Traveling to Knoxville
Today, I'm pleased to announce that I'm traveling to Beauford's hometown of Knoxville, TN next week.
As a result of my interactions with key representatives of the University of Tennessee Libraries last summer, I was invited to the GeoSym conference at the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK).
The title of my presentation is "Beauford's Odyssey: Art, Travel, and Expatriation."
While in town, I will visit the Knoxville Museum of Art to see their entire collection of Beauford's work (minus the pieces that are currently on loan).
I will also spend several days researching the Beauford Delaney Papers in support of the Beauford Delaney exhibition that UT Libraries will host at its facility in Autumn 2025.
This research will also support a project that the Wells International Foundation and UTK are working on together. It will focus on Beauford's acts of creating art as a way of coping with his mental health issues.
Look for the Les Amis blog to return in early March 2025.
Beauford in the Patricia Scipio-Brim Collection
Patricia Scipio-Brim was an avid collector of postwar and contemporary Black art focusing on abstraction. On February 6, 2025, Swann Auction Galleries hosted a sale of works from her collection.
Among them were two works on paper by Beauford.
Untitled (Abstraction in Yellow, Blue and Red)
(1961) Watercolor on wove paper
655x503 mm; 25⅞x19⅞ inches
Signed and dated in ink, lower right
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Untitled (Clamart, Seine)
(1958) Watercolor and gouache on wove paper
654x508 mm; 25¾x20 inches
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The yellow, blue, and red abstraction is dated 1961, the year Beauford attempted suicide. Biographer David Leeming wrote that friends took Beauford to San Telmo, Spain after his return from his traumatic trip to Greece and that with the help of Bernice O'Reilly and Gita Boggs, he "managed to maintain a certain calm, and even began to do some watercolors."
Perhaps this work reflects a lightening of his spirit during that time.
The estimated sale price of this work was $30,000 - $40,000.
It sold for ???
The green and blue abstract is dated 1958.
The words "Clamart, Seine" beneath Beauford's signature could easily signify two important events that took place during the summer of that year - the arrival of James and Gloria Jones in Paris (they lived on the Ile Saint-Louis in the middle of the Seine River) and the return of James Baldwin to Clamart.
Beauford spent a great deal of time with all three of them, and the Joneses commissioned several paintings from him.
This abstract was part of the collection of Gloria Jones. Its estimated sale price was $20,000 - $30,000.
It sold for ???
Case Auction Results for Beauford Delaney Watercolor and Catalogs
On January 25, 2025, Case Auctions of Knoxville, TN auctioned a single abstract watercolor and four Beauford Delaney catalogs from the estate of John Z.C. Thomas during Day 1 of its 2025 Winter Fine Art & Antiques sale.
Untitled
(1958) Watercolor on paper
Signed "Beauford Delaney," inscribed "Clamart"
Dated 1958 in black pen, lower right
25"x 18 3/4"
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
As indicated in the blog post announcing the sale two weeks ago, I believe Beauford painted this work during one of his happy periods in 1958. David Leeming describes several of these in Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney—the release of two cases of his paintings stored in New York, a trip to the south to visit René Laubiès, participation in a group show in Germany, a peaceful summer in Clamart with James Baldwin ....
A quote from a letter Beauford wrote to Larry Wallrich in June 1958 may well describe what Beauford wanted to accomplish with this work: "Am today still trying to bring together color compositions from the strange and many-faceted thing that is my life."
The cost estimate for the watercolor and catalogs was $14,000 - $16,000.
The lot sold for $11,590, including buyer's premium.
New Edition of Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney
The new edition of David Leeming's biography about Beauford—Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney—was released by Karma Books on January 7, 2025 (three weeks later than the December 17, 2024 date that was originally projected).
I pre-ordered my copy well before the end of 2024 and was excited to receive it just a few days ago. I wanted to compare my tattered, thoroughly annotated first edition (Oxford University Press, 1998) with this new version in anticipation of my upcoming visit to Knoxville to peruse the Beauford Delaney Papers that the University of Tennessee Libraries made available to researchers as of January 2024.
