It is to be expected that lion will devour man. Beauford would have known that all along and from behind the caged walls of l’hôpital St. Anne in Paris, he yielded to his inner lions on the 26th day March 1979.


Read the first excerpt from Paul Sinclair's article here.

Conversations with Beauford - Part 1

Paul Sinclair is the agent for the African-American expatriate artist Ealy Mays. He and Mays are admirers of Beauford's work and students of his life story and Sinclair's profound respect and empathy for Beauford inspired him to represent Mays. The following is an excerpt from an article that Sinclair wrote after visiting Beauford's solo exposition Beauford Delaney: Internal Light, which was recently held at Levis Fine Art in Manhattan. I have published it here with his permission.

***********
On entering the Levis Fine Art gallery on West 24th Street in Manhattan last week, I felt a selfish sense of ideal timing in that I was visiting Beauford to say hello at about 4pm on a Thursday evening, and I was very happy at the absence of a bustling 6pm crowd that might have interrupted the conversation between Beauford and me. Many Manhattan galleries will inundate you with invitations only to grace your presence with that sense of “trespassing-snobbery.” But at Levis Fine Art, it was different.

Beauford Delaney: Internal Light
Levis Fine Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
Jim Levis came out and welcomed me. I told him of my connections to Beauford Delaney and of my absolute pleasure in seeing the exhibit, and I also mentioned that I that I knew a Monique Wells in Paris. He in turn extended a warm welcome and shared a few thoughts on what inspired him to recognize our friend with this wonderful exhibition, entitled Beauford Delaney: Internal Light. It was my second visit to see a Beauford exhibition in as many months. He had featured prominently in the Whitney Museum’s Blues for Smoke exhibition earlier this year, though as part of a group collection by great black artists. At Levis, this was a solo Beauford exhibit, and I had much to discuss with the man.

While standing there, I thought of the many question for Beauford that I had in my head for so many years. I am a “Beauford Delaney kid,” loosely self-described as spending a period of my life in the shadows of Beauford wherein on any given day Beauford might have occupied about hundred out of the average forty thousand thoughts that crossed my mind. His was the other side of Paris; Not exactly Van Gogh’s trail of madness and brilliance through the South of France, but neither was it Henry O. Tanner’s genteel existence of solace found in painting deeply religious images such as Daniel in the Lion’s Den, Return of the Holy Women, or The Resurrection of Lazarus. Tanner, like Beauford, was another kind and gentle soul. Both were sensitive men who had fled the harsh Anglo-Saxon culture of the United States for the soft artistic shores of France, with Tanner leading the way a generation before Beauford.

During my years in Paris, I had met and known so many deeply talented artists who too were tortured souls. So standing there in that gallery, I needed some answers – in particular, to the question of the seemingly perfectly inversed relationship of the genius to the demented, and its reconciliation sooner or later with the bottle or some other form of drug intended to numb the pain. I was not going to wait to read the opinions of some disconnected art writer or of others with varying titles who are paid handsomely to vomit illustrious words per minute, without ever having a single intimate moment with the man or any knowledge of who he was. This was not like a Rembrandt or a Gauguin who lived a thousand years ago and whose works are only to be found in major museums. This was a painter whose roommate had been a father figure for some of us in Paris for years. I was not there to examine brush strokes or contours. Instead, I was there to look Beauford in the eye and ask of him the questions that have been on my mind for these many years.

“Was it true that he had attempted to throw himself into the Seine a few times before being committed?” “Was the use of “yellow” and its many variants done in search of discovering a 4th primary color or was this his media, through which he could abstractly express himself and resonate color and light, his way of shining from within?” “How did he feel to see friends and fellow artists Harold Cousins, Ed Clark, Herbert Gentry, Romare Bearden, and others receive such widespread recognition and fame, while he languished unrecognized for many years?” “What was his reaction to his friend James Baldwin’s meteoric take off after returning to the America in 1957 to participate in the civil rights struggle?” “Did he consider Baldwin’s friendship an important a factor in his life as history had recorded it, and did he feel that Baldwin had done enough for him in his darkest hours of need, as would have been expected of such a ‘dear’ friend and mentee?”

