Swann Auction Galleries Auctions Brilliant Blue Beauford Delaney Gouache
On April 6, 2023, Swann Auction Galleries auctioned the abstract work shown below.
(1956) Gouache on illustration board
724x540 mm; 28 1/2x21 1/4 inches
Signed and dated in ink, lower right
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford painted this work when he lived in the Paris suburb of Clamart. Hues of blue predominate, which makes me recall a statement James Baldwin made about the window of the Clamart apartment that Beauford's biographer, David Leeming, quoted in Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney:
... a kind of universe, moaning and wailing when it rained, black and bitter when it thundered, hesitant and delicate with the first light of morning, and as blue as the blues when the last light of sun departed.
Leeming described works that Beauford showed at the Galerie Arnaud and the Galerie Prisme in early 1956 as "abstractions marked by large areas of paint applied thickly in swirls and various colors--blues, pinks, softer colors than those of the Greene Street period." This work "matches" that description.
Swann's Website indicates that Beauford worked on board in the mid-1950s for only a short time and that his later gouaches were typically done on paper. The estimated sale price for this work on illustration board was $35,000 - $50,000.
The abstract sold for $60,000, including Buyer's Premium (the hammer price was $48,000).
Beauford and Tchaikovsky
In Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, biographer David A. Leeming notes that Beauford wrote notes in which he compared his life to that of composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Tchaikovsky was a gay man who lived as a bachelor for much of his life and left his first and only marriage after two and a half months. Beauford wrote about Tchaikovsky's "sad experiences" and "the analogy of the sentiments and emotional need resident in my own consciousness resolving itself to accepting the inevitable responsibilities ... and the acceptance of one's destiny ..."
Beauford loved classical music and I imagine that he may have listened to recordings of Tchaikovsky compositions while penning the thoughts above. In today's blog, I'm sharing excerpts from some of Tchaikovsky's most famous works and pairing Beauford Delaney abstracts with them. Click on the links in the captions to listen to the music.
(1962) Mixed media on paper
Signed, dated, and dedicated at bottom right
74 x 53.5 cm
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Paired with "Swan Lake (Swan Theme)"
(c. 1955) Pastel on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Paired with "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"
(1970) Gouache
© Artistes sans Frontières/Douglas Petrovic, 2004
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Paired with "Enchanted Lake"
Untitled (raincoat painting)
(1954) Oil on raincoat fragment
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo courtesy of Sue Canterbury
Paired with
"Piano Concerto No. 1 In B Flat Minor, Op. 23, TH.55 - 1. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso"
(1963) Watercolor on thick wove paper
660 x 508 mm; 26 x 20 inches
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Paired with "Waltz of the Flowers"
Metamorphosis into Freedom at the Institut Giacometti
On 4 March 2023 I published an article about Metamorphosis into Freedom, the itinerant art exhibition organized by the Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA).
On 29 March 2023, the Institut Giacometti Ecole des Modernités is hosting the organizer of this exhibition, Barbara A. and Bernard E. Bernstein Curator Stephen Wicks, for a virtual presentation of the same name. Wicks will present an overview of Beauford's career and then focus on Beauford's studio practice during and after his move to France.
Blue-Light Abstraction (detail)(c. 1962) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Wicks has led KMA's curatorial department for more than twenty-five years. He manages the museum's exhibition program and oversees the development of its collections of East Tennessee-related art and international contemporary art. He was instrumental in helping the KMA build the world’s largest and most comprehensive public collection of Knoxville-born painter Beauford Delaney’s works of art.
In December 2021, I published a two-part article* in which Wicks and Professor Rachel Cohen discuss one of Beauford's portraits of James Baldwin. As part of the conversation, Wicks describes how he found a sketch of Alberto Giacometti in one of Beauford's sketchbooks and mentions that Beauford knew Giacometti. I imagine that Wicks will delve more deeply into the connection between the two men during his presentation.
The Institut Giacometti's Ecole des Modernités is an art history program created to enhance understanding of the decisive period in which Giacometti lived and worked. Invited international art historians and curators present new research that sheds new light on a period of modern art history through the original study of an artist, movement, or context. A large part of the program's focus is on non-French artists who moved to Paris to pursue their work.
The "Metamorphosis into Freedom" conference will be held on March 29 at 12:30 PM Eastern Time / 6:30 PM Paris time.