I was somewhat taken aback when I read the following in Leeming's foreword:
Given the many meticulously researched exhibition catalogues produced in the last twenty years as well as what is sure to be a comprehensive account of his life from Dr. [Mary] Campbell, Amazing grace is reprinted here without any changes in the original text.
But I was gratified to read that the papers Leeming consulted to write the book are now held at UTLibraries.
This long awaited reprint is graced by a laudatory and intensely personal introduction by Hilton Als, who explains his familiarity with Leeming's writings and describes Leeming's treatment of Beauford's life story as "transcend[ing] the limitations of biography to create a historical narrative of huge scope based on Delaney's vulnerable mind and body."
Als mentions three Beauford Delaney works in his introduction—Portrait of a Young Man (ca. 1937-1940), Dark Rapture (1941), and Abstraction No. 9 (ca. 1963)—and provides his take on the emotions Beauford might have experienced in creating them.
An image of Dark Rapture can be found on page 123 of Amazing Grace.
(1941) Oil on masonite
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Unfortunately, images of the other two works are not presented in the book.
(ca. 1937-1940) Color pastel crayons
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(circa 1963) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of the Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina
On the last page of his introduction, Als claims Beauford as the brother he's always felt him to be.
Aside from a higher page count in the new book, there are several differences between the first and second editions of Amazing Grace that will be of interest for readers who wish to approach Beauford's life and art from a scholarly perspective:
1) While there are chapter headers at the top margin of the pages in the first edition, there are none in the second edition.
2) Detail in black and white photos is better discerned in the first edition.
3) Color representations of Beauford's art (now on individual pages) are brighter and more vivid in the second edition.
4) There are six fewer references cited in the bibliography of the second edition.
5) Importantly, the second edition has no index. Anyone who does not have the first edition of the book will be hard pressed to find specific information in the reprinted version.
Case Antiques to Auction Beauford Delaney Watercolor and Catalogs
On January 25, 2025, Case Auctions of Knoxville, TN will place a single abstract watercolor and four Beauford Delaney catalogs up for auction during Day 1 of its 2025 Winter Fine Art & Antiques sale.
The items come from the estate of John Z.C. Thomas, one of the people I affectionately call "The Knoxville Eleven," who traveled to Paris for the Beauford Delaney: Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color exhibition in 2016.
They are being offered as a single lot.
Untitled
(1958) Watercolor on paper
Signed "Beauford Delaney," inscribed "Clamart"
Dated 1958 in black pen, lower right
25"x 18 3/4"
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The watercolor is a lyrical work with broad, fluid strokes of yellow, orange, and purple - some overlapping and some lying in parallel.
They give me the impression that people are dancing, and I'm guessing that Beauford created this work during one of his happier times in 1958.
The catalogs that complete the lot are the following:
-
BEAUFORD DELANEY: THE COLOR YELLOW (Richard J. Powell, Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 2002)
BEAUFORD DELANEY: RESONANCE OF FORM AND VIBRATION OF COLOR (Les Amis de Beauford Delaney & Wells International Foundation, Paris: Columbia Global Centers - Reid Hall, 2016)
BEAUFORD DELANEY AND JAMES BALDWIN: THROUGH THE UNUSUAL DOOR (Stephen C. Wicks, ed., Knoxville, TN: Knoxville Museum of Art, 2020), with trifold exhibition brochure and single-sheet timeline detailing Baldwin and Delaney's relationship
BE YOUR WONDERFUL SELF: THE PORTAITS OF BEAUFORD DELANEY (New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2022).
The cost estimate for the watercolor and catalogs is $14,000 - $16,000.
For information about the sale, click HERE.
The Philosophy of Art Seminars
In Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, biographer David Leeming tells us that Beauford held "Philosophy of Art" seminars for several months at his Greene Street studio in Greenwich Village.
Beauford in his Greene Street studio, New York City, 1944
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
He describes the first seminar in great detail, painting the scene of a candle-lit room filled with portraits of famous African Americans where guests listened to Beauford lecture on "The Enigma of Art," learn how to sketch with charcoal (a live model was present), and enjoy entertainment.
He then informs us that several "hostesses" served tea and caviar to attendees.
I was intrigued by the idea that Beauford would have the means to offer caviar at an event and curious about the hostesses who served it.
Leeming mentioned seven women who served in this role. I was able to find information about three of them.