I also wanted to ask Beauford if he was finally at peace and if he was happy with the new found recognition, and dedication of recent years by scholars and writers such as Paris-based freelance writer Monique Wells, who single-handedly prevented the destruction and possible desecration of his “about-to-be abandoned” burial spot and created the Les Amis de Beauford foundation in Paris, solely dedicated to the preservation of the legacy and dignity of Beauford Delaney.

I did not need to ask him how he felt about the exhibition underway at Levis Fine Art Gallery, as I could feel his spirit and I knew he was happy. So I took the time to look Beauford in the eyes and posed my questions. His answers were as varied as could be imagined, and where they were not too clear, I had to infer my own interpretations of the man in yellow. He was no less complex than history had suggested, yet his genteel nature was felt throughout the exhibition halls.

Abstract in Orange and Red, 1963
Gouache on wove paper
25.75 x 19.625 inches
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford's life was lived with kindness, care, pity, neglect, confusion, paranoia, a little schizophrenia, and a lot of pure genius. Depression, isolation, exploitation, and religious-induced self-hatred for being born gay drove the engine of torture that powered both dimensions of his extremes. His work reflected bright colors and lights, which shone through, while his mood often reflected absolute darkness. The artist manifested one wavelength while his art was of an entirely different genre. In physics we learn that with massive temperature increases past a few hundred degrees Celsius, black bodies start to emit visible wavelengths, appearing red, orange, yellow, blue and white. In seeing Beauford’s work, one can imagine a similar internal increase in neurons, increase in electrons, heightened molecular stimulations to the brain, and near atomic spinning of particles, to produce incredibly serene light and often yellow textures, with delicacies of time, place, moods and circumstances. Internal turmoil enveloped the man while tranquility eased itself into every inch of his work and into much of his external interactions with others. He painted many faces but it was through forceful and poignant construction of the eyes by which he often showed us the souls of his subjects. At times, it was clear that he channeled some of the inner Beauford into his subjects as well. All who knew Beauford described him as a kind, sweet, and loving soul, albeit always in regretfully poignant tones.

Ba'lls to the Wa'll, Y'all - Part 2

This article is contributed by Maureen Kelleher, who is an avid admirer of James Baldwin and who came to know about Beauford because of his friendship with Baldwin. "Ba'lls to the Wa'll, Y'all" expresses Maureen's thoughts about a painting that she viewed at the ongoing exposition Beauford Delaney: Internal Light.This is the second excerpt from her article.

************
Untitled: Yellow, Red and Black Circles
1966 Gouache on wove paper
25.25 x 19.25 inches (64.1 x 48.9 cm)
Signed and inscribed lower right to James Baldwin
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
Delaney’s work resulted from his trip to Istanbul and meeting up with Baldwin. Untitled: Yellow, Red and Black Circles is a pronouncement.

“I’m here and I’m queer” -- proud, loud, no shame. And “I got balls.”

He hooked up with his buddy, Baldwin. I can easily imagine each man feeling relief – “The cavalry has arrived! I have back–up! I’m saved! I’m normal! All is good with my world, now!” Validation. Affirmation. Hugs. Love. Kindness all around.

The glorious glow that takes one over when we see a person we love, walking toward us, after a long time apart, getting closer, closer, their face, we smile, we start laughing!, we get giddy, and then so thrilled to hug him/ her and have them in our arms! Glory be! I am loved! It’s all okay! You’re here!” “I am so happy you are here!” And that’s just the part that can be expressed in thoughts and words.

And for these two odd [American] balls, who so clearly rejected so much of what was “normal” back “home” in the old streets of the USA: to be within reach of each other was an affirmation of how they chose to live. Pure joy.

Each saw himself in the other, and enjoyed the validation from the other man when in his company, when he watched the other one move, be, talk, relate, eat, joke, drink, smoke, etc.

I can only guess there was an extraordinary vibe and understanding between them, shared: ‘you are me and I am you. Period. Thank god for you.’

