Musing with a Master Abstract Expressionist - Part 1
Osiris Munir is President/CEO of Ankh Entertainment and host of the 15 Minutes interview series. She is also a visual artist.
Munir learned about Beauford through various contacts with me. Inspired by his work, she recently created three previously unseen abstract works and shared images of them with the Wells International Foundation and Les Amis de Beauford Delaney. She calls them The Three Are One.
Osiris Munir
(2021) Oil on paperboard
They call to my mind Beauford's Untitled (Yellow Abstraction), shown below.
(c. 1958-1959) Oil on paper, laid down on canvas
Image courtesy of Aaron Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Prior to a series of challenging life events that led her to the investigation of intuitive abstract art, Munir:
. . . hated art and thought it a rip off of one’s time and money. I knew nothing of Pollock, Hofmann, Kandinsky, Rothko, Krasner, Monet, Picasso, and Georgia O’Keefe until a neighbor turned me onto Bob Ross. I began watching YouTube study channels. . . .
I did not hear of Beauford until the introduction and the telling of his story by Monique Wells, founder of the Wells International Foundation. Of course, I was fascinated. Until then I knew nothing of abstract art outside of the aforementioned. Monique told me of her search for his grave and how it was without a head stone ... how he died in a mental institute in Paris.
As a veteran diagnosed with a variety of mental disorders, Munir readily understands and resonates with the suffering of the mentally disturbed. She finds art to be a great tool and channel for releasing an abundance of creative energy. Simultaneously and intrinsically drawn to Beauford's life and work, she describes his work (and her own) as being purposeful and intentional. She says that Beauford seemed to take obscure thoughts that were disconnected in some ways and harmonized them in arrays of colorful expression.
To create The Three Are One, Munir used oil on brick paperboard. This was inspired by Beauford's Burning Bush, which is currently held at the Newark Art Museum. She loves the texture of oil:It seems to find its way through my fingers into my hands and onto a canvas, brick, or piece of wood. It looks like velvet when applied to a primed canvas. It looks elegant and rich to me. It calls me and speaks to me from a place that is unexplainable. Oil seems to have the property and gift of manifestation for me. It seems to move with my eyes and fingers ... [Using it makes me feel] like another entity outside of myself is painting, not me.
Munir chose the colors for these works based on Tarot cards by Madame Marie Laveau of New Orleans, which she says are similar to colors used by Beauford and others of that time. She offered the following comment about this:
Some of his (Beauford's) pieces use muted colors wherein they seem flat until you take a closer look. After looking closer at these pieces, the feeling and sense of how each color moves on paper and canvas carries a certain exposure of light.
Next week: Osiris Munir talks in depth about similarities between her life and Beauford's, and muses about the conversation she'd have with him if they could sit down together today.
Beauford Delaney and Free Lunch - Part 2
Last week, I introduced "Beauford Delaney (Instrumental)," a track on Volume 3 of the newly released three-volume recording entitled Free Lunch,. Intrigued by the music, I interviewed recording artist Free (Lee) Tillman about it. Read Part 1 of "Beauford Delaney and Free Lunch" HERE.
Part of our interview explored Tillman's associations between "Beauford Delaney (Instrumental)" and specific pieces of Beauford's art.
I asked him what he would say if he had to describe the instrumental Beauford Delaney as a color, and he responded "It would be a cloudy gray."
He then shared links to images of some of the darker pieces of Beauford's work that come to his mind when he thinks about the song. The works are pictured below.
Watercolor
Signed at bottom right, dated, and annotated "Souvenir" at bottom left
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Oil on paper mounted on canvas
Image courtesy of www.ha.com
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The majority of music Tillman makes is instrumental, yet he was inspired to insert a mysterious voice into "Beauford Delaney (Instrumental). Listening carefully, you will hear a woman saying "Sometimes I wish we could vanish." When I asked Tillman about this, he told me that he also created a vocal version of "Beauford Delaney" for his album. He shared that recording with me and commented about it as follows:
"This song happens to be one of only two songs on the album that has alternative versions where I provided vocals. The song “Theaster Gates” has a spoken word passage and the song Beauford Delaney has me rapping on it. I provided the instrumental versions in case people didn’t want to hear my voice."