To register, click HERE.
*Stephen Wicks and Rachel Cohen Discuss Baldwin Portrait - Part 1
Stephen Wicks and Rachel Cohen Discuss Baldwin Portrait - Part 2
Les Amis Reminisces about Spring Postings
It's becoming a habit ...
Posting about springtime on the blog each year ...
This year, my February post was early, but it was aligned with this spirit.
It also inspired me to search the blog archives to remind myself of what I've posted in previous years.
Here are the links to this year's post and to posts from 2021 and 2022:
Early Spring at Sainte Anne's Hospital
And here are images a few more Beauford Delaney works that make me think of spring!
Oil on canvas
51 1/8 x 38 1/8 inches (130 x 97 cm)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Watercolor on paper
Signed and dated lower left in red ink, "Beauford Delaney 1971"
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo courtesy of Case Antiques
Oil on canvas
51 x 38 inches
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of the Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina
Metamorphosis into Freedom at the Hunter Museum of American Art
Metamorphosis into Freedom is a traveling exhibition organized by the Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA).* Featuring more than 40 paintings and works on paper, this show examines the evolution of Beauford's career within the context of his 38-year friendship with James Baldwin.
Inspired by KMA's extraordinary exhibition entitled Through the Unusual Door, it explores the ways that Beauford and Baldwin’s ongoing intellectual exchange shaped one another’s creative output and worldview.
Metamorphosis Into Freedom was shown at the Asheville Art Museum in Asheville, NC from April 2 to June 21, 2022. It is now on view at the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, TN, where visitors will be able to enjoy it through May 1, 2023.
The Hunter Museum chose Beauford's Untitled (Abstract Circles) to represent the exhibition on its Website.
(1956) Pastel on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It has organized an impressive series of events that are inspired by the show:
On March 9, it is offering a workshop in partnership program with CHI Memorial's Art Therapies & Well Being Program that focuses on teen mental health, identity and sexuality with the intent to explore health and social justice in the Chattanooga community.
On March 16, Stephen Wicks, the Barbara A. and Bernard E. Bernstein Curator of the Knoxville Museum of Art and exhibition organizer, will give an in-gallery tour of the exhibit and offer insights into the artist and his works.
On March 23, the museum has organized a poetic exploration of Beauford and Baldwin's friendship that will include remarks from Ricardo Morris, founder of the Chattanooga Festival of Black Arts & Ideas.
On April 15, a virtual event celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Hunter’s Student Symposium will explore the topic of "Intersecting Queerness." Featuring the work of nationwide undergraduate students (Louisville, Temple, University of Tennessee Chattanooga, and Yale), each presentation will offer insight into the next generation of thought leaders.
And on April 27, a program entitled "'Dimension' Fusing Vision Art And Performance" will feature dance photography and spoken word performances.
With the exception of the in-gallery tour, for which regular admission fees to the museum apply, all events are free and open to the public.
For more information, visit Hunter Museum of Art: Metamorphosis into Freedom
*KMA owns the largest and most comprehensive public collection of Beauford’s art in the world.
Early Spring at Sainte-Anne's Hospital
On a brilliant, sunny day earlier this week, my husband Tom and I took a stroll through the grounds at Sainte-Anne's Hospital - Beauford's final residence. We visit from time to time to enjoy the peaceful gardens and imagine Beauford enjoying them as well.
It has been unseasonably warm in Paris this year, and we hoped to find a multitude of colors and shapes in the flower beds and beneath the trees (some of which also flower) of the 7 hectares of green space that is managed by a team of 7 gardeners throughout the year.
We were a tad too early for this - there were loads of plants with green shoots in the beds along the main road that borders Parc Charles Baudelaire, but not as many flowers as we had hoped. We did find crocuses and snowdrops in abundance and the first daffodils of the season in this area.
Parc Charles Baudelaire - view from the street
© Entrée to Black Paris
Parc Charles Baudelaire - view from rear of park
© Entrée to Black Paris
Crocuses in Parc Charles Baudelaire
© Entrée to Black Paris
First daffodils
© Entrée to Black Paris
Snowdrops
© Entrée to Black Paris
A flowering tree in this park had lost almost all its flowers.
Bare flowering tree
© Entrée to Black Paris
Fallen flowers
© Entrée to Black Paris
Beauford would have been excited to see the vivid red of these English daisies.