Nell Occomy Becker was the youngest of three sisters born to Walter Calvert Occomy and Nellie White Occomy in Providence, RI. She graduated with a teaching degree from the State Normal School (now Rhode Island College), and moved to NYC because of the discriminatory practices of Providence public schools. There, she taught junior high school and enrolled in a post-graduate program at the Teachers’ College.
Nell Occomy Becker
Source of original image:
Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life, November 1936, p. 347.
Fair use claim
In the 1930s, Occomy developed skills as an arts and culture writer. She wrote profiles of Black playwrights and served as editor-in-chief of The Krinon, the publication for the Black women educator sorority, Phi Delta Kappa.
Another hostess, Mrs. Gertrude Robinson, was a charter member of Phi Delta Kappa and served as First Supreme Anti-Basileus, then Supreme Basileus at various times from the 1920s - 1940s.
Hostess Dorothy Gates is mentioned several times in Amazing Grace. She and Beauford met through their mutual connection with Alfred Stieglitz, Dorothy Norman, and Georgia O'Keeffe, and they became quite close. Her death in 1956 disturbed him greatly.
While Leeming does not provide precise dates for the months that Beauford hosted the seminars, I infer from his text that they took place during 1949, and perhaps, early 1950.
Happy Holidays from Les Amis de Beauford Delaney
Christmas is fast approaching!
This year, Les Amis is marking the season with jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker's rendition of "White Christmas."
Parker recorded this iconic tune at the Royal Roost in 1948 in New York City. His backup band consisted of Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Al Haig on piano, Tommy Potter on bass, and Max Roach on drums.
Beauford depicted Parker in two paintings created 10 years apart.
(1968) Oil on canvas
Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester
Photograph by Joshua Nefsky; Courtesy of
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1958) Oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of the James F. Dicke Family
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Les Amis will return in January 2025.
We wish you and yours the best during the end-of-year holidays!
Beauford and the Petrucci Family Foundation
When I learned that the Petrucci Family Foundation (PFF) owns the two Beauford Delaney works being shown in the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art's American Duet: Jazz and Abstract Art exhibition, I immediately reached out to the foundation to learn more about its interest in Beauford.
(1956) Gouache on illustration board
PFF Collection
Signed and dated in ink, lower right
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Director Claudia Volpe graciously granted Les Amis a live interview to respond to my questions. She told me that PFF was founded by Jim Patrucci in 2006 and that it centers its philanthropic activity on the development of inner city youth.
In 2012, PFF decided to begin collecting art. Petrucci's first advisor was Berrisford Boothe, an artist, art historian, and professor of Art & Design at Lehigh University. Because of their recognition of the enormous disparities in representation of Black artists, they decided to pursue collecting art in support of these artists while fulfilling the foundation's overarching mission of providing education for the communities it serves.
Over 200 artists are currently represented in the PFF Collection. The pieces are quite diverse - they date from the 1880s through the present and represent all types of media. Petrucci has a pension for collecting works by contemporary artists who are in their "twilight years" and have not had a major exhibition or attracted major patrons or collectors.
PFF is also committed to art preservation.
Regarding Beauford's work, both of the pieces in the collection were acquired at auction. PFF is interested in acquiring additional works, both figurative and abstract.
(c. 1962-1964) Watercolor on paper
PFF Collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The Petrucci Family Foundation has a rigorous loan program -- it has loaned works to over 36 exhibitions since the collection's inception. Some of these loans support the implementation of the PFF African American Art History curriculum, which is the product of three collaborations that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic and the resurgence of racial justice movements in the wake of George Floyd's murder.
The curriculum aims to bridge educational gaps and enhance cultural literacy by integrating the PFF Collection into university art history, museum studies, and Africana studies courses. It is designed to relieve the burden that professors might feel re: creating a course in African-American art, particularly if they are not experts in the field.
Beauford was an important focus for the 2022 University of Mary Washington exhibition called Healing through the Preservation of Our Histories and Ourselves. This show was co-curated by university students, faculty, and community members with the intent to encourage decompression and healing after the collective trauma experienced during the pandemic. Though the collection's Beauford Delaney works were not available for display during this show, students examined Beauford's struggle with maintaining mental health as part of the exhibition theme.
