To the Light - A Play about Beauford and James Baldwin

Playwright Bil Wright has written a new play about the intricate and sometimes volatile relationship between Beauford and James Baldwin.

James Baldwin and Beauford at the American Cultural Center
Photo: U.S. Information Service
To the Light (A Fantasy Inspired by Two American Geniuses: Baldwin and Delaney) explores the bond between Beauford and Jimmy, imagining their friendship from their first meeting through each of their deaths.

The play will be read at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse on October 7 and 8, 2015. Commissioned in part by the Harlem Stage Fund for New Work, it is being directed by Reginald L. Douglas.

Harlem Stage’s unique focus has been to identify visionary artists of color and support them by commissioning, presenting and producing their work - work that responds to the social and political conditions that shape lives. It has presented performances in traditional and non-traditional theater forms that speak to the Harlem community for years. The opening of The Gatehouse in 2006 enabled them to expand their capacity to present theater through extended play runs.

To the Light
Performance Length: 90 minutes
No Intermission
Age requirement: 18+

Harlem Stage Gatehouse
150 Convent Avenue (at West 135th Street)
New York, NY 10031
October 7 (Wednesday) at 7:30 pm and October 8 (Thursday) at 7:30 pm
Entry fee: FREE with RSVP - Click HERE to reserve!

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Les Amis de Beauford Delaney and Reid Hall are partnering to bring an exhibition of original Beauford Delaney works to Reid Hall in Paris in February 2016! To sign-up to receive information about this show, click HERE.

Where to Find Beauford's Art: Bonhams

It seems that Beauford is "on the radar" in Great Britain these days!

After last week's article on Beauford at the Tate Liverpool, I'm pleased to report that one of his abstract paintings is going up for auction at Bonhams in London, Knightsbridge.

Untitled
(1961) Watercolor and mixed media on paper
65 x 50 cm (25 9/16 x 19 11/16 in)
Signed and dated, lower right
Image courtesy of Bonhams
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The auction (Sale 22806) will take place on September 22, 2015.

It is entitled:
British and European Art
Part I: Victorian & British Impressionist Art
Part II: 19th Century European, Impressionist & Modern Art

The estimated sale price for this work (Lot 207) is £1,000 - £1500 / 1400€ - 2100€.

Bonhams had the occasion to offer another Beauford Delaney painting for auction - this time, during a sale of American Art in New York in 2014:

Portrait of a Young Man
(1953) Oil on canvas
80.65 x 64.77 cm (31 3/4 x 25 1/2 in)
Signed and dated on verso
Image courtesy of Bonhams
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
This portrait was shown in the Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris exhibition organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. It hung there from November 21, 2004 – February 20, 2005 and was subsequently presented by the Knoxville Museum of Art (April 8 – June 25, 2005), the Greenville County Museum of Art (August 3 – October 2, 2005), and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (November 12, 2005 – January 28, 2006). A notation in the catalog for the show indicates that the subject of the portrait may be Beauford's dear friend, Larry Calcagno.

The estimated value of the painting for the auction was $12,000 - $18,000. It was "bought in" (it did not sell).

According to Emma Gordon, the art specialist at Bonhams who shared the information about these paintings, Beauford's work has been offered for sale at other auction houses in the UK, such as Christie’s South Kensington and Sotheby’s London. She hopes that his UK profile is expanding.

To learn more about the works shown above and about the September 2015 auction, contact:
Emma Gordon
Specialist - 19th Century Paintings
London, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 20 7393 3960
Fax: +44 20 7393 3863


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Les Amis de Beauford Delaney and Reid Hall are partnering to bring an exhibition of original Beauford Delaney works to Reid Hall in Paris in February 2016! To sign-up to receive information about this show, click HERE.

Beauford at the Tate Liverpool

I first heard the names "Beauford Delaney" and "Glenn Ligon" coupled when Dr. Catherine St. John, former professor at Berkeley College in New Jersey, shared with me an article that she wrote in 2004 about these artists:

Born sixty years apart, artists Beauford Delaney and Glenn Ligon communicate narratives of belonging. The immutable link that connects them is James Baldwin, the writer, whose essay "Stranger in the Village" inspired Ligon to lift words off the page and onto canvas...

- from an abstract for "A Narrative of Belonging: The Art of Beauford Delaney and Glenn Ligon"

When I learned that Tate Liverpool and Nottingham Contemporary in the United Kingdom were presenting a major exhibition curated by Ligon that was to include works by artists who have influenced him or with whom he feels an affinity, I searched eagerly for a mention of Beauford. I found an online article about the exhibition, entitled Encounters and Collisions, which cited the names of a few of the artists who would be represented in the show. Beauford's name was among them.