English daisies
© Entrée to Black Paris
There was a fresh planting of pansies next to the lion statue in the park as well as around the sculpture of Daphne that is found in front of the pharmacy.
Pansies next to lion statue
© Entrée to Black Paris
Pansies next to lion statue - close-up
© Entrée to Black Paris
Flowers at the base of Daphne sculpture
© Entrée to Black Paris
A few poppies had also emerged at Daphne's base.
Poppies at the base of Daphne sculpture
© Entrée to Black Paris
Elsewhere on the grounds, we found a single cluster of white hyacinth along the covered walkway leading to the biology lab.
White hyacinth
© Entrée to Black Paris
We found that trees and bushes near the chapel had pushed out buds and early flowers.
Flowering shrub
© Entrée to Black Paris
Sumac
© Entrée to Black Paris
Ornamental cabbages and a single pink hyacinth are growing in a wall planter near the rue Alesia entrance.
Ornamental cabbage and pink hyacinth
© Entrée to Black Paris
And we found a tree full of white flowers in front of the Benjamin Ball pavilion, which may be where Beauford's room was located.
White flowering tree
© Entrée to Black Paris
A cold spell is due to sweep through Paris next week, so we'll wait a while before returning for another dose of spring.
Read previous articles about Sainte-Anne's Hospital by clicking on the links below:
Beauford's Paris: Sainte-Anne's Hospital - Part 1
Beauford's Paris: Sainte-Anne's Hospital - Part 2
Beauford's Paris: Saint Anne's Hospital - Part 3
Sainte Anne's Hospital: An Oasis of Calm
Beauford Delaney Research Grant - 2023 Application Period Is Now Open
1953 - Carl Van Vechten
In 2021, the Bourse Beauford Delaney-Villa Albertine (Beauford Delaney Research Grant) was launched as a collaboration between Villa Albertine and the Institut national d'histoire de l'art (INHA). Supported by the Ford Foundation, it funds travel and other expenses related to research projects on African-American art undertaken by France-based academics and scholars.
Les Amis covered the launch of the prize in a two-part article in May 2021. Find the links below:
Beauford Delaney Research Grant - Part 1
Beauford Delaney Research Grant - Part 2
The winner of the first award was Vanina Géré of France. Her project was entitled "Hacking Control Devices": Contemporary African-American Political Digital Practices (and Beyond).
The winner of the 2022 award was Paul-Aimé William of Guyane. The title of his project was "James Amos Porter, Historiographie and Humanities of African-American Art".
On Thursday, February 16, 2023 I received an email from the Studies and Research Department at l'INHA announcing that the field is now open for applications for the 2023 edition of the grant:
Call for Applications (Web page is in French and in English).
This year's $20,000 award is reserved for established researchers.
Applications must be submitted by April 18, 2023.
A Close(r) Look at Can Fire in the Park
On Thursday, February 9, 2023, the National Portrait Gallery hosted an online event called "In Dialogue: Smithsonian Objects and Social Justice."
It was one of a series of monthly events through which educators from the National Portrait Gallery partner with colleagues from across the Smithsonian to discuss how historical objects from their respective collections speak to today’s social justice issues.
This most recent dialogue featured Beauford's Can Fire in the Park, juxtaposing it with a haunting photographic self-portrait by LaToya Ruby Frazier. Both works were discussed with the intent to explore the following question:
"How does a community sustain well-being in the face of systemic inequity?"
The conversation began with an evaluation of Can Fire in the Park, painted during Beauford's New York years.
(1946) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The moderators asked attendees to type in the chat what they saw in the painting.
Responses included "silhouetted figures," "warmth," "circles," "lots of vibrant colors," and "heavy, with layers of design."
The moderators then asked attendees to type how the painting made them feel.
Responses included "hopeful," "a bit of sadness," "isolation," and "inequity and solidarity at the same time."
The more comments I read, the more my view of Can Fire began to shift. I realized that I had never truly examined the elements of this celebrated work.
I took advantage of the link provided by the Smithsonian to look at an image of the work on its Website, and I spent a lot of time using the zoom function to look at parts of the painting I had only skimmed over before.
One of the comments referred to the possibility that the scene was set on a basketball court. I realized that I had never paid attention to the red lines on the ground behind the group huddled around the can.