Beauford's work was included in the 2024 Mobility: African-American Artists Abroad exhibition at Truman State University. The show focused on African-American artists who broadened their artistic practice through influences experienced when they moved to Mexico, Africa, and Europe.
Director Volpe has a deep interest in Beauford's work. She continues to encourage universities to include his story and his art in their customized course work, even if his physical works are not available for viewing.
Where to Find Beauford's Work This Weekend
Selected Beauford Delaney works are on display at three shows across the U.S. this weekend.
Art Basel Miami Beach - Miami Beach, FL
Beauford's Untitled (Traffic Signals) is featured in an article published by Art Basel's editiorial team that presents their picks for "seven unmissable projects at Art Basel Miami Beach."
(1945) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery is displaying this painting and three additional Beauford Delaney works at this iconic event (Booth C2) from December 6-8, 2024.
Gagosian - New York, NY
Peter Doig selected Beauford's Untitled (Greenwich Village Street, New York) to hang in his specially curated show called The Street. This exhibition is described as being "a portrait of urban life seen through the eyes of painters."
(circa 1945-46) Oil on linen canvas
Signed and dated (indistinctly) in oil, lower right recto.
Signed (three times) and inscribed "181 Greene St" (twice)"
and "NY" in oil on the stretcher bars, verso.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The Street opened on November 1 at 980 Madison Avenue, New York. It will run through December 18, 2024.
Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art - Las Vegas, NV
In partnership with the Petrucci Family Foundation, the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art has mounted an exhibition entitled American Duet: Jazz and Abstract Art.
This show, which consists of over 61 works by 34 modern and contemporary artists from the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, explores the relationship between jazz and abstract art. Both of the Collection's Beauford Delaney works are displayed there.
(c. 1962-1964) Watercolor on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(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
American Duet can be seen daily at Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art from November 15, 2024 through June 1, 2025, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For tickets and more information, click HERE.
Drouot Sells Two Beauford Delaney Abstracts
On November 15, La Gazette Drouot auctioned two untitled Beauford Delaney works from the collection of Beauford' friend and supporter, art critic Jean Grenier.
Lot 81
(1964) Gouache on paper
Signed, located "Paris," and dated on the lower right.
66 x 50 cm.; 25.9 x 19.7 in
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Lot 82
(1965) Oil on canvas
Signed, located "Paris," dated, and dedicated
"Pour mon ami mr Jean Grenier..." on the back
41 x 27 cm.; 16.1 x 10.6 in
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Grenier was a philosopher and art critic whose claim to fame was that he taught Albert Camus when Camus was a high school student. The two men became friends thereafter.
In Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, biographer David A. Leeming tells us that Beauford showed ten abstract gouaches in the Copenhagen exhibition called "10 American Negro Artists." It is tempting to speculate that the gouache sold on November 15 could have been one of them.
Sale prices for the works were as follows:
Lot 81: Estimated: 4,500€ - 5,000€; Sale - 4,500€ (hammer price - no fees included)
Lot 82: Estimated: 10,000€ - 15,000€; Sale - 10,000€ (hammer price - no fees included)
Mahalia and Mozart
In Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, biographer David Leeming writes about the burgeoning of Beauford's relationship with Charley and Gita Boggs soon after he arrived in Paris in Autumn 1953. He says the Boggs frequently invited Beauford over for dinner and that afterward, the three friends enjoyed listening to music on the hi-fi.
Among their favorite artists were Mahalia Jackson and Mozart.
Today I'm bringing you recordings of some of the best-loved pieces by these musical geniuses.
Summertime / Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
Performed by Mahalia Jackson
The Marriage of Figaro
Performed by Orchestra of The Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano
How I Got Over
Performed by Mahalia Jackson
Symphony No. 40 - First Movement
Performed by the London Mozart Players
Architects of the Spirit
Beauford wrote the following about his work in a November 1965 letter to Henry Miller:
Something has happened to my color and the paintings seem to have sunlight and the feeling sometimes of all you wonderful people it has been my privilege to have as friends and architects of the spirit.
Whenever I have read this quote before, my attention always turned to Beauford's references to color and sunlight.