Upon contacting Tate Liverpool for details, I learned that two of Beauford's paintings are part of the exhibition. One is a portrait of James Baldwin and the other is an untitled abstract:

James Baldwin, c. 1955
Oil on canvasboard
24" x 18"
Collection of halley k harrisburg and Michael Rosenfeld, New York, NY
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Untitled, c. 1958
Oil on canvas
30" x 25", signed and dated
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford painted both of these works during his Paris years.

What was even more exciting for me was to read Ligon's "Letter to Beauford," one of several that he wrote to exhibition participants as part of his written contribution to the catalog. This personal missive explains in simple, personal terms why he selected these two paintings from the show - the critical influence that Baldwin had in both their lives and the inspiration that he, Beauford, and Baldwin drew from jazz and blues music. Ligon comments that "the line between figuration and abstraction is always porous" in Beauford's paintings and that this has inspired "a similar fluidity" in his work. He expresses his hope that his letter isn’t "too presumptuous" and how meaningful Beauford's work is to him personally.

Ligon has also selected literary and critical texts that punctuate the images in the catalog as part of his responsibilities as curator of the show. He includes Baldwin's essay "Stranger in the Village"; an excerpt from Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, where biographer David A. Leeming recounts the story of how he met Beauford; and a scholarly essay called Voices/Forces by Fred Moten, which explores the idea of a black avant-garde through a "trip to Paris" that focuses on the life and work of Beauford, jazz composer and musician Billy Strayhorn, and French dramatist and theater director, Antonin Artaud.

Beauford's portrait of James Baldwin hangs in Room 4 of the exhibition at Tate Liverpool; his abstract hangs in Room 3.

Glenn Ligon: Encounters and Collisions at Tate Liverpool
until 18 October 2015
© Tate Liverpool, Roger Sinek
Tickets for Glenn Ligon: Encounters and Collisions are priced at £10.00 (£7.50 concessions, £5 student ticket). Includes entrance into Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots (also open through October 18, 2015).

To book your tickets in advance, book online at www.tate.org.uk/tickets, call 0151 702 7400 (booking fee applies), or book in person at any Tate gallery.

Tate Liverpool
Albert Dock
Liverpool L3 4BB

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Les Amis de Beauford Delaney and Reid Hall are partnering to bring an exhibition of original Beauford Delaney works to Reid Hall in Paris in February 2016! To sign-up to receive information about this show, click HERE.

About the Blogger

Dr. Monique Y. Wells is a multipreneur – she’s a preclinical safety professional, productivity expert, writer and editor, speaker, and travel professional. A 23-year resident of Paris, France, she is co-founder of the travel planning service Discover Paris! and the creator of the company's Entrée to Black Paris tours and activities.

Through Entrée to Black Paris, Monique has worked with numerous study abroad programs over the course of 15 years to bring the African-American experience in Paris to life. She has partnered with The Travel Institute, a continuing education and certification company for the travel industry, to create a course for travel professionals that introduces Paris from an Afro-centric perspective.

Monique has been sharing stories about the African Diaspora's rich history, culture, and contemporary life in Paris for several years and has seen over 30 of her articles published in newspapers, magazines and e-publications, including the International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and This City Paris magazine. She is co-author of Paris Reflections: Walks through African-American Paris (McDonald & Woodward, 2002; co-author Christiann Anderson) and author of Black Paris Profiles, which features the stories of 24 contemporary African-American and Afro-Caribbean expatriates (Discover Paris, 2012).

Her first book, Food for the Soul (Elton-Wolf Publishing, 2000), was a labor of love – for family, for cooking and for history. With a preface by Michelin-star chef Alain Ducasse, the French version of Food for the Soul has helped introduce African-American culinary art, history and culture to the French. The U.S. version of the book, which was self-published, was named Best Nonfiction Book of 2001 by The Sistah Circle Book Club and was featured on Al Roker's Food Network television show Recipe for Success in April 2004.

Monique's freelance writing activities include blogging. She is the author of Discover Paris' award-winning Entrée to Black Paris™ blog as well as the Les Amis de Beauford Delaney blog. In fact, it was her freelance writing activities that led her to uncover the story of Beauford Delaney's unmarked grave and subsequently found Les Amis de Beauford Delaney as a French non-profit association.

In her endeavor to raise funds to place a tombstone at Beauford's previously unmarked grave, Monique became increasingly passionate about this artist's story and about his art. She created this blog as a means of bringing his story to the public's attention and successfully raised the money required in only a few months. The U.S. Embassy hosted the reception that celebrated the laying of the stone in October 2010.

Monique's research into Beauford's life and the continuing discovery of his work has led her to explore the fascinating stories of other African Americans who came to Paris to pursue their passion for the visual arts. Because of her work with study abroad programs, she is aware that African American writers and musicians are far more frequently the focus of such programs than artists. Through projects supported by her newest non-profit organization, the Wells International Foundation, she is committed to rekindling the historical renaissance that 19th- and 20th-century African-American artists experienced in the City of Light.