Regarding a possible relationship between the single line of spoken words in the instrumental version and the lyrics of the vocal version, he said:
"There is no direct relationship. When I originally made the song, it felt like it needed a human voice, so I added the vocal sample. It's not meant to be completely intelligible. It's meant to sound like something you might hear in a dream. I then decided to create something more direct, so I added my own vocals. One thing let me to the next, but I wouldn't say that they're directly related as far as what's being said."
Listening to the vocal version of "Beauford Delaney" and comparing it to the instrumental version, the two Beauford Delaney works shown below came to my mind. I sent images of them to Tillman and asked him to share his reactions to them.
(1967) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1967) Oil on canvas
Private collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
His response:
"The blue painting feels like the instrumental. The portrait feels like the vocal version."
To wrap up our interview, I asked Tillman the following questions:
Les Amis: Relating to the theme of your album, Free Lunch, if you could have lunch with Beauford today, what would you want to discuss with him?
Free Tillman: I would love to talk with him about the Harlem Renaissance and what it was like living in Greenwich Village.
Les Amis: What might you ask his advice about?
Free Tillman: How to convey one's political and social beliefs through abstract art.
Beauford Delaney and Free Lunch - Part 1
After listening to the recording multiple times, I contacted Tillman to ask for an interview. He responded quickly and affirmatively.
I learned that Free (Lee) Tillman became aware of Beauford because of his fascination with the Harlem Renaissance. While he is more familiar with the writers and musicians of the time, anyone who was involved with the Harlem Renaissance is an inspiration to him.
Beauford in his Greene Street studio, New York City, 1944
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Tillman is also fascinated by James Baldwin and encountered Beauford's name in connection with Baldwin. He learned about Beauford mostly from reading online articles and watching YouTube videos, and he was aware that Beauford painted several portraits of Baldwin. He has never seen any of Beauford's works in person.
Serendipitously, Tillman and Beauford share the same birthday, and Beauford died the year Tillman was born. Tillman is something of a visual artist as well - he creates his own visual backdrops for his performances and he also draws (though he has not produced anything he would be willing to show anyone yet).
The majority of the twenty-two (22) tracks on Volume 3 of Free Lunch are named after artists - people such as Amy Sherald, Faith Ringgold, Ed Clark, and Sam Gilliam. I asked Tillman why. He responded:
Over the past few years, I’ve been studying art history on my own. Trying to understand different movements and where certain ideas came from. This year there was a documentary released called “Black Art: In the Absence of Light” which focuses a lot on the 1976 LACMA exhibition Two Centuries of Black American Art. It features a lot of Black artists, new and old, that I had never heard of before. As I was wrapping up this project, Black art was on my mind, and I thought it would be an interesting idea to name all the songs after Black artists. Maybe someone would see all the names, do some research and find out something new. I’m familiar with the work of all the artists named but I do not know any of them personally.
I explained that Beauford did not want to be viewed as a black artist, or even as an American artist. He strongly felt that "ARTIST" was the only term required to define him professionally. I also explained that this in no way indicated that Beauford wanted to cast aside his identity as a black person.
Tillman then asked whether Beauford adopted Abstract Expressionism as a style because he did not want to be defined as a "Black artist." I replied that I believe Beauford became an Abstract Expressionist painter because it allowed him to express the incredible emotion and energy that always churned within him, particularly when his inner voices became more insistent and more cruel.
Come back next week to read about Tillman's associations between "Beauford Delaney (Instrumental)" and specific pieces of Beauford's art.
First Beauford Delaney Research Award Recipient Announced
1953 - Carl Van Vechten
On Sunday, June 6, 2021, during a ceremony held at the Festival d'histoire de l'art (Festival of Art History) at the Château de Fontainebleau, the first recipient of the Beauford Research Grant was announced.
The Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US, in partnership with FACE Foundation and INHA, and with support from the Ford Foundation, awarded the prize to Ms. Vanina Géré for her research project entitled "'Hacking apparatuses of control': Contemporary African-American Political Digital Practices and Beyond." She will receive $20,000 to cover expenses related to her research project in the U.S. next year.
Ms. Géré is a Paris-based scholar who specializes in contemporary American art, with special interests in art and activism, feminist art history, African-American studies, software studies and contemporary painting. She wrote Les mauvais sentiments – L'art de Kara Walker, a book that "traces the career of Kara Walker (born in 1969), the most internationally recognized African-American artist since Jean-Michel Basquiat, and explores the history of the reception of a work that faces the limits of representation, challenging the question of the figuration of the black body."