When I read the quote again a couple of days ago, I found my attention drawn to the part that refers to "friends and architects of the spirit."
Beauford had many friends and ardent supporters, but by the mid 1960s, I daresay that only a few of them could truly be considered architects of Beauford's spirit.
Less than a handful of them were true confidants with whom Beauford felt he could share his most intimate thoughts and emotions.
I have included Beauford's portraits of them here.
(1965) Oil on canvas
Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
© 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
Image (detail) from Abe Books Web site
(1953) Oil on canvas
31.75" x 25.5" (80.6 cm x 64.8 cm)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
(1967) Oil on canvas
Museum of Modern Art, NYC
Image courtesy of Levis Fine Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Knoxville's Bearden Elementary School Celebrates Beauford
The Autumn 2024 exhibition at the Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA) Education Gallery features works by Bearden Elementary students in Grades K-5.
Not since the 2018-2020 Classes Duo program that brought together children from Knoxville and Paris have I seen such a robust production of work by elementary school students that celebrates Beauford!
KMA mounts exhibitions of children's artwork throughout the year to highlight "the fundamental importance of the arts in the school curricula, an essential component to the healthy development and complete education of our young people."
Les Amis extends sincere thanks to KMA Director of Education, Rosalind (Rozz) Martin, for sharing the information and images below.
Illuminated Letter Quilt
Students in Grades K-5 selected fabrics, measured strips of material, then cut and wove the pieces together. These quilt squares were arranged with illuminated letters in which students took inspiration from illuminated texts to create art honoring Bearden Elementary and Beauford Delaney.
Portraits of our Friends
Students in Grades K-5 studied Delaney’s portraits. They noticed details including textures, hidden figures in the backgrounds, and an experimental use of color.
The students used these concepts to create portraits of their friends inspired by Beauford Delaney’s work. The pieces are arranged on a painted background created by 3-5 students.
After studying Delaney’s textured paintings, they created a background for their drawings.
Portrait of Beauford Delaney
The students in Grades 3-5 painted this portrait of Delaney and added a textured background inspired by his textured paintings.
Textured Collages
The students in Grades 2-5 students created textured collages inspired by Delaney’s textured paintings. Later, students created their own frames for the pieces using canvas and sharpie.
The Bearden Elementary School exhibition at KMA opened on November 1, 2024.
It will hang in the Education Gallery through January 26, 2025.
Birthplace of "The Saints"
Biographer David Leeming reports in Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney that when they lived in NYC, Beauford and his brother, Joseph, saw each other at Cloyd Boykin's Primitive African Art Center.
He says that "Joe and Beauford eventually modeled and taught drawing classes there and met two painters, Ellis Wilson and [Palmer] Hayden, who became their lifelong close friends, forming with them a group they all referred to as "The Saints."
Photo from the National Archives, Harmon Collection
Photo from the Beck Cultural Exchange Center, Knoxville, TN
Fair Use Claim
Click HERE to see images of Ellis Wilson.
I have not been able to find images of Cloyd Boykin.
I decided to research the school to see if I could find out more about it, beginning with where it was located.
I found an image of a letter written by Boykin to W.E.B. DuBois whose letterhead presents "The Primitive Art Center" and "Afro-American Museum" as subheaders under the words "Boykins' School of Art and Adjuncts." The letter is dated October 11, 1930 and indicates the address of the center as 43-45, Grove Street, New York City. Note the sign in the window in the image below.
Berenice Abbott
October 1935
Public domain
From another source, I learned that Boykin ran an arts and crafts shop on Grove Street in 1928 and 1929 (exact address not mentioned) and that he opened the school in 1929/1930. This means that the school would have been fairly new when Beauford and Joseph frequented it, given that Beauford moved to NYC in November 1929 and Joseph moved there in 1930.
The building was known as the Old Governor's Mansion and the Whittemore Mansion. It has an incredible history that indirectly links it with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. It is still standing, and it looks pretty much the same now as it did in the 1930s.
Click HERE to read the story about the assassination and see a recent image of the property.
Boykin opened a second location for the school and the Primitive African Art Center at the New York Urban League, 202–206 West 136th Street in Harlem in July 1932.