More Beauford Delaney Portraits

As we continue to organize the February 2016 exhibition of Paris-sourced Beauford Delaney works at Reid Hall, I find myself marveling at the number of donors we have found and the wide variety of paintings from which we will be able to select to mount what will be a major show. The abstract works far outnumber the portraits, but there are several portraits from which to choose.

Seeing these paintings inspired me to go back through the archives of this blog and other online sources to look at images of some of the numerous portraits that Beauford painted during his lifetime. I bring you images of several of them in today's post.

Portrait of a Young Man
(ca. 1937-1940) Color pastel crayons
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

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

Portrait of Henri Chahine
(ca. 1960-1969) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

No 6 Portrait, JFK
(1966) Pastel
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Arlan Iverson
(1972) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
To see images of Beauford's self-portraits and his portraits of James Baldwin on this blog, click on the links below:

Beauford's Portraits of James Baldwin - Part 1
Beauford's Portraits of James Baldwin - Part 2
You've Got the Eye
Beauford's Self-portrait on the Cover of JAMA

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Les Amis de Beauford Delaney and Reid Hall are partnering to bring an exhibition of original Beauford Delaney works to Reid Hall in Paris in February 2016! To sign-up to receive information about this show, click HERE.

Beauford in Philadelphia: The 1947 Pyramid Club Show

In May, I wrote about my visit to Dr. William A. Dodd's office in Philadelphia and the rich collection of Beauford Delaney memorabilia that he has amassed.

Among them are documents and photos from Beauford's 1947 show at the Pyramid Club in Philadelphia.

Catalog of the 7th Annual
Pyramid Club Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture - Cover
© Discover Paris!
Dr. Dodd connected me to Leslie Willis-Lowry, archivist of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University Libraries so that I could ask permission to publish the incredibly handsome photos of Beauford and others at the show. I am pleased to present them below:

Dox Thrash (left) and Beauford Delaney (right)
John W. Mosley, photographer
Photo reproduced with permission of the
Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection

From left to right:
Unidentified woman, Henry B. Jones, unidentified woman,
Beauford Delaney, Dox Thrash, Dorothy Warrick, Dante Pavone
John W. Mosley, photographer
Photo reproduced with permission of the
Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection

Dox Thrash (second from left) and Beauford Delaney (far right)
with visitors
John W. Mosley, photographer
Photo reproduced with permission of the
Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection

Beauford's Sleeping Cat on the wall in the dining room
John W. Mosley, photographer
Photo reproduced with permission of the
Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection

Dox Thrash (right) discusses a Beauford Delaney painting
with visitors
John W. Mosley, photographer
Photo reproduced with permission of the
Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection
For more information about the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, contact Ms. Willis-Lowry at 215-204-5379.

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Les Amis de Beauford Delaney and Reid Hall are partnering to bring an exhibition of original Beauford Delaney works to Reid Hall in Paris in February 2016! To sign-up to receive information about this show, click HERE.

Beauford's Jazz Club Featured in "Night Vision" Exhibition at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Beauford's untitled painting known as Jazz Club has an impressive exhibition and publication history:

Untitled (Jazz Club)
(c.1950) Oil on canvas
28" x 36"
signed lower left: Beauford Delaney
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It appears (in black and white) on page 104 of David Leeming's biography of Beauford called Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney.

Ann E. Gibson refers to it as she discusses Beauford's use of color when representing people in paintings from his "New York years" in her essay entitled “Gay and Black in Greenwich Village: Beauford Delaney’s Idylls of Integration.” This was published in the catalog for the Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris exhibition mounted by the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Jazz Club is included as a color figure (Figure 24) on page 24 of the catalog.

The Michael Rosenfeld Gallery exhibited the painting in the RISING UP / UPRISING: Twentieth Century African American Art in New York in the spring of 2014.

And now, Jazz Club (on loan from the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery) is one of the paintings selected for display in the Night Vision: Nocturnes in American Art, 1860-1960 exhibition at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art*:

This is the first major museum survey dedicated to scenes of the night in American art from 1860 to 1960 — an era not yet illuminated by electricity to the beginning of the Space Age. Night Vision: Nocturnes in American Art brings together 90 works in a range of media—including paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs...
-- Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Jazz Club is presented in the Night Visions catalog as Plate 73 on page 127. It comprises the entire back cover of the catalog as well.

This work is mentioned in the press about the exhibition:

• Bowdoin's own story about the show was picked up by ARTFIX daily.
• Bangor Daily News' Café des Artistes article leads with a large image of the painting.
• And Art and Antiques Magazine mentions it and a second painting by Beauford (another untitled work from Beauford's New York years (1944), known as Night Scene) in its write up about the show.

Night Vision: Nocturnes in American Art, 1860-1960 runs through October 18, 2015. For more information about the exhibition, click HERE.