(1946) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
I looked at the fire that gives the painting its name. For the first time, I saw what appears to be a circular object at the top of the can, the edges of which Beauford traced in vivid blue. Though the body of the can is glowing, the fire seems to emerge from this orb-like structure.
(1946) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
I looked at the two human figures at the periphery of the group. Both have their arms crossed and both seem distant from the four people in the center. I always considered their arms to be folded because they were cold. But in looking at the painting through the lens of community, I now wonder if they are strangers to the people gathered around the can.
Another possibility is that they are standing guard so the people next to the fire can warm themselves undisturbed.
The person at the far left of the painting is well splattered with yellow. Perhaps light is shining on this figure, and perhaps the irregularly shaped caramel brown figure between this person and the short upward pointing arrow represents a shadow.
(1946) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
I had always viewed the humans in the paintings as men. That night, for the first time, I thought that the person immediately to the right of the can might be a woman. The curved gold line atop the head (possibly a scarf or large ribbon) seems to wind its way down to the chest and torso of this person, and the curvature at the chest evokes a bustline. The broad strokes moving up and away from the face may represent a hair style - perhaps a large braid.
(1946) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Because of the height of the person immediately to "her" right, this figure may represent a teen or a large child.
(1946) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Then there is the figure standing at the left of the group of four people who are closest to the can. It is almost entirely outlined in yellow-gold.
Might this be a representation of Beauford himself?
(1946) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Beauford's Pastel Portrait of a Man Sold by Case Antiques
A couple of weeks ago, I announced that Beauford's Portrait of a Man would be auctioned by Case Antiques on January 28-29, 2023:
Pastel Portrait of a Man to Be Auctioned by Case Antiques
Pastel on wove paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Case Antiques
The auction produced a fantastic result — the work sold for $48,000, including buyer's premium (hammer price: $40,000), which far exceeded the estimated sales price of $10,000 - $12,000.
Sarah Campbell Drury, Vice President of Fine and Decorative Arts at Case Antiques, said the following about the sale:
"As you know, Delaney is one of the few African American Abstract Expressionists to hail from the South, and interest in his work has been steadily rising in recent years. We believe this is a record price for a Delaney portrait on paper. The buyer was a private collector bidding in the room."
The Knoxville News Sentinel covered the auction with what might be described as exuberance. Journalist Devarrick Turner published an article on January 27 entitled "Place your bid! Here’s how you can own a Beauford Delaney original portrait," providing information about the work, instructions on how and where to bid, background information on Beauford and the future Delaney Museum at Beck, and images of additional Beauford Delaney works.
Turner followed up on the sale by publishing an article entitled "Beauford Delaney's 'Portrait of a Man' Shatters Auction Sale Price Expectations."
Knoxville's local ABC news affiliate, WATE, also published an in-depth article prior to the sale and updated its story with the auction result.
Dolan/Maxwell Shows Beauford Abstract at The Winter Show
The Winter Show, America’s premiere art, antiques, and design fair, brings together the world's leading fine and decorative arts dealers. The fair was founded by East Side House Settlement in 1954 to raise critical funds to support tens of thousands of New Yorkers who are most in need.
East Side House is a community-based organization serving the Bronx and Northern Manhattan; its programs focus on education and technology as gateways out of poverty and as the keys to economic opportunity. All ticket sales proceeds from The Winter Show provide unrestricted funds for East Side House's life-changing programs.
Dolan/Maxwell Gallery is showing rare and important works by Modern African American masters, including Romare Bearden, Robert Blackburn, Ed Clark, and Dox Thrash, at the fair.
The luscious Beauford Delaney abstract shown below is one of them.
(1960) Oil on canvas
Private collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Dolan/Maxwell Gallery
Ron Rumford, Director at Dolan/Maxwell, comments on this painting as follows:
Beauford Delaney’s non-objective yellow canvases made soon after he established himself in Paris each have very distinct, rich surfaces. Untitled 1960 is notable for its creamy paint textures and soft, closely modulated palette of greens, yellows, hints of orange and very pale greys. Delaney’s use of color is structural and patterns not unlike camouflage seem to almost emerge.