Screenshot from YouTube video
National Urban League and NYC Tenants (1911)
Fair Use Claim
The Grove Street address remained functional until at least November 1932, when a problem with space at the NY Urban League facility caused the Center's autumm exhibition as well as some art classes to be held at this address.
New Edition of Amazing Grace to Be Released
The original edition of the Beauford Delaney "bible" - Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney - has been out of print for some time.
Published by Oxford University Press in 1998, it is the sole comprehensive exploration of Beauford's life in book form.
Author David A. Leeming spoke about Beauford and James Baldwin at the Stonington Free Library in Stonington, CT in May 2024 as a prelude to the release of a new, second edition of the book.
Finally, the release date has been announced.
Karma Books of NYC will make the second edition of Amazing Grace available on December 17, 2024!
2024 book cover
A major addition to this new edition is an introduction by curator, writer, theater critic, and Pulitzer Prize winner Hilton Als. Als has referenced Beauford's relationship with James Baldwin in numerous writings about Baldwin, so it will be interesting to see what he has penned for the biography.
The cover for the Karma Publishing edition uses a black background and the same self-portrait of Beauford as did the Oxford University Press edition.
Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney
1998 book cover
It is 292 pages long, compared to 221 pages for the Oxford University Press edition.
This is due, at least in part, to the increased emphasis that photographs and images of Beauford's work are given in the book. Several images are now displayed solo on individual numbered pages instead of in a color plate insert bound into the center of the book.
To pre-order the new edition of Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney from Amazon.com, click HERE.
Mike Berry and Beauford - Part 3
Mike C. Berry is Gallery Manager at the University of Tennessee (UT) Downtown Gallery and Artist/Owner of Mike C. Berry Studio in Knoxville, TN. He has developed a unique and fascinating "relationship" with Beauford through his framing of Beauford's art for UT. He graciously provided Les Amis with an interview in which he "tells all," including how Beauford's work influences his artistic practice.
Because Berry was so generous with his responses, this interview is presented in three parts.* Find Part 3 below.
Les Amis: Talk about your visit to Beauford’s grave at Thiais Cemetery during your recent visit to Paris.
MCB: On Oct 12, 2023, I took the Paris Metro south out of the city center arriving at the Cimetiere Parisian de Thiais on a overcast drizzly morning. I knew I was looking for “Avenue M, Division No. 86,” and I began to walk in the quiet expanse of this rather large cemetery. I walked for some time finally arriving at Square 86. I walked in between the hedges thinking "Ok, this should be easy to spot because it’s a new piece of marble within a section of old broken headstones overgrown with weeds."
Image courtesy of Mike Berry
I walked around the square which is literally a approx. 50-60 foot square of plots with hedges on each side and not seeing anything I began to wonder if I were in the wrong section. At this point I haven’t seen a soul and it's quiet, all I hear are the rustling of trees and occasionally airplanes above because of its close proximity to Orly airport. Just then, a cemetery attendant approached me from behind. He actually startled me to be honest. I’m standing among graves and I hear “Bonjour!” I probably jumped a little. He smiled and asked me if I spoke French, which I do not, and he told me that he did not speak English.
So, with various hand gestures I communicated my search to him. He somehow was convinced that I was not in the right section and he motioned for me to follow him. I thought this odd as I had just walked past the sign marking Section No.86. We took several steps around a large piles of broken tombstones and I saw it. I exclaimed, "Oui oui, Monsieur, this is it" as I pointed. He smiled and excused himself as I thanked him.
I stood in the drizzling rain and a flood of emotions and thoughts filled my mind. Mainly how short life can be. Mostly just thoughts of respect and honor for an artist that did what he loved and tried to express himself and figure it all out through a mountain of obstacles and hardships ... very much like will all do. I thought about the passage of time and its swiftness. I thought about art, life, his life, light, color....
Image courtesy of Mike Berry
I thought about sense of place and belonging and Beauford’s love of Paris. I thought about eternity and Heaven. The last line on Beauford’s tombstone reads: "I am Home." I interpreted this as his eternal rest in heaven or his love for Paris. I think both would be appropriate interpretations. But thinking about home, especially Knoxville, which has been my home for over half of my life and Beauford’s birthplace and family home, I decided to make a sketch to leave on the tombstone as an expression of love and gratitude from Knoxville.