Bowdoin College Museum of Art
9400 College Station
Brunswick ME, 04011
Telephone: 207-725-3275

*The Bowdoin College Museum of Art holds a Beauford Delaney abstract that is not currently on display.

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Les Amis de Beauford Delaney and Reid Hall are partnering to bring an exhibition of original Beauford Delaney works to Reid Hall in Paris in February 2016! To sign-up to receive information about this show, click HERE.

Beauford's Paris: The American Center

During his Paris years, Beauford spent a fair amount of time at the American Center for Students and Artists in Montparnasse.

Known simply as "The American Center," it was founded as an educational/athletic community center in 1931. Its original home was a neoclassical building designed by Welles Bosworth, shown below.

American Center for Students and Artists
During the first thirty odd years of its existence, the Center offered popular language, music, and theater courses and was a frequent meeting place for Americans and French alike. In the 1960s and 1970s, it evolved into an incubator for avant-garde expression.

In one of the essays in the catalog for the Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris exposition organized by Sue Canterbury at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. describes the ambiance at the Center in 1971 and tells how he was introduced to Beauford by a friend that he met there:

...I discovered that many young black expatriates...congregated at the American Centre, which had provided a space for jazz musicians to jam.

...It was heavenly; so much peace, so much healing, for one who had been so far away from home, and for so very long.

...Inevitably, a friendship or two kindled. And my new friend, an exuberantly open saxophonist, invited me - dragged me - to meet someone he called "Buford."

Two Les Amis blog posts include information about the American Center.

In an homage to Beauford by artist Douglas Petrovic, Douglas recounts the following story:

After an evening of jazz at the American Center, boulevard Raspail, I invited Beauford and several musicians to have a drink at my place. At around 6:30 AM, the musicians and Beauford decided to wake Paris up with a jazz concert. The balcony was long but not wide and they lined up, a trumpetist, a cornet player, Beauford in the middle, a guitarist, and a drummer who played the iron railing of the balcony with [pieces of] wood. That was the first time that I heard Beauford sing with a voice so sweet and admirable that you could only imagine it coming from children singing in Baptist choirs in New Orleans. All the windows of the neighboring buildings opened and everybody applauded despite having been awakened too early. The concert lasted a half-hour or more.

--Douglas de Petrovic

Contributor Colin Gravois tells us that the Mille Colonnes restaurant (where Beauford's commemorative plaque was recently installed) was favored by patrons of the Center:

The restaurant was only a five-minute walk from the American Center on boulevard Raspail, where many of us congregated in the afternoon or early evening, and many of the Center’s denizens eventually found themselves there sometime between 6 and 10 PM nightly.

The American Center remained at the Bosworth building until 1987. The building was demolished to make way for the Fondation Cartier for contemporary art, which moved into a new structure designed by Jean Nouvel in 1994.

For a complete history of the American Center, click HERE.

Beauford Delaney Works Sold at Case Antiques Auctions

A couple of weeks ago, I reported on the auctioning of three Beauford Delaney works by Case Antiques Auctions & Appraisals of Knoxville, Tennessee on July 18, 2015. One of them - the 1971 landscape watercolor on paper - was sold.

Untitled
Watercolor on paper
Signed and dated lower left in red ink, "Beauford Delaney 1971"
Photo courtesy of Case Antiques
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The low estimate set for this painting was $2,500.00 and the high estimate was $3,500.00. It sold for $3,186.00*.

The other two paintings from the July auction remain unsold.

Case Antiques sold two Beauford Delaney works at auction in January 2015.

One was a portrait of Beauford's mother, Delia, which Beauford executed from memory in 1964. (Delia Delaney died in 1958.) It was shown in the Studio Museum in Harlem retrospective of Beauford's work in 1978.

Portrait of Delia Delaney
(1964) Oil on canvas
Photo courtesy of Case Antiques
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
This painting sold for $48,380.00*, an amount that far exceeded the high estimate of $14,000.00.

The other was an untitled abstract of a human face. Remarkably, Beauford's paint cloth and paint stick - both of which have paint residue similar to the paints used for this abstract - were offered for sale with the work.

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

Beauford Delaney's departure from New York to Paris in 1953 also marked the transition from figurative compositions to abstract expressionism with a focus on color and light. Strapped with financial challenges in his early Paris years, he was believed to have painted on other found objects if canvas was not available. An example of one of his earliest known dated abstracts is an untitled oil on a raincoat fragment from 1954. This work serves as the cover for Sue Canterbury's book, "Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris", Minneapolis Institute of Art, 2004. Sue Canterbury, Associate Curator of the Dallas Museum of Art, and Stephen Wicks, Curator of the Knoxville Museum of Art, were able to inspect this work when Ms. Canterbury gave her September 2014 lecture on Beauford Delaney in Knoxville. This Beauford Delaney abstract is only the second documented example of his work using canvas available from household objects.