I can imagine Baldwin gabbed on and on -- seriously, goofy, humorously, sardonically, subtlely, deeply -- about his love for Delaney (and everything else). He was a talker, sometimes a bullshitter, a sharp-as-shit eye on everything, the voice of what was going on all around him and inside his head, heart, and probably in his loins, too. He talked, he wrote. He wrote more. And more. He got so much up and out. I doubt he would have held back in his verbiage when he met, head on, someone he loved. No lack of expressing the love.

Beauford’s self-expression? I imagine a lot of bear hugs! And jovial physical back and forth with all he came within arm’s length of. And, of course, he expressed through painting.

“Untitled: Yellow, Red and Black Circles,” aka:

"Balls, and I’m proud of 'em."

Or

“Life, and I’m alive!”

Or

“I’m here, I’m queer, and I’m so happy to be.”

Or

“And this is where it all comes from!”

Or

“Life. Let’s get it on.”

Or

“I’m with Jimmy again! Wahoo! I’m so happy!”

Or

“I have no idea what this freaking life is really all about,
but here I am. And here’s where it all started.”

Or

“I know what life is all about, and I’m living it. And here is where I got my start.
Thank you very much!”

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Delaney’s epitaph reads: “I am home.” Clearly he thought about what he wanted to say to the world, when given the last shot.

“I am home.”

My life, his life, our being born: is the leaving of home and trekking out -- being pushed out -- into the world? Out into human existence we go! – to live outside of the home, and death is our happy return ?
Death: the successful coming “full circle” – in which we get back to where it all started? i.e., I made it! I found it! I got back! I’m back!! He believed life was one huge, decades- long search? An effort, the striving, working, to getting back to a special place?

The trail, the damn long road, we each take, once we make that first fluidy wriggle, from that first cell, that meeting of egg and sperm, that will become me? Fall out of the womb, get pushed out, and the trek begins? Striving, from that moment on, to get back in?

To my mind, home is where I feel safe.

While living, Delaney felt at “home” when in the presence of Baldwin. Of that, I feel certain. Baldwin validated so many aspects of Delaney’s being and his essence, too. And vice versa for Baldwin.

For Delaney, he envisioned death was home, and it feels like he looked forward to the relief dying and being back at “home” would bring.

Perhaps he looked forward to the place, the time, where / when he didn’t have to be afraid of and wrestle with and negotiate pain, poverty, demons in his crazy ass head, bills, hunger, the voices, and (I imagine) a monstrously long list of painful crap (that we’ll never know) that his life was chock full of.

Will we ever know the inspiration, Delaney’s real, deep down, inspiration, for this painting? One thing is certain. He dedicated it to Baldwin because he felt love for Jimmy. It is a love letter. It screams love on many levels. It was created while he was in a self-imposed exile, a self-made uprooting, and re-planting in Europe. And within that exile, an even more special trip, days long, to an even more strange (unfamiliar) country, to visit Baldwin.

I’m guessing it was relief, calm, tranquility, love, adoration and all-things- wonderful when one is in the company of a soul mate – in Istanbul in 1966.

And from this came Untitled: Yellow, Red and Black Circles.


For the full article, visit Maureen's Web site at www.beanartbean.com

Ba'lls to the Wa'll, Y'all - Part 1

This article is contributed by Maureen Kelleher, who is an avid admirer of James Baldwin and who came to know about Beauford because of his friendship with Baldwin. "Ba'lls to the Wa'll, Y'all" expresses Maureen's thoughts about a painting that she viewed at the ongoing exposition Beauford Delaney: Internal Light. I've printed a couple of excerpts here and will publish another one next week..

************
I’m a lover of all things about James Baldwin, and, in particular, his biography by David Leeming. It’s Baldwin’s life force that keeps me going back for more, more, more. I’d guess I’ve read some parts of Leeming’s book five times, times two. I’ve used the photos in the book in my art (and so much more), I sometimes call up a story from his life to emphasize a point in mine. The man had balls. Big ones.