Alas, no set pattern exists, and the very buttery paint has seduced our eyes, leading our gaze over and all around the lush surface. Untitled 1960 is a luminous painting with a quiet, almost spiritual glow that has been carefully coaxed into being with each of Delaney’s expressive brushstrokes.This painting is also distinctive in that Delaney has included his Paris address “Clamart Seine France 68 R P V Couturier”, along with his signature and year of creation on the back of this quietly powerful canvas.
Image courtesy of Dolan/Maxwell Gallery
The Winter Show at the Park Avenue Armory continues through Sunday, January 29, 2023.
For more information about the show, click HERE.
To learn about Dolan/Maxwell at The Winter Show, click HERE.
A Unique Take on Still Lifes
I've written about Beauford's Untitled (Grape Motif) here many times.
(1946/1960) Pastel on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
I first learned of this work in 2013, when Ron Rumford, Director of Dolan/Maxwell informed me that the gallery was placing it up for sale.
In 2015, I had the privilege of viewing the work myself, when Rumford took me to see it hanging in the office of Dr. William A. Dodd in Center City Philadelphia.
It has changed hands a few times since then and was shown at Art Basel Miami 2022 by the Schoelkopf Gallery.
It is now in a private collection.
For the longest time, the striking jagged, colorful lines surrounding the grapes in this work reminded me of another Beauford Delaney creation that I couldn't quite place in my mind.
I finally took the time to look for an image of the second work - and I found it in my digital folder devoted to works held by the Whitney Museum of American Art.
(1950) Pastel on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Whitney Museum of American Art
I asked Rumford and the Schoelkopf Gallery to comment on the obvious similarities between the two works.
Rumford had the following to say:
It is wonderful to learn of the Whitney’s Beauford Delaney pastel with mushrooms and leaves. We did not know of it when we had the still life with grapes pastel.Erin O'Neill, Director of Research at the Schoelkopf Gallery, responded as follows:Surrounding rather humble subjects with radiating, dynamic zigging and zagging color is a unique approach to still life. Discovering a similar example of this way of working is very satisfying.
This work also calls to mind a 1952 oil we sold some 20 years ago with an African sculpture as the still life subject.
Untitled (African sculpture)
(1952) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Dolan/MaxwellThese three works show Delaney moving away from drawing or painting from the approach of observing objects within and relating to their setting.
Surely the sculpture, mushrooms, leaves and grapes are observed. Surrounding the chosen objects with electric color and forms that break from rational space move these works into another realm of expression having more to do with feeling than recording what is seen.
I also find it interesting that these works were made just before Beauford Delaney leaves New York for Paris.*
While this work was produced in 1960, when Delaney resided in Paris, the concentric outlines harken back to a similar motif Delaney explored in another untitled pastel he made a decade earlier, now held in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art (1950).
Embodying the space between representation and abstraction, in the 1950 pastel, Delaney reimagined a classic modernist subject, a still life of mushrooms and botanicals, and injected it with a nonfigurative sense of color and form. The vegetation becomes electrified as the jagged outline of the leaves repeats itself, echoing outwards until bouncing off of the composition's edges.
In the 1960 example, Delaney advanced his investigation into this motif, but instead used grapes and softened the edges between the bands of color. These pastels convey Delaney's prowess for color and creation.
Form is not the only modernist element employed rhythmically in the works, color is also reiterated diversely—for instance, in the 1960 composition, the orange pastel is used as a band of color at the left of the pictorial field, as a sinuous contour towards the work's center, and as articulated highlights on the rounded forms of the grapes and their stems.
*After discussion with curators and among themselves regarding the style of Untitled (Grape Motif), Dolan/Maxwell determined that it was more consistent with works Beauford created in the 1940s. They believe Beauford may have signed and dated it much later than he actually created it.
Pastel Portrait of a Man to Be Auctioned by Case Antiques
Beauford's Portrait of a Man will be auctioned by Case Antiques on January 28-29, 2023.
The Two-Day Winter Fine Art, Antique, and Jewelry Auction will take place at the Knoxville Gallery, Knoxville, TN beginning at 9 AM Eastern Time on Saturday, January 28 and at 1 PM Eastern Time on Sunday, January 29.
This unsigned, undated work on paper has been assigned Lot No. 145. It comes directly from the Beauford Delaney estate. The subject of the portrait is unknown.
Pastel on wove paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Case Antiques
Pastel on wove paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Pastel on wove paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Pastel on wove paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
For more information about the auction, click HERE.