The "pillowcase" abstract, along with the paint cloth and paint stick, sold for $24,180*. The high estimate for this painting was set at $7,000.00.

To see images of the details of the works shown above, click on the hyperlink in the caption of each image.

For more information about the Beauford Delaney paintings (sold and unsold) at Case Antiques, contact:

Sarah Campbell Drury
Vice President of Decorative Arts
Case Antiques, Inc.
Accredited Member of the International Society of Appraisers (ISA)
Telephone: 615-812-6096


*The prices indicated include an 18% buyer's premium. In auctions, the buyer's premium is a percentage additional charge on the hammer price (winning bid at auction) of the purchased item that must be paid by the winner. It is charged by the auctioneer to cover administrative expenses. The buyer's premium goes directly to the auction house and not to the seller.

Dining at Les Mille Colonnes

Colin Gravois, a dear friend of Beauford, was the person who first told me about the restaurant called Les Mille Colonnes in Montparnasse. It was located at the address now occupied by Hôtel Le M, where Beauford's first commemorative plaque was recently installed.

Hôtel Le M façade
© Discover Paris!

Les Mille Colonnes plaque
© Discover Paris!
Colin graciously contributes this brief memoir of the restaurant and the meals that he, Beauford, and other friends shared there:

When I first arrived in Paris in 1968, Les Mille Colonnes (one thousand columns) was the restaurant of choice for people with small or next-to-inexistant budgets living in the Montparnasse area, and it remained our eating place for many years, most often for dinner. It got its name from the outside décor: faux columns in bas relief painted white, with the rest of the outside wall a light blue. The picture below conveys the idea, although the columns were not painted white at the time it was taken. Unfortunately the building was razed in the 1970s to build a hotel.

Les Mille Colonnes circa 1900

The restaurant was only a five-minute walk from the American Center* on boulevard Raspail, where many of us congregated in the afternoon or early evening, and many of the Center’s denizens eventually found themselves there sometime between 6 and 10 PM nightly. Just couldn't be beat!

Mille Colonnes was a huge place, seating at least 300, and it had a gaggle of waiters who scooted around as if on roller skates; we were always impressed how they carried large platters of food with one hand and with all the bustle around them, nary a fall. Another thing that amazed us was how, when exiting the kitchen with a platter of food, they had to stop by a lady at the register and count off the dishes one by one, which she would record under each waiter’s account. (This was to prevent them feeding their friends for free!) That procedure was done so quickly and with such dispatch that it was a sideshow in itself.

We were always impressed by the wait staff. They carried a pencil to write down the order on the paper table covering as you called it out, and then at the end they’d total it all up right before you.

Colin Gravois in front of his portrait painted
by Beauford Delaney (circa late 1960s)
Photo courtesy of Colin Gravois
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Of course, another reason it was a favorite was the prices. Considering the very reasonable cost, the menu was quite varied, with at least 10 or more choices of main dish. The quality was exceedingly high for a restaurant of its kind (at least to our young palates, as someone recently reminded me).

The menu came printed on mimeographed pages - a new one daily - in purple and pinkish ink. I can still remember the exact prices. For slightly less then one dollar you could get a full 3-course meal : hors d’oeuvres and dessert were 0F90 and the mains went for 3F50, totaling 5F30. With the dollar then trading at 5F50, it was quite a deal! If you felt like “splurging,” a ¼-liter carafe of wine was 0F90.

Beauford Delaney lived a few blocks south of the restaurant on rue Vercingétorix, so when he had a few francs to spare he’d usually come in around 6 o’clock. Oft times when we arrived we would find him alone at a table, and we joined him if there was a place for all of us, or asked him to move to our table if we were a larger group. He always was so happy to see us, and many times we’d chip in to pay his dinner. (Beauford wasn’t exactly rolling in cash.) Some times he’d join us afterwards for a coffee at the Raspail Vert* or the Café Select, but mostly he would return to his place. He’d say old people like to go to bed early.

*The Raspail Vert was located at 232, boulevard Raspail. It was down the street from the American Center for Students and Artists, located at 261, boulevard Raspail. Both are now closed.

Les Amis de Beauford Delaney - How It All Started

As Les Amis de Beauford Delaney is poised to oversee the installation of a second plaque to honor Beauford in Montparnasse and as we work with Columbia University to mount an exposition of Beauford's work at Reid Hall, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge how this entire, incredible journey toward preserving Beauford's legacy in Paris began.

As I wrote in the second post published on this blog, I discovered the situation regarding Beauford's gravesite while researching an article on African-American gravesites in and around Paris:

Buried at the Parisian municipal cemetery in Thiais, Delaney was laid to rest in what Americans would call a pauper’s grave. His tomb lies in Division 86, an unkempt area where numerous graves are unmarked. Delaney’s grave is recognizable only by a small ceramic flower arrangement.