Currently teaching at Villa Arson National School of Fine Arts in Nice, France, Ms. Géré will be on a sabbatical leave this upcoming year to conduct a research on feminist, Afro-feminist and anti-racist activist practices in digital art and culture in Europe and the U.S. Thanks to this grant, she will be traveling to New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles to meet with artists, curators and writers.
France Nerlich, who granted Les Amis a two-part interview about the award, presented Ms. Géré to festival attendees. Watch her presentation and Ms. Géré's acceptance speech (in French) here:
FHA21 - dimanche 6 juin - Salle des Colonnes, château de Fontainebleau
Beginning at 24:06 minutes, Ms. Nerlich relates the story of how the grant was conceived.
At 26:11 minutes, she explains why the grant is named after Beauford.
At 27:08 minutes, she introduces Ms. Géré.
At 28:17 minutes, Ms. Géré takes the microphone and describes her encounter with Beauford's art at the Tate Modern during the Soul of a Nation exhibition in 2017. She then presents the project that inspired the committee to grant her the award.
The selection committee, comprised of art historians Eric de Chassey, Director of INHA in Paris, Richard J. Powell, John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art & Art History at Duke University, Anne Lafont, Art Historian and directrice d'études à l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), France Nerlich, Director of Studies and Research at INHA, and Anne-Claire Duprat, Visual Arts Officer at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S., received a total of six excellent research proposals, which is an honorable number for a new grant in its first year. The committee extends its warmest encouragement to Helene Valance for her project “Re-present: African-American representations of the national past, 19th-early 20th century,” which came in second place.
Committee member Richard J. Powell, John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art & Art History at Duke University, and curator of the Beauford Delaney: The Color Yellow exhibition launched at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta in 2002, commented on the award as follows:
I am delighted that this new research grant, named after the legendary artist Beauford Delaney, will further strengthen the long-standing cultural ties between France and the United States. Given the importance of France in the careers and creative works of countless artists of African descent, this grant honors Delaney and his fellow travelers, and promises to make their artistic contributions better known.
Gaëtan Bruel, Cultural Counselor of the French Embassy in the U.S., commented as follows:
In our current socio-political context, both in France and the United States, BIPOC communities are rightfully asking for equality and better representation and visibility, including in the arts. We at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy are committed now more than ever to pursuing our mission to support high quality artistic projects that speak to the crucial issues of our times while promoting the social and humanistic values that are at the core of the Franco-America friendship. We send Vanina Géré our best wishes for the success of her future research project. We also thank our partners, FACE Foundation and the Ford Foundation, for their essential support, and their ongoing commitment to make this world a better, fairer place through art and culture.
Judd Tully on Beauford's Studio Museum Retrospective
A few months after Beauford's death (March 26, 1979), art critic and journalist Judd Tully wrote an exposé of sorts regarding the Studio Museum of Harlem's retrospective show of Beauford's work and the disposition of his estate.
Tully says that steps were taken to eliminate French bureaucratic obstacles and settle debts so the show could take place, but he does not specifically indicate who took these steps. He indicates that Exxon Corporation and the National Endowment of the Arts funded the Studio Museum exhibition and that the tutelle responsible for handling Beauford's affairs was dissolved.
What follows is biographical information admixed with statements that various artist acquaintances made about Beauford and his work during his lifetime.
Near the end of the article, Tully states that "...Beauford Delaney remains a tantalizing enigma to the all too color-conscious art historians. He has eluded history for the moment."
Forty-two years later, fueled by the work launched by Les Amis de Beauford Delaney in 2009, history is "catching up."
Read the entire article here: https://juddtully.net/reviews/beauford-delaney/
Beauford at the Galerie Prisme - 6, rue Monsieur le Prince
The New York Times recently published an article entitled "Beyond Abstract Expressionism: MoMA Rethinks the Art of the 1950s," in which it featured a stunning pastel Beauford Delaney abstract.
(c. 1955) Pastel on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It reminded me of a similar pastel abstract dated 1956, an image of which I included in an article I published a couple of years ago about Beauford's first solo exhibition in Paris. That show was held at the Galerie Prisme, which was located at 6, rue Monsieur le Prince in the 6th arrondissement.
I have not yet been able to find images of the façade at the time the gallery occupied the premises, but I'm pleased to share photos of what it looks like today.