And his best buddy, friend, confidant, father figure, pal, great source of mutual [as in reciprocated] love, adoration, and respect: the painter, Beauford Delaney.

-----------------------
Untitled: Yellow, Red and Black Circles
1966 Gouache on wove paper
25.25 x 19.25 inches (64.1 x 48.9 cm)
Signed and inscribed lower right to James Baldwin
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
At Levis Fine Art, W. 24th Street, NYC, Beauford Delaney: Internal Light hangs, shines, glows. Yellow, Lilly Wei points out, was important to Delaney. A lot of these paintings are from Delaney’s years in Paris.

I saw the works the day before the official reception. I had a great sneak peek preview as I waited for Jim Levis to deal with NYC traffic and get to our meeting at the gallery.

I looked at the show, then sat in his office and started a letter. I had about thirty minutes. Of course, I looked up, down, and all around as I thought about what next to write to my pen pal.

I couldn’t miss the additional Delaney paintings that were in Jim’s private space.

On the office walls: art. I was surrounded by it. More compact, tighter, more dense than out in the gallery. Squashed up right against it. The best way to see it. Sitting in a comfy leather chair. Write another sentence, look at the paintings again. Think about the painter.

There was Beauford Delaney, looking at me. His big old head, a piece of sculpture by the door. Delaney was checking me out, too.

“Get up! Pay attention to these paintings!” I said to myself. “He actually touched these!” “These are from across the ocean! From a long time ago!”

Over Jim’s desk I leaned, and then my face was up close and personal with Untitled: Yellow, Red and Black Circles. I kept thinking, over and over, just like when I’m in a museum: “He made this stuff!” “He touched it!” “This painting was in Paris!” and I blurred back into mental fantasy of where / how / when this painting had moved in its ‘life.’ And now, it’s here, right over Jim’s desk, and I could touch it, if I wanted!

This was Delaney’s art. I had only read about him, and then only tangentially (to Baldwin), but here is the stuff he created, right here! I missed it the first time around – lost in my thoughts that I was “actually” in front of work that came from Delaney -- but Jim pointed it out to me, nice semi-Aristotelian style, when we got to talking about the Baldwin and Delaney connection.

“See what it says?” he asked, about the piece over his desk. I got up, I re-looked, and saw the signature in the bottom corner of Untitled. There it was! Damn!!! “For Jimmy, love Beauford” and a notation connecting the piece to Istanbul, 1966.

Ah !!! The connection! So wonderful to see, via Beauford’s inscription !

There it was. The connection that I knew existed, and here it was, original source evidence, in Delaney’s hand. He knew Baldwin!

I had been drawn in by Baldwin; now it was seeping in: Delaney’s force was also a force to be considered, give more attention. Pay attention. There is, here is, this guy’s art, right in front of me! It’s here, it’s now. It is a link to back then, and back there. Surreal. Then is now.

And Delaney’s handwriting: wonderful. Soft, and lots of up and down. Easy to read; relaxed. It doesn’t convey a huge picture (no pun intended) of the artist, but to my sensibilities, I feel a little closer to a person when I see their handwriting. His spirit, in another way, comes through. This is how he moves, how he moves his hand, when he holds a pen or brush and taps into the common symbols-making called the written word.

“For Jimmy” refers to James Baldwin, of course. The reason I was at the gallery, the reason I was in that office, the reason I became a visual artist, the reason I went to 181 Greene Street, retracing Baldwin’s search, looking for Delaney’s house? James Baldwin. James Baldwin. James Baldwin. He lights up some part of my soul, non-stop. “This little [art] light of mine” is fueled, in large part, by The Man with the big old bulging eyes (which weren’t, really, all that bulging).

Now I was bumping up close to Baldwin’s navigator, his wing man, his source, his rock: Beauford Delaney.

Beauford painted Untitled: Yellow, Red and Black Circles, I’m told, during his first trip to Istanbul, where he visited and stayed with Baldwin.