Image courtesy of Mike Berry
Once the sketch was completed, I slipped it into a Ziploc bag and placed it under the ceramic flowers. I also made a few rubbings of the tombstone inscription to take home for remembrance. I gathered my backpack and stood in silence, said a short prayer of thanks and exited through the hedges and began my quiet walk back to the Metro station.
This memory will stay with me forever ... me alone in a Paris cemetery paying respects to a great artist.
Very special, such a honor.
Les Amis: Any final thoughts?
MCB: I am really blessed to have an active role with the Delaney Estate in helping to raise the profile and honoring a great artist by promoting and preserving his works. Each day I am grateful to use my talents to help and benefit Beauford’s great legacy. A special thanks to Derek Spratley whose kindness and generosity has overflowed onto me.
Thank you, Derek.
*Read Part 1 of the interview HERE.
*Read Part 2 of the interview HERE.
Mike Berry and Beauford - Part 2
Mike C. Berry is Gallery Manager at the University of Tennessee (UT) Downtown Gallery and Artist/Owner of Mike C. Berry Studio in Knoxville, TN. He has developed a unique and fascinating "relationship" with Beauford through his framing of Beauford's art for UT. He graciously provided Les Amis with an interview in which he "tells all," including how Beauford's work influences his artistic practice.
Because Berry was so generous with his responses, this interview will be presented in three parts).* Find Part 2 below.
Note that all photos and content have been approved for posting by Derek Spratley, Esq., Court appointed administrator of the Beauford Delaney Estate.
Les Amis: As a painter, you bring a unique perspective to the act of framing. How has this influenced the way you frame Beauford’s work?
MCB: I try to think how to best highlight the work with a clean and simple presentation and not attempt to “jazz” it up with stylized mouldings that are unnecessary. I always think “less is more” with Beauford’s work and what will allow the work to be the main star on the stage.
Les Amis: Among all the Beauford Delaney works that you’ve framed, which is your favorite?
MCB: I have two, for different reasons.
First is the Henry Miller ballpoint pen sketch piece. This piece is very intriguing to me because it’s basically a rough draft for a 1944 oil portrait. The sketch of Miller is on the back of a catalogue page with a print narrative about Miller on the opposite side. There is a photo of Mr. Miller standing beside the 1944 portrait posted on this blog (Jan 7, 2017).
As I understand it, the 1944 portrait is no longer available to the public or it has been completely lost, which leaves this blue ball point pen rough sketch of Miller the only remaining work from this series. I framed it in a way that either side (portrait side or printed side) can be viewed within the frame.
My other favorite piece is a blue abstract from Madrid 1955. I just love this piece because of the color, and the composition reminds me of my time spent in Madrid a few years ago. I felt very connected to this piece as I shared a strong sense of place to it, and I love the color blue.
Les Amis: As a cityscape artist, please comment on the similarities and differences in the way Beauford and Joseph interpret and portray cityscapes.
MCB: Their similarities are their use of pure color and simplication of form. Of course, Beauford pushes this much farther than Joseph does.
The biggest difference is I see Joseph as the reporter or illustrator of the cityscapes while I tend to view Beauford as the interpreter or the emotional translator of his subjects. Beauford’s work strikes me has highly infused with emotions (through use of color and line) to connect the viewer with their own narrative and emotional response the imagery he presents.
Les Amis: Joseph Delaney’s work inspired you early on. Has Beauford’s work begun to inspire you in some way?
MCB: Working closely with Joseph work definitely inspired me to look the cityscape as a subject matter. My piece, Gay Street Rainy Night, was greatly influenced by Joseph’s work.
Mike C. Berry
Today, I am still inspired by Joseph’s work and continue to look to the city for interesting compositions.
Currently I do find myself in the presence of a lot of Beauford’s work and it has pushed me to simplify form and push my palette towards bright saturated colors.
Recently I experimented with a composition using single color notes inspired by Beauford where I attempted to simplify a downtown scene in Knoxville.
Mike C. Berry
Les Amis: Do you also do framing for or have some other professional relationship with the Joseph Delaney estate?