©Entrée to Black Paris
©Entrée to Black Paris
©Entrée to Black Paris
It's possible that the gallery was located in the storefront space to the left or the right of the entrance.
It may even have been located in a courtyard behind the (now) blue double doors that serve as the entrance to this address.
Read the article about Beauford's Galerie Prisme show here: Beauford at the Galerie Prisme
Beauford on Google Arts and Culture
Google Arts & Culture is a non-profit initiative whose mission is to preserve and bring the world’s art and culture online so it’s accessible to anyone, anywhere. They work with cultural institutions and artists around the world to help them digitize, manage and publish their collections online, all for free.
The site has dedicated a section to Beauford. It presents eight works that represent a wide range of works - from figurative to abstract, from landscapes to portraits - that he created during his New York and Paris years.
(1946) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The text presented on these pages is scant, and for some works, only the details about the media, year of creation, and location are provided.
Still, it is worth visiting the site as a reminder of the breadth of Beauford's artistic genius!
Click HERE to see the works.
PIASA to Auction Magnificent Portrait by Beauford
Portrait of Vassiliki Pikoula was the largest portrait displayed in the 2016 Beauford Delaney: Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color exhibition in Paris. You can see it in the upper left corner of the image below.
The portrait is up for auction at PIASA's Afrique + Art moderne et contemporaine (Africa + Modern and Contemporary Art) sale on Wednesday, May 19, 2021.
Vassiliki Pikoula
(1970) Oil on canvas
130 x 97 cm / 51 x 38 inches
Signed and dated, lower right
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Screenshot of photo from PIASA catalog - © Xavier Defaix
The auction catalog presents a beautiful narrative that describes the night Darthea Speyer hosted a reception for her gallery's 1973 solo exhibition of Beauford's work. Among the attendees was the celebrated jazz saxophonist, Ornette Coleman.
Pikoula, the Greek artist who was the subject of the portrait, was also in attendance that evening.
The estimated sale price for this work is 150,000 - 200,000 euros.
For information about the auction, call +33 (0)1 53 34 10 10 or send email to contact@piasa.fr.
Beauford Delaney Research Grant - Part 2
1953 - Carl Van Vechten
Last week, I posted Part 1 of my interview with France Nerlich, Director of Studies and Research Department at the Institut national d'histoire de l'art (INHA). INHA is one of the collaborative partners for the new Beauford Delaney Research Grant - the Bourse Beauford Delaney - that was announced to the world on April 21, 2021.
The grant funds travel and other expenses related to research projects on African-American art undertaken by France-based academics and scholars. The awardee can travel to the United States to work in archives, museums, libraries and possibly to meet with artists.
Here's Part 2 of the interview.
Les Amis: Was Beauford Delaney the only artist whose name was considered for the grant?
FN: As Eric de Chassey is a scholar whose specialty is post-WWII US art, Delaney's name naturally came to his mind while we were thinking of the name we would like to give to the grant.
Les Amis: What knowledge or experience does the team that conceived of the grant have regarding Beauford's work?
FN: Though de Chassey hadn't written much on Delaney, he had seen many of Delaney's works in U.S. museums, galleries and private collections. He knew the Delaney bibliography, had spent time speaking about him with Sue Canterbury when she was preparing her exhibition for the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. He deeply admires the artist, who still deserves to be better known - especially in France, where he chose to live. As the personality and work of Beauford Delaney seem to perfectly represent/encapsulate the aim of the grant, the team accepted de Chassey's proposal with enthusiasm.
Les Amis: How was the jury selected?
FN: For the composition of the jury, we wanted to solicit French and American experts, including specialists in African-American art. The INHA team and the Cultural Services team made several proposals for members. We chose according to the candidates' approaches and fields to guarantee a true diversity of views within the jury.
We are very grateful to our two qualified personalities for agreeing, almost at the drop of a hat, to join our jury, Anne Lafont, professor at the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (Paris) and Richard J. Powell, John Spencer Bassett Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University.
Now, we are all very much looking forward to reading the applications and to announce the winner in early June in conjunction with a special occasion -- the 10th edition of our international Festival de l’histoire de l’art (Art History Festival) that takes places yearly in Fontainebleau!
Announcements about the Beauford Delaney Research Grant are posted online in English and in French.
Beauford Delaney Research Grant - Part 1
Beauford Delaney
1953 - Carl Van Vechten
I learned about the Beauford Delaney Research Grant - the Bourse Beauford Delaney - on April 21, 2021.