Some possible sources of inspiration, behind the work, for Delaney? Let’s gird our loins; okay. That’s enough. Let ’er rip, and let’s see what this work is.

It is existential.

It’s phallic, it’s penis and scrotum. It’s long and lean, with a big old tip and the line down the middle. It’s swimming amidst the circles. It’s balls on either side.

It’s yellow, it’s egg, it’s yoke.

It’s male and female, kind of swirly, bumping up right against each other. It’s a fried egg! Sitting in front of two balls. Mr. Penis wriggling his way through the players, and across the canvass.

It is the beginning of LIFE.

It is sunshine and light. It is the birth of “this little light of (yours and) mine.”

It’s where all sentient beings, you and me included, got our start. It is my life, Day One.

It is me, way back before I knew what the fuck was going on. It is from whence I sprang, from whence I swam and made my way, disconnected from, and not yet dependent on, air. A little fish swimming around, fluidy and cellular, with not a care in the world, yet. Not in the world, yet. Not in it and not of it, yet, but forces preparing ‘me’ and getting ‘me’ shaped by the two components seen here, sharing the canvass, as shared way back, when I was exactly this same configuration.

It is my self portrait. It is Beauford. It is Jimmy.

It is the masculine.

Delaney and Baldwin: MEN! Of course, their private parts are of utmost importance. Half kidding, and half ... not.

The Half-not part: It is apropos to paint what we care and think about. We definitely care about our organs, and our sexual organs, very definitely.


For the full article, visit Maureen's Web site at www.beanartbean.com

Beauford Delaney and Scholarly Inquiry

This post is contributed by E. L. Kornegay, Jr., Ph. D., author of the many "re-Searching Beauford" articles and other posts that you'll find on the Les Amis blog. I am pleased to note that he is using the Les Amis blog as reference material for the course he is teaching!

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E. L. Kornegay, Jr., Ph. D.
Photo courtesy of Dr. Kornegay
During the week of May 20-24, I had the distinct pleasure of teaching a graduate seminar at Chicago Theological Seminary: TEC 474 “Baldwin and Christianity”. The course was my first formal opportunity to present my scholarship as a classroom subject for study. The students were eager to engage me, bringing their particular concerns to the “welcome table” of James Baldwin and the “unusual door” of Beauford Delaney.

Chicago Theological Seminary
Photo courtesy of Dr. Kornegay
Preparation for the class meant that I had to manage class limitations on time and material in order to paint, if you will, the contributions of both men to the world. The lives of the writer and the artist came together in a way that allowed for each student to see, within himself or herself, the possibility of creating a theological aesthetic that reflects an ethical choice – vocation – to create something that somehow speaks to the glory of God.

James Baldwin and Beauford
at the American Cultural Center, Paris
Photo: U.S. Information Service
We devoted a day (Thursday) to Beauford Delaney. The morning was spent reading articles from the Les Amis de Beauford Delaney blog and looking at the various paintings of Beauford found on the blog site. For most, if not all, of the students, it was a first introduction to Beauford Delaney. I gladly told the story of how I found Beauford (or how he found me) and how that led to my connection with Monique and the community that is Les Amis de Beauford Delaney. Upon viewing Beauford’s Dark Rapture, reading Baldwin's “The Creative Process” and being enlightened about his own vocation, an educator writes:

In “The Creative Process," Baldwin captures for me the context in which I, ever incomplete, contemplate vocation: “The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place.” Like Beauford's paintings, the work of an educator leads “to a confrontation with reality.” That reality is beauty, goodness, and truth constantly unfolding in changing contexts.

- Ernest Miller

Students discuss Baldwin and Beauford
Photo courtesy of Dr. Kornegay
Vocation became the center piece of our discussion. One of the students, reflected on the “isolation” that is experienced by the artist and the “grace” that is the “moral envelope” or “body canvas” whereby the spiritual-artistic and creative-creational come to protect the gift, often at the expense of the gifted One. A viewing of Beauford’s self-portrait at the Art Institute of Chicago was meant to capture the face of vocation – to see first-hand the body as a moral canvas.