Beauford's Man in African Dress in Cape Town
For what may be the first time, a Beauford Delaney work is on display on the African continent!
I plan to investigate this possibility further, but for now, suffice it to say that Beauford's Man in African Dress (ca. 1970) is being shown at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art in Cape Town, South Africa.
The exhibition entitled When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting opened on November 20, 2022. (The title derives from Ava DuVernay's 2019 miniseries When They See Us.) The museum describes the show as exploring "how artists from Africa and the African diaspora have reimagined, repositioned, memorialised and asserted themselves throughout the 20th and 21st centuries..."
Swiss-Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh says the show "places Black self-representation front and centre."
Beauford's Man in African Dress is on loan to the exhibition from the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery.*
Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC
New York, NY
According to journalist Sean O'Toole's report in Wallpaper.com, it hangs near the midpoint of the exhibition and is "a fitting place to pause and draw one’s breath in preparedness for the thrilling surprises still to come."
Find a Les Amis article that spotlights this painting HERE.
When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting will run through September 3, 2023.
*Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC is Special Advisor and Representative of the Estate of Beauford Delaney.
Holiday reds and greens
Christmas is upon us and Kwanzaa begins immediately thereafter. Reds and greens (and black for Kwanzaa) are the hallmark colors of the season.
In celebration of the holidays, I'm bringing you two Beauford Delaney abstracts that are ablaze with red and green and accentuated with 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
(1971) Oil on corrugated cardboard
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image supplied by Levis Fine Art Gallery
Les Amis wishes you and yours much love and joy during this most wonderful time of the year!
In Search of Purple
Yesterday morning, I awakened to the thought that I couldn't remember ever seeing a Beauford Delaney work in which the dominant color was purple.
Of course, there are numerous shades of purple, and of course, Beauford used purple as an accentuating color in scores of paintings.
But I was hard pressed to come up with a mental image of a painting or work on paper that "screamed purple."
So I set about looking at my digital catalog to see if I could find at least one.
I never did.
But here are some images of several works that came close - either Beauford painted a single large area with purple or he used this color as the dominant accent for the work.
(1948) Pastel on paper
23 ¼ x 19 ¾ inches
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Knoxville Museum of Art, purchase with funds provided by the KMA Collectors Circle with additional gifts from Barbara Apking, June and Rob Heller, Donna Kerr, Alexandra Rosen and Donald Cooney, Ted Smith and David Butler, Mimi and Milton Turner, John Cotham, Jan and Pete Crawford, Cathy and Mark Hill, Florence and Russell Johnston, John Z. C. Thomas, Donna and Terry Wertz, Jayne and Myron Ely, Sarah Stowers, Robin and Joe Ben Turner, and Jacqueline Wilson
G. R. N’Namdi Gallery
(1964) Pastel on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1960) Pastel on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1950) Oil on canvas
Image from Pomegranate Note Card
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
1969, Oil on canvas
65 x 54 cm; 25.6" x 21.2"
Private collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Grievances from a Soul of Sorrow
It sold for $53,125.
(1962-1964) Gouache on paper
Signed and dated "Paris, 1964"
Inscribed: "for Amy(?) Erica + Tully, Paris August 20, 1962, with fond regards"
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The date range for this work aroused my curiosity. Beauford showed ten abstract gouaches in a 1964 Copenhagen exhibition called 10 American Negro Artists, and I wondered if this may have been one of them.
Also, the online image of this work struck a chord in me.
I found it to be particularly vibrant, and I wanted to do something special when I posted about it here.
Enter Marteena Mendelssohn, a junior at the American University of Paris (AUP) who is serving as the autumn intern for the Wells International Foundation.
Marteena is a Creative Writing major and Film minor, and she has expressed interest in learning more about Beauford.
So, I invited her to have a look at some of the creative writing done by some of her intern predecessors (two of whom were also AUP students) and write some prose or poetry about this work on paper.
Find the resulting poem below.
Grievances from a Soul of Sorrow
by Marteena Mendelssohn
To move forward
so we dig and we build and we move
with dark
bodies and light voices that pave way into the black night blundering us into bits of bodies until our brown eyes turn into crimson blood on the backside of a painted canvas that’ll never see the day
break
Me
into the world of the unknown.