Announcements about this $20,000 award are posted online in English and in French.
The grant funds travel and other expenses related to research projects on African-American art undertaken by France-based academics and scholars. The awardee can travel to the United States to work in archives, museums, libraries and possibly to meet with artists.
While Beauford's name is attached to the grant, the awardee is not obligated to research his work.
The 2021 award is intended for postdoctoral researchers, while the 2022 award will be offered to master's- and doctorate-level researchers in training. In all cases, it is expected that the fellowship will produce a tangible result such as a book, article, conference, or exhibit. These results will be made available to the public, enriching the field of art history and heightening the profile of work by African-American artists.
A few days ago, I received a thoughtful email from France Nerlich, Director of Studies and Research Department at the Institut national d'histoire de l'art (INHA). (INHA is one of the collaborative partners for the grant.) Nerwith wanted to inform me about the grant because of the work Les Amis does to increase awareness of Beauford's legacy. She kindly consented to grant me an interview, the first part of which I'm sharing below.
Les Amis: Please describe the "broader initiative to promote African-American artists in France" of which the Beauford Delaney research grant is a part.
FN: Thanks to the support of the Ford Foundation, the Étant donnés Contemporary Art program* launched a new initiative in 2018 to promote the visibility of African-American artists in France via exhibitions, residencies, and research trips. The initiative aimed to foster dialogue between French and American art and culture professionals around the contemporary African-American art scene. Twelve French curators and institutional directors were invited to visit New York and Chicago for an exploratory trip to learn more about this art scene via studio visits and meetings with professionals, with the goal of bringing exhibitions of contemporary work by African-American artists to major French institutions and inviting African American to become artists in residence at French institutions.
Five projects have resulted from this initial exchange trip so far, including in-person and online exhibitions as well as residencies. More is to come.
Les Amis: How long did it take for the project to come to fruition?
FN: In 2020, the above mentioned initiative was expanded to promote art historical scholarship in France on work by African American artists. This proposal immediately met with the approval of INHA director Eric de Chassey in Paris, who has supported decentralized, inclusive, and resolutely transnational art history since his arrival at the institute in 2016.
Since its creation in the early 2000s, INHA has proposed fundamental support for a globalized approach to art history that is attentive to the societal stakes of art history and to the epistemological stakes of a discipline that pays attention to questions of representation and constructions of identity. Since 2016, in-depth reflections have been undertaken to put the structuring categories within the institution into perspective and to open them up completely to a non-Eurocentric art history.
Les Amis: Whose idea was it to create this grant?
FN: The project for this fellowship began to be discussed during the fall of 2020. The initiative came from Gaëtan Bruel, Cultural Counselor at the French Embassy in the United States, and Anne-Claire Duprat, who leads the construction of all the actions with the Ford Foundation within the “Etant donnés” program.
Come back to the blog next week to read Part 2 of this interview.
*Étant donnés Contemporary Art is a program operated by Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S. in partnership with FACE Foundation (French American Cultural Exchange). It aims to strengthen ties between France and the U.S. in the field of contemporary art by fostering active collaboration and encouraging long-lasting partnerships between French visual artists, curators, and collectives and American curators and cultural institutions.
In the past 27 years, Étant donnés has developed an international reputation by allocating over $3 million to fund more than 300 projects and 30 curators. The program funds grants to American nonprofit institutions to organize exhibitions featuring French artists, curatorial fellowships assisting American curators, and a residency program supporting French artists seeking to develop specific projects with American partners.
Results of April 2021 Swann Auction Galleries African American Art Sale
Untitled (African Figure) sold for $125,000, including buyer's premium*.
Untitled (African Figure)
(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
Untitled (Tent Interior) sold for $137,000 (including buyer's premium), far exceeding the estimated sale price of $30,000 to $40,000.
For more information about the April 22, 2021 African American Art auction, click HERE.
*The buyer's premium is 25% of the hammer price, up to and including $100,000; 20% of the hammer price above $100,000 up to and including $1,000,000; 12% of the hammer price after $1,000,000.
Two Beauford Delaney Works at Swann Auction Galleries' African Art Sale
Untitled (African Figure) was created when Beauford lived at his rue Vercingétorix studio. It comes from the original collection of James and Gloria Joyce, whom James Baldwin introduced to Beauford in July 1958. The Joyces would go on to commission several paintings from Beauford, including a portrait of James Joyce.