Self-portrait
Oil on canvas (1944)
Art Institute of Chicago
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
After the viewing, a student wrote:

I was an artist for many years. Once an artist always an artist, but now I do not practice creativity in the same way. It is no longer my vocation. It is still, however, my deepest connection to God. In fact, during my Good Friday sermon I performed a stand-up routine. People need to laugh. It brings them closer to God. As do poetry, painting, sculpture, music, fiction, architecture, theatre, dance, and film. Whatever form my vocational ministry takes next, making art will certainly be part of it as it has for the past few dozen forms my ministries have taken. Art is the expression of God through love. There is no higher form of worship.

- Johnny Kline

This “deep connection to God” is a backdrop that is readily apparent in the work of Beauford and Baldwin and it was quickly picked up on by the class. The Les Amis website, with its paintings, reflections, and its spirit, along with first-person viewing of Beauford’s painting, the reading of Baldwin’s literature, and the viewing of and listening to his interviews, created a spiritual framework whereby both of these great men taught us something about them and in the process taught us something about ourselves and our vocations. As one student put it, through it all neither Baldwin nor Delaney, in the midst of their searching and disillusionment with religion, “lost their intense love for God.” I imagine that the students, much like the young James Baldwin who stepped through the unusual door presented to him by Beauford, are grateful for the sacred, creative and affirming space, which gave Baldwin “the freedom to just be.”

I think my student, Debra Hawkins, said it best:

I greatly appreciated Dr. Kornegay’s authenticity and willingness to be a part of the learning experience along with his students, or more appropriately, co-learners…I come away from this experience enriched and a grateful recipient of the spiritual seeds that have been deposited deep within my spirit, which can never be taken away from me. I am forever grateful for what I am blessed to do and if this is the beginning, then I can joyfully imagine what lies ahead.

Jim Levis on Beauford Delaney: Internal Light

Jim Levis of Levis Fine Art is the driving force behind the hugely successful opening of Beauford Delaney: Internal Light – the first one-man show of Beauford’s work since the Minneapolis Institute of Art exposition Beauford Delaney from New York to Paris in 2004-2005. A specialist in the art of mid-century modernists, Levis represents the estates of artists of this era who, as innovators are deserving of a serious second look. His clients include the estates of Elaine de Kooning, Budd Hopkins, Maurice Golubov, Walter Plate and now, Beauford Delaney.

Beauford Delaney: Internal Light
Levis Fine Art
Image courtesy of Levis Fine Art
Levis has shown Beauford’s work at his gallery since 2006, when he was offered the opportunity to take four paintings on consignment. He says that Beauford’s œuvre, whether figurative or abstract, engages him and others who view it:

Great art resonates with one’s soul. The way Beauford uses color to capture and reflect light makes his paintings, regardless of palette or subject, enervating. Beauford’s art speaks to me in a profound way and its impact is universal. His paintings echo an energy that was his salvation and when it was beyond his brush, and his reality he struggled terribly until he was able to reconnect with his internal light.

Beauford’s life story adds a huge amount of context and makes interacting with the image more meaningful. He was born into a world where one’s imagination was the key to salvation as his family struggled emotionally, physically and financially. One of 12 siblings, only 4 lived to be adults; one of whom was his treasured brother Joseph, a fellow artist and confident. Beauford also forged relationships with many who were in the arts as well as patrons, including James Baldwin, Larry Calcagno, James Jones, Ahmed Bioud, Henry Miller, Bernard Hassel, Al Hirschfield, Alfred Stieglitz and others. Many of these individuals were not only life long friends and supporters but sitters for his portraits.

According to Levis, roughly 500 people attended the opening and he noted with pleasure that they showed genuine interest in Beauford’s work. Despite the social nature of the occasion, people spent a considerable amount of time looking at the paintings and significant sales were made.

Beyond the “revenue metric,” Levis notes that the “awareness factor” for Beauford’s work seems to be truly blossoming. Several people who attended the May 9th opening and who had never seen more than a few Delaneys in the past have already come back to the gallery for a more in depth viewing. Based on the outpouring of congratulations on the show, Levis is considering organizing follow-up events for focused collectors, scholars, and museums.