That article was published in the "Paris Guide" section of the Soul of America Web site. Read it here: AFRICAN-AMERICAN GRAVESITES IN PARIS.

Below is a collage of the gravesites mentioned in the article.

African-American Gravesites in and around Paris
Images and collage © Discover Paris!
Not published in the Soul of America article was an image of Beauford's previously unmarked grave as seen in 2009.

Beauford's unmarked grave - Thiais Cemetery
© Discover Paris!
Work began on the installation of Beauford's tombstone in July 2010. It was completed in August 2010.

Beauford's tombstone - Thiais Cemetery
© Discover Paris!
This summer marks the 5th anniversary of the installation!

Case Antiques Opens Bidding on Three Beauford Delaney Works

On behalf of the Beauford Delaney estate, Case Antiques Auctions & Appraisals of Knoxville, Tennessee has placed three Beauford Delaney works - two watercolors and a lithograph - up for sale in its Summer Fine Art & Antiques auction. Online bidding is now open (see hyperlinks below).

All of the paintings are abstract and date from Beauford's Paris years.

One of the watercolors is painted on both sides of the paper.

Untitled
Watercolor and gouache on paper (recto)
Signed and dated lower right in black ink, "Beauford Delaney 61"
Photo courtesy of Case Antiques
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Untitled
Watercolor on paper (verso)
Photo courtesy of Case Antiques
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The front of the painting is dated 1961, which is the last year that Beauford lived in Clamart.

The second watercolor depicts a landscape of meadows and trees in colors of aqua, yellow, orange, greens, blues, brown and black. Beauford may have painted it during his 1971 visit to James Baldwin at Saint-Paul-de-Vence.

Untitled
Watercolor on paper
Signed and dated lower left in red ink, "Beauford Delaney 1971"
Photo courtesy of Case Antiques
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The lithograph consists of light blue, pink, and green swirl pigments on paper. Case Antiques is calling this an "Afrique Lithography."

Untitled
(ca 1963) Pigments on paper
Photo courtesy of Case Antiques
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Given the approximate date of this work (1963), Beauford likely painted it at his studio at rue Vercingétorix.

The Summer Fine Art & Antiques auction will take place on July 18, 2015.

For more information, contact:

Sarah Campbell Drury
Vice President of Decorative Arts
Case Antiques, Inc.
Accredited Member of the International Society of Appraisers (ISA)
Telephone: 615-812-6096

Beauford on Google

From time to time, I "Google" Beauford's name and click on various Web links to see what information is available about him online.

During my most recent search, I found several sites that have posted images of singular abstract works. Click on the links beneath the images below to visit three of these sites, two of which have posted articles about Beauford.

Portrait of a Man
(Undated) Oil on Canvas
The Johnson Collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Untitled (abstract green drip)
(1958) Gouache on paper
DCMoore Gallery
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Untitled, Paris 1953
Watercolor on paper
Mark Borghi Fine Arts
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Beauford Delaney Plaque Installed at Hôtel Le M

In the blog post that I published on December 13, 2014, I reported that Les Amis had received approval for the installation of a second plaque to honor Beauford in his beloved Montparnasse.

This plaque was installed on Wednesday, June 24 at Hôtel Le M. It is the only plaque that has been set in place at present, which makes it the FIRST plaque to honor Beauford in Paris! (The installation of the first plaque to be approved for installation in another location in Montparnasse is pending.)

I was on hand to capture this special event in a series of photos.

Marking the spot
© Discover Paris!

Drilling the holes
© Discover Paris!

Placing the screws
© Discover Paris!

Installation complete!
© Discover Paris!
The inscription on the plaque reads:

BEAUFORD DELANEY,

portraitiste et peintre expressioniste abstrait,

né à Knoxville, Tennessee, USA,

a fréquenté le restaurant Les Mille Colonnes

à cette adresse dans les années 1950 – 1970.

Les Mille Colonnes plaque
© Discover Paris!
Translation:

BEAUFORD DELANEY, portraitist and abstract expressionist painter, born in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, frequented the restaurant Les Mille Colonnes at this address during the 1950s - 1970s.

Les Amis thanks Monsieur Patrick Fillere of J. Poulain et Fils, 19-21 boulevard de Ménilmontant, 75011 Paris, for his conscientious and caring organization of the creation of the plaque and its installation.

Stay tuned for information about the first commemorative plaque that will soon be installed, as well as the ceremony that Les Amis will be organizing to celebrate this momentous event!

Hôtel Le M
© Discover Paris!
Hôtel Le M
20 bis, rue de la Gaîté
75014 Paris
Telephone: 01 40 47 48 49
Metro: Gaîté (Line 13), Edgar-Quinet (Line 6), Montparnasse-Bienvenue (Lines 4, 12, 13)

Beauford's Self-portrait on the Cover of JAMA

In a recent Internet search on Beauford, I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of my favorite self-portraits of him graced the cover of the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)*.