Untitled (African Figure)
(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
The estimated sale price of this work, which has been assigned Lot Number 67, is $120,000 - $180,000.
The mirror image of Untitled (African Figure), a multi-hued oil monoprint on paper, was displayed by the Knoxville Museum of Art during its Through the Unusual Door exhibition in 2020.
(circa 1968) Oil monoprint on paper
Knoxville Museum of Art, 2018 Beauford Delaney Purchase
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo © Les Amis de Beauford Delaney
Beauford in the News
In today's post, I'm presenting three announcements about Beauford that I recently found online.
SFMOMA announces major gift from the Pamela J. Joyner and Alfred J. Giuffrida Collection
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art announced a major gift of 31 paintings, sculptures and drawings by 20 American artists from the Pamela J. Joyner and Alfred J. Giuffrida Collection—celebrated for its intergenerational holdings of abstract art of the African diaspora. The addition of important historical works by Elizabeth Catlett, Beauford Delaney, Norman Lewis and Richard Mayhew, among many others, has inspired a reexamination of SFMOMA’s permanent collection and is having a transformative impact on its galleries.
(1970) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Read the entire article HERE.
Beauford Delaney’s Metamorphosis into Freedom
ASHEVILLE, NC - Featuring more than 40 paintings and works on paper, Beauford Delaney’s Metamorphosis into Freedom examines Beauford's career within the context of his 38-year friendship with writer James Baldwin.
(1950) Pastel on paper
Knoxville Museum of Art, 2017 purchase with funds provided by
the Rachael Patterson Young Art Acquisition Reserve
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image by Bruce Cole
Read about the exhibition and associated programming HERE.
Swann Auction Galleries African American Art Sale
NEW YORK, NY - Untitled (African Figure) is one of two Beauford Delaney works up for auction during Swann Auction Galleries' upcoming African American Art Sale.
(1968) Oil on cotton canvas
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
Read about this painting HERE.
Springtime
Spring has definitely sprung in Paris!
In today's blog, I'm posting a few abstract paintings by Beauford that I think perfectly represent the season.
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Watercolor on paper
Private collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1968) Gouache on paper
Private collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
If you celebrate Easter, I wish you a happy one!
Les Amis Celebrates Women's History Month - Part 4
For the last installment of the Les Amis Celebrates Women's History Month series, I'm featuring images of three sketches that Beauford created for Unsung Americans Sung, the book edited by Beauford's friend, W. C. Handy.
Phillis Wheatley
Phyllis Wheatley
Pencil sketch
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford's sketch was undoubtedly inspired by the 1773 engraving that graced the cover of Phillis (Phyllis) Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.
Portrait of Phillis Wheatley
Attributed to Scipio Moorhead
Image in Public Domain
Wheatley was the first black woman to publish a book of poetry in the U.S. Read about her here.
Sissieretta Jones
Pencil sketch
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
c. 1911 Addison N. Scurlock
H. Lawrence Freeman Collection
Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Columbia University
Fair Use Claim
Florence Mills
Pencil sketch
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
1927 James Van Der Zee
Vintage gelatin silver print
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Fair Use Claim
Les Amis Celebrates Women's History Month - Part 3
During this first celebration of Women's History Month on the Les Amis blog, I've brought you images of Beauford's mom, Delia, and images of two renowned singers whose images Beauford captured on canvas.
Today, I am sharing images of two little known works in which Beauford portrayed an icon of African-American and women's history: Harriet Tubman.
The first work is a pencil sketch that appears in a book called Unsung Americans Sung, which was edited by W. C. Handy and published in 1944.
Harriet TubmanPencil sketch
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It was likely inspired by the photograph shown below:
Harriet Tubman (1911), full-length portrait,
seated in chair, facing front,
probably at her home in Auburn, New York
Source: Library of Congress
Public Domain
The second is a work on paper, most recently shown at the Transcending Race and Time exhibition at the University of Tennessee (UT) Downtown Gallery in Knoxville.
Portrait of Harriet Tubman at the UT Downtown Gallery
(1953) Mixed Media on Paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
A black and white image of this work appears in David Leeming's biography entitled Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney.
In Amazing Grace, the portrait is (mis)labeled as Delia Delaney, as shown in the image above.