Over 30 paintings are currently being exhibited, mostly from the Paris Period between1953-1972 with others in reserve. They have a “pristine provenance” in terms of authenticity and ownership and have been certified by the estate. Beauford Delaney: Internal Light features a mix of abstract and figurative works, with the ratio of the two being roughly 3-to-1. As this is the first of a series of planned expositions, subsequent shows may have a different mix.

Because there was no organized transition plan for Beauford’s work when he died in 1979, many of his paintings were lost, misplaced, mishandled, or misappropriated over the next 25 years. Over the past 6 years, Levis has recommended resources to the estate to aid in their recovery, photography, cataloguing, data-basing, additional scholarship and publication. His reputation of serving other artist’s estates earned him the trust of the Estate Administrator, Derek L. Spratley. Beginning, 2 years ago, the first few paintings were sold for several times the high auction record to serious collectors. Based upon his performance, Levis Fine Art has been selected as Official Representative of the estate, a responsibility that Levis takes quite seriously and acknowledges as a milestone for his firm.

One of Levis’ additional responsibilities is to review and selectively catalog letters from of a treasure trove of Beauford’s “papers” that are held by the estate, independent of the documents held by the Schomburg Center in New York. The estate’s collection of documents provides interesting insights for future scholarship.

While other galleries sell Beauford’s work, Levis Fine Art is currently the only gallery authorized to sell paintings on behalf of Beauford’s estate.

Beauford Delaney: Internal Light will run through June 15, 2013.

Levis Fine Art
514 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
(646) 620-5000
Contact: James Levis
Email:

Baldwin Delaney Institute for Academic Enrichment and Faith Flourishing

Dr. E. L. Kornegay, Jr., Beauford Delaney scholar and frequent contributor to the Les Amis blog, shared some phenomenal news with me a few weeks ago - he has founded a not-for-profit institution called the

Baldwin Delaney Institute for Academic Enrichment and Faith Flourishing (BDI)!

E. L. Kornegay, Jr.
Image courtesy of Dr. Kornegay

The mission of BDI is to teach critical thinking and decision making to youth and young adults. Kornegay's curriculum uses literature and the arts in addition to theo-philosophical approaches to critical theory to assist students in re-imagining themselves and the world in which they live. One of the critical aims is to use what Beauford and Baldwin taught the world to guide youth into their vocation and away from violence.

I asked Kornegay why he chose to name the institute after Beauford and Baldwin. He replied:

I chose to name my Institute after James Baldwin and Beauford Delaney to celebrate the importance of the love and respect these two black men had for one another and to honor the genius of their vocations captured in art and literature. Their concern for the safety of youth exemplified in Beauford’s mentoring of Baldwin and Baldwin’s own writing offers a unique molding of humanity that we can all learn from. The “unusual door” is not merely about the acceptance of a sexualized, gendered or racialized self, but the strength to love and live the greatest and truest vision of your being in spite of the unexamined fear and rage which tries to kill it. I want to use the inextricably connected legacies of words, images, and deeds given to us by Baldwin and Delaney to empower the next generation to make the decision to walk through the unusual door where, on the other side, vocation inspires them to live out the brightest vision they have of their lives.

BDI classes are scheduled to begin on Monday, May 20, 2013 with a summer intensive at Chicago Theological Seminary entitled "Baldwin and Christianity." Among the activities planned is a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago to view Beauford's self-portrait and talk about his influence on Baldwin. In preparation, students will be required to read posts from the Les Amis blog.

Self-portrait
Oil on canvas (1944)
Art Institute of Chicago
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
Projections for future activities include a visit to Paris so that students can walk the streets and visit the haunts that were so important to Baldwin and Beauford.

To learn more about BDI on the Web, visit its pages on Facebook and Google+.

Baldwin Delaney Institute for Academic Enrichment and Faith Flourishing
224 1st Avenue
Maywood, IL 60153
E-mail: .