You or I refuse to see, it is our faith in the light that allows us to be
u
s
so.
Take our light take our truth
But don’t take us back to the starting line.
Beauford at Art Basel Miami 2022
Visitors to Art Basel Miami 2022 can revel in the splendor of Beauford's work!
The Schoelkopf Gallery is displaying one of my favorite works on paper, Untitled (Grape Motif). This piece is being shown alongside works by other artists who the gallery describes as having ... reinvented conventional genres such as landscape and still life through new lenses...
(1960) Pastel on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
See these works HERE.
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery* is displaying thirteen of Beauford's paintings and works on paper. Created between 1952 and c. 1970, all but one of the works are from Beauford's Paris period.
Two are portraits of Beauford's mother, Delia, and his friend, Bernard Hassell,
(1964) Oil on canvas
Knoxville Museum of Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(c. 1970) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
and one is a figurative painting of an island.
The rest are of the works are abstracts.
See the entire selection HERE.
Today is the last day to visit Art Basel Miami.
You can find the Schoelkopf Gallery at Booth C2 and the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery at Booth G1.
Art Basel | Miami Beach
Miami Beach Convention Center
1901 Convention Center Drive
Miami Beach, FL 33139
Website: https://www.artbasel.com/miami-beach/at-the-show
*Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC is Special Advisor and Representative of the Estate of Beauford Delaney.
Beauford's Portrait of Mary Painter
Ever since I published the following 2012 articles about Beauford and his friendship with Mary Painter:
Beauford and Mary PainterBeauford's Paris: Rue des Carmes,
I've been searching for a portrait that Beauford did of Painter. Because of his proclivity for sketching and painting the people he loved, I felt strongly that he must have captured Painter's likeness on canvas.
Thanks to a recent introduction to Painter's niece, Carolyn Wells, my search may be over!
Mary Painter (?)
(1967-69) Oil on canvas
Signed and dated lower right: Beauford Delaney 1969
Signed, dated and inscribed verso:
Beauford Delaney / 1967 / Paris / France
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
Wells told me that the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery (MRG)* might have a portrait of her aunt, so I inquired there. The gallery sent me the image shown above, accompanied by a document that provides the provenance and a painterly description of the work, as well as information about Painter.
MRG acquired the painting from the Beauford Delaney estate and conducted research to identify Painter as the subject. They spoke with Wells, who told me it seems very likely that the person in the painting is Painter.
They have a photo of Painter, contributed by Wells, that shows Painter's hair flowing over her shoulders similar to the way Beauford has depicted the woman in this painting. Wells confirms that her aunt had long red hair.
Photo reproduced with the permission of Carolyn Wells
The rear of the painting bears the following information on the stretcher:
Property of M et Mme Jim Legros / Chaville, France
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
Jim and Bunny LeGros were dear friends of Beauford, and the Les Amis blog has featured them in multiple posts over the years. They lived in the Paris suburb of Vélizy, for which the nearest train station is Gare de Chaville-Vélizy.
Unfortunately, Beauford did not write Painter's name on this work.
*Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC is Special Advisor and Representative of the Estate of Beauford Delaney.
Gathering Strength from Sprituals
As temperatures fall in Paris and the city heads toward winter, I am reminded of Beauford's first autumn and winter in Paris in 1953.
Biographer David Leeming writes poignantly of this time, which was particularly cold and difficult. He reports that Beauford copied the lyrics of several songs in his sketchbooks "as if to keep the critical voices at bay," and names four in particular: "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen," "Steal Away to Jesus," "In That Great Getting Up Morning," and "Fix Me Jesus."
I went online to search for recordings of these spirituals and am sharing powerful renditions of them that I believe he would have appreciated.
Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
Performed by Mahalia Jackson
Steal Away to Jesus
Performed by the Fisk Jubilee Singers
In That Great Getting Up Morning
Performed by Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle
Fix Me Jesus
Performed by the Alvin Ailey Dancers
Maestro Beauford Delaney - A Tribute by Joel Crooms
Joel M. Crooms commented on a recent Entrée to Black Paris Facebook post about the works auctioned during Christie's "Istanbul Calling" sale as follows:
Beauford was my inspiration as a young artist studying in NYC and New Jersey during the seventies and today! The brilliance of his colors is so powerful. At that time, minimalist and color field artists were big in the NYC area, but Mr Delaney’s colors far outshine those works ... in the process greatly affecting me, exciting me! The yellows!