Self-portrait
(1944) Oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The following is the abstract of the article about the portrait, written by Thomas B. Cole, M. D., M. P. H.

The skin tone of Beauford Delaney’s (1901-1979) Self-portrait is a blend of white, purple, blue, and taupe, with highlights of avocado green to match the background, and he is posed in a three-quarter turn to the right with a sidelong glance at the mirror (or at the viewer, depending on one’s perspective). His eyes convey different moods: the left eyebrow is raised in an expression of alarm, but the lens of the right eye is a ghostly white. A self-portrait invites speculation about the artist’s state of mind as well as his technique. Sometimes the state of mind of an artist is irrelevant—most of the self-portraits of Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh were probably made to try out new painting methods—but the life story of Beauford Delaney suggests he may be saying something in this portrait about his inner struggles.

The two-page article presents a synopsis of Beauford's life, including an intriguing comment in the second paragraph that speculates on the relationship of this self-portrait to the Bible's Sermon on the Mount.

What I found most interesting is the fact that JAMA started publishing full color images of art on its cover, accompanied by essays in the pages of the journal, in 1964. In an editorial article on his Web site called "JAMA is Redesigned, Art is Demoted," Dr. Jeffrey Levine states that this was

part of an initiative to inform readers about nonclinical aspects of medicine and public health, and emphasize the humanities in medicine.

Levine goes on to lament the fact that JAMA redesigned its cover in 2013, excluding art from that point forward.

*JAMA. 2013;310(7):668-669

Self-portrait (1962) at the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum

The Detroit Institute of Arts Museum (DIA) owns a single Beauford Delaney painting - a magnificent self-portrait dated 1962.

Self-portrait (1962)
Oil on canvas
23" x 19"
Detroit Institute of Arts Museum
Image courtesy of Michele L. Simms-Burton
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
I contacted DIA to inquire about the painting and spoke with Iva Lisikewycz, Manager of Curatorial Affairs. She told me that the portrait was acquired by the museum from the Darthea Speyer Gallery in 1992 (Accession number - 1992.214) with funds from the DIA Founders Society. Darthea Speyer selected this self-portrait as the image for the invitation card that she created to announce the one-man show of Beauford's work that she mounted in 1992.

Invitation card for 1992 exhibit at Galerie Darthea Speyer
Image courtesy of Galerie Darthea Speyer
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The following is the description that the museum has on file for the painting:

Self-portrait of an African-American male in three-quarter view. Ochre sweater and turtleneck on bright yellow background.

Regarding the exhibition history of this portrait, the only record that DIA has pertains to the exposition entitled Beauford Delaney: The Color Yellow, organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA and shown from February 2002 - May 2003. DIA lists the venues and dates for the exposition as follows:

• High Museum (February 9 - May 5, 2002)
• Studio Museum in Harlem (July 10 - September 15, 2002)
• Anacostia Museum and Center for African-American History and Culture of Smithsonian Institution (October 11, 2002 - January 4, 2003)
• Fogg Museum of Harvard University (February 15 - May 4, 2003)

In 2013, Christie's appraised numerous works held by DIA; Beauford's self-portrait was among them. Christie's valued it at between $25K and $35K.

Christie's appraisal of Beauford's Self-portrait at DIA

The portrait is part of the African-American collection embedded within the Contemporary and Modern Art collection at DIA. It currently hangs in Gallery N 286.

Flier for Beauford's First One-man Show

On the heels of a successful show at the Whitney Studio Galleries in New York in February - March 1930, the New York Public Library invited Beauford to do a one-man show at their Harlem branch (now the Schomburg Center) in May 1930. It was to be his first one-man show.

The flier below served as an announcement of the show.

Image for flier from W. E. B. Du Bois papers - U Mass Amherst
Charcoal of a Black Woman (1929)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It is a beautiful piece of Beauford Delaney memorabilia!

The charcoal sketch in the upper right corner of the flier was sold by Clarke Auction Gallery for $6452.50 in 2008. I do not know if it represents Portrait of a Woman or Harlem Chore Woman from the list of charcoals on the flier.

Beauford's Solo Show at the Paul Facchetti Gallery

Last week's post about the Beauford Delaney memorabilia that Dr. William Dodd is collecting in Philadelphia reminded me that I've wanted to publish an article about the one-man show that Paul Facchetti mounted for Beauford in June 1960.

Beauford's relationship with the Facchettis began in the fall of 1956. They included his work in group shows and bought several works from Beauford between that time and the one-man exposition in June 1960. The show was originally to have been held in May, but delays with the catalog forced postponement until June.