The reasoning behind the assertion that the label in the book is incorrect is as follows:
1) The Beauford Delaney estate has recorded the name of the work as Harriet Tubman.
2) The person in the work looks very much like Harriet Tubman and not very much like Delia Delaney.
Horatio Seymour Squyer
National Portrait Gallery
Public Domain
Harriet Tubman's birth year has never definitively been established (c. 1820), but we know that she died on March 10, 1913.
To learn more about this famous abolitionist and women's suffragist, click HERE.
Les Amis Celebrates Women's History Month - Part 2
Beauford portrayed two legendary female singers on canvas: Marian Anderson and Ella Fitzgerald.
(1965) Oil on canvas
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1968) Oil on canvas
Permanent collection of the SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah
Gift of Dr. Walter O. and Mrs. Linda J. Evans
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The Anderson portrait inspired British opera singer Peter Brathwaite to create his own version of it as part of the 2020 Getty Museum Challenge to use everyday items at home to recreate a work of art. He launched his own project called "Rediscovering Black Portraiture" and recreated 93 works with amazing results.
Brathwaite poses in all his renditions of classic portraits of black people, from Mansa Musa to Barack Obama. Women were not off limits - he recreated portraits of the Queen of Sheba, the Virgin of Guadelupe, and other women in addition to Marian Anderson.
Brathwaite painted a raincoat to reproduce Anderson's jacket and painted his face to resemble the hue of Anderson's skin in Beauford's portrait. (No mention is made of whether he was aware of Beauford's raincoat painting, which is held by the Minneapolis Institute of Art.)
He created an 8-part tweet from the information posted about the reproduction on his Website.
To see the diptych of the photo of Brathwaite as Marian Anderson and the image of Beauford's portrait of her, click HERE.
Les Amis Celebrates Women's History Month - Part 1
March is Women's History Month and International Women's Day will be celebrated in just two days.
This year, Les Amis is celebrating Women's History Month by spotlighting Beauford's paintings of various women.
Beauford's mother, Delia, was by far the most important woman in Beauford's life. I featured her in two Les Amis blog posts:
Delia Delaney - Beauford's Beloved Mother
Happy Birthday, Delia Delaney!
and have published images of Beauford's portraits of her many times.
My favorite is the 1933 pastel that is held by the Knoxville Museum of Art.
Portrait of Delia Delaney
(1933) Pastel on paper
Knoxville Museum of Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
In Paris, several women supported Beauford with their friendship and financial resources.
Solange du Closel was a staunch patron and supporter, going so far as to provide Beauford with his living space / studio from 1962 to 1975.
Mme du Closel No. 4
(1972) Pastel on paper
G. R. N'Namdi Gallery
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Darthea Speyer became a primary conduit for the sale of Beauford's work after the two met in 1956.
Darthea
(1965) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Galerie Darthea Speyer
Geneviève Brouard was a friend and patron who frequently invited Beauford to her home to dine.
Portrait of Geneviève Brouard
(1964) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image by Discover Paris!
Beauford's Studio - Scenes from "Meeting the Man"
I was thrilled to learn that the recently restored short documentary called "Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris" contains footage shot inside Beauford's rue Vercingétorix studio.
As the camera pans around the small room, you see Baldwin, Beauford, Baldwin's brother David, and several young people sitting or lounging on what appears to be a bed.
The chair that Baldwin sits in is draped in white cloth, which is characteristic of Beauford's habit of covering surfaces in his living space with white to increase the light available for painting.
The walls are covered with Beauford's paintings.
An additional work, which leans against a wall to Baldwin's left, presents two figurative beings, one of which has a luminous eye that reminds me of the eye in the image of the painting shown below.
(1965) Oil on canvas
Private Collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
View two <2-minute clips from the 27-minute documentary at the links below.
Lives in Art: Discussions on Beauford and Joseph Delaney
Top row: Jared Sprecher (L) and Mary Campbell (R)
Bottom: Fred Moffatt
UT Associate Professor Mary Campbell discusses Beauford, Professor Emeritus Fred Moffatt discusses Joseph, and Professor Jared Sprecher discusses both brothers.
Campbell gives a fascinating presentation about Beauford, including a detailed discussion of the derivation of the name of Beauford's first portrait of James Baldwin - Dark Rapture.
Dark Rapture
(1941) Oil on masonite
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Watch the entire discussion here:
https://vimeo.com/513051130