Beauford Delaney portraits auctioned by Christie's London
This led to an email exchange, which culminated in the interview below.
Les Amis: How and when did you first learn about Beauford's work?
JC: I first learned of Beauford's work at the Studio Museum in Harlem. It was a retrospective of his work in nineteen seventy-eight (1978).
Beauford Delaney: A Retrospective catalog cover
Les Amis: What makes his colors "far outshine" the works by the minimalist and color field artists of the 70s?
JC: Minimalism was the rave during my time as a young artist in Manhattan of the seventies. The professed cold intellectualist nonspiritual objective approach yielded work I could appreciate on that basis. So, I dove right in. But I felt a need to find a model akin to me and my creative life. I would haunt the streets of Harlem, devouring all black culture there - visual art, theater, dance, politics, history, bookstores, and religious institutions.
I walked through the Studio Museum’s doors, and I saw art by Black Artists! The Delaney retrospective was down but there were still pieces hanging. I walked upstairs and on this floor I saw Beauford’s work. Portraits first, street scenes next, and then, the abstractions. Those Yellows, there were greens and some reds.
For me though, it was and still is those yellows. Bright, brighter than bright! Emotive spiritual heat. So much light. Executed with skill, technique and passion. Not just some mechanical exercise, Beauford lit the way!
Les Amis: How prevalent was knowledge of Beauford's work among your fellow students during the time you were studying art?
JC: Beauford was a non-entity to the students at the institutions I attended.
Les Amis: How prevalent was knowledge of his work among your professors and mentors during the time you were studying art?
JC: If professors knew of Mr. Delaney they did not share that knowledge or were too culturally chauvinistic to acknowledge the work. I did have an art associate who introduced me to Alice Neel, a woman portrait artist who referred me to Beauford s work and encouraged me to continue my artwork.
Les Amis: How prevalent is knowledge of his work amongst your artist peers today?
JC: Many of my current peers know of Beauford Delaney's work thanks to efforts of the Studio Museum, the Smithsonian, and organizations like Les Amis Beauford Delaney.
Les Amis: (How) does Beauford's artistic style influence yours?
JC: It’s the light, along with Rembrandt’s chiaroscuro. The glazing techniques of illustrators like Maxfield Parish. Beauford's striking results heavily influence my analog, digital, and projection work.
Les Amis: Do you have a preference for his figurative versus his abstract works or for works he created during a specific period of his career (New York versus Paris)?
JC: Initially I preferred Beauford’s abstractions. However, as I look, I see the abstract aspects in his figurative and landscape work (Street Scenes).
Les Amis: You mentioned Beauford's yellows in your original comments. Please tell us why you find them so exciting.
JC: Beauford's yellows burn, illuminate, vibrate the space they occupy. In my current digital work experiments I attempt to master that.
Les Amis: Your biography states that all your work is political. Do you "see politics" in Beauford's work? If so, in what way(s)?
JC: Beauford’s very existence at the time he practiced his art and ventured to explore the practice of art, let alone abstraction, as the world around him denied his very humanity - let alone his and others' creative capabilities - is a powerful political statement.
Even though Beauford's expat situation did not end well, he took a popular path to find a better life free of constraints.
Les Amis: Your biography states that your work speaks to cosmopolitan / universal issues. Do you believe Beauford's work does this as well? If so, in what way(s)?
JC: Of course, Beauford created works of art that speak to the human condition ... the figure, the landscape and the psyche.
Les Amis: What do you know about Beauford's life story? Do you find any similarities between his story and yours?
JC: At first, I knew little if anything at all about Beauford’s life. As I learned about it, my first thoughts were that it was tragic. But as I've lived and seen the lives of many of my peers come to similar conclusions - I realize that there are triumphant aspects to his and their journey. I appreciate the lessons learned from them that helped me find positive alternatives.
Les Amis: Any final thoughts you'd like to share?
JC: If it weren’t for Beauford Delaney, the world would be a poorer place. He brought his own light. I for one am indebted and thankful for the lessons and possibilities he gave ... and most of all, the JOY.
Thank you, Maestro Beauford Delaney!
Joel M. Crooms
Image courtesy of Joel M. Crooms