The vernissage (opening) was held on June 21, 1960. Biographer David A. Leeming describes the event in Amazing Grace as follows:

The party was a celebration of Beauford. His Paris friends were there, and a particularly warm joint letter arrived from James Baldwin, Mary Painter, Ellis Wilson, and Palmer Hayden, who were all in New York at the time. Henry Miller wrote an encouraging letter too, as did Brother Joe [Beauford's brother, Joseph Delaney] and many old New York friends. The catalogue included a long excerpt from the Henry Miller article and a short introduction by Julian Alvard, who noted the uniqueness of Delaney's work and admired the ways in which the planes of his paintings appeared in unexpected ways...

Alvard's introduction was highly poetic, referring to Beauford's paintings as "solar" or "cosmic" and stating that Beauford had never given his talent such free rein. Alvard said that radiance, which was in principle, external, had become the essence of Beauford's work.

Beauford at the Paul Facchetti Gallery
© Paul Facchetti
All of the works at this show were abstractions, and reds and yellows were the dominant colors used. The painting shown below appears on the wall at the right of the photo of Beauford at the Facchetti Gallery (above).

Untitled
(1960) Oil on canvas
36" x 24 1/2"
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford met Professor Ahmed Bioud at this show. He and Beauford became very close and Beauford spent much time with Bioud and his family. The Biouds would take Beauford into their home when Beauford was recovering from his 1961 breakdown and suicide attempt. Beauford would later capture Bioud's likeness in at least two portraits.

Ahmed Bioud, 1964
Oil on canvas
39 1/4" x 32", signed
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York , NY
Though the exhibition was well received, Leeming reports that only two small paintings were sold. Therefore, the Facchettis arranged with Beauford to buy several additional paintings and pay him a monthly allowance for the work.

Dr. William A. Dodd's Tribute to Beauford

Dr. William A. Dodd purchased Untitled (Grape motif) from Dolan/Maxwell Gallery in Philadelphia.

Dr. William A. Dodd and Untitled (Grape Motif) (1946)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo © Discover Paris!
I asked him to comment on his interest in Beauford's work and why he collects letters and other information about Beauford's life. He responded as follows:

I first learned about Beauford in the late 90s when I was visiting lots of New York galleries. Michael Rosenfeld's catalogs of African-American 20th century masterworks may have been my first introduction to Beauford's work.

What attracts me to his work is two-fold - the simplicity (through the outlining of his images) and his vibrant use of color in his Greene street and cityscape paintings. I also like his abstract paintings with their heavy textures and complex swirls of color.

I became intrigued with his life when I learned that he lived in Greenwich Village and in France. My mother, who lived in Harlem, told me about the bohemian life of the Village - the jazz, fashion, and art. I also developed an interest in French culture and studied French in high school and college.

Beauford lived the life I dreamed of. I read the Leeming bio and realized that his freedom came with a cost. So I began researching and collecting material about him to get a better understanding of the man.

Dodd's collection of Beauford Delaney memorabilia includes documents and photos from Beauford's 1947 show at the Pyramid Club in Philadelphia and a catalog of his one-man show at the Paul Facchetti Gallery in Paris in 1960.

Catalog of the 7th Annual
Pyramid Club Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture - Cover
© Discover Paris!

Beauford Delaney catalog
Galerie Paul Facchetti
© Discover Paris!
There are also several letters that Beauford wrote to a patron named Frank Scoville, which date from 1949 to 1954.

Beauford Delaney works in Philadelphia

In 2013, I wrote an article about two Beauford Delaney paintings being held by the Dolan/Maxwell gallery in Philadelphia. As I am in Philadelphia this week, I went by the gallery to see one of the works.

Untitled (Yellow series) is an oil on linen that Beauford painted in 1962.

Untitled (Yellow series)
(1962) Oil on linen
26 x 21 inches
Annotated in verso
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo © Discover Paris!
It is rare for me to stand before one of Beauford's paintings and I view any opportunity to cast my eyes upon his work in person to be a privilege. While it is possible to get a good sense of the colors that he used by looking at online and print images, I feel that you can only truly appreciate the texture of his work by standing before it. I attempted to capture the texture of Untitled (Yellow series) in the sharply oblique view of the painting shown below.

Untitled (Yellow series) - oblique view
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo © Discover Paris!
Ron Rumford, director of the gallery, removed the back panel from the painting to show me the annotation "in verso."

Untitled (Yellow series) - rear view
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo © Discover Paris!

The second painting that I described in the 2013 article was sold to a Philadelphia dentist. On the spur of the moment, Ron phoned the buyer to ask if the painting were hung at his nearby office. Fortunately, it was and we set out on foot for an impromptu visit.

Dr. William A. Dodd and Untitled (Grape Motif) (1946)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo © Discover Paris!
William is a former gallery owner and an avid collector. He shared information about the 1947 show of Beauford's work mounted by the now defunct Pyramid Club of Philadelphia.

Look for details in next week's blog post!