MCB: The Ewing Gallery of Art & Architecture at the University of Tennessee was bequeathed a third of Joseph’s estate as stated in his will upon his death in 1991. Because of this gift, the Ewing Gallery has a large collection of Joseph’s works which I have had the privilege of framing, cataloguing and exhibiting.
The 2004 exhibition Joseph Delaney, Life in the City was the first professional gallery exhibition I worked on when I started at the UT Downtown Gallery. It was the gallery’s inaugural exhibit. In 2018 I worked on the exhibit Face to Face – Joseph Delaney, which focused on Joseph’s many portraits, mainly those created during his years of working in Washington Square in NYC.
*Read Part 1 of the interview HERE.
Sale of Untitled (Greenwich Village Street, New York) Exceeds Expectations
Last week, Les Amis reported that Swann Auction Galleries would offer Beauford's Untitled (Greenwich Village Street, New York) for auction during its African American Art sale on October 3, 2024.
(circa 1945-46) Oil on linen canvas
457x546 mm; 18x21½ inches.
Signed and dated (indistinctly) in oil, lower right recto.
Signed (three times) and inscribed "181 Greene St" (twice)"
and "NY" in oil on the stretcher bars, verso.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The estimated sale price for this magnificent piece was $250,000 - $350,000.
It sold for $629,000, including a 20% buyer's premium (hammer price was $520,000).
For more information about Swann's October 3 African American Art Sale, click HERE.
Untitled (Greenwich Village Street) up for Auction at Swann
Swann Auction Galleries will auction a magnificent oil from Beauford's New York years during its African American Art sale on October 3, 2024.
(circa 1945-46) Oil on linen canvas
457x546 mm; 18x21½ inches.
Signed and dated (indistinctly) in oil, lower right recto.
Signed (three times) and inscribed "181 Greene St" (twice)"
and "NY" in oil on the stretcher bars, verso.
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Swann lists the provenance for this piece as follows: acquired directly from the artist, Professor Kenneth Lash, California and Iowa; thence by descent, private collection, Washington (2006).
Beauford's biographer, David Leeming, indicates that Kenneth Lash made Beauford's June 1946 visit to Vinalhaven, Maine possible.
(According to Leeming, Beauford spent part of each summer between 1936 and 1953 with Dante Pavone in Vinalhaven.)
The current owner of the painting sent me some biographical information on Kenneth Lash. Reading it, I learned that Lash lived in New York City from 1938 to 1943. Frequenting jazz clubs, he learned of and attended after-hours sessions at trumpeter Frankie Newton’s Greenwich Village loft.
Beauford and Newton were friends, and Beauford's Greenwich Village abode was a few blocks away from Newton's.
Lash served in the Navy from 1943-46. It is thought that Beauford created Untitled (Greenwich Village Street, New York) during this time.
There is a gap in Lash's timeline from 1955 to 1959. But a reference that Lash made to a Paris experience “some twenty years ago” in his December 1977 North American Review column entitled "Another Man's Poison: Oh Britannia! II" would seem to indicate that he was in Paris around 1957.
Lash’s wife, Jan, remembers the Delaney painting being on the wall of their home in Bolinas, California in the early-to-mid 1960s.
Even with the information provided by the current owner, we do not know exactly when Lash acquired this painting.
Untitled (Greenwich Village Street, New York) bears a striking resemblance to another Beauford Delaney oil entitled Street Scene.
(1968) Oil on canvas
Signed and dated "BEAUFORD DELANEY 1968" lower right
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
In the Les Amis blog post entitled "Beauford's Street Scenes," I commented that I believed the landscape represented the elevated train (metro) that serves the south and southwest parts of the city of Paris.
In comparing the two works, it is easy to accept Swann's statement that Beauford "revisited" the 1945-46 painting when he created Street Scene.
The estimated sale price for Untitled (Greenwich Village Street, New York) is $250,000 - $350,000.
For information about Swann's African American Art Sale, click HERE.
Beauford at Black Art Auction's Fall Auction - Results
Black Art Auction sold two Beauford Delaney works during its Fall Auction on September 14, 2024 in St. Louis, MO.
The estimated sale price for Composition, a painting from the original du Closel collection, was $15,000 - $25,000.
(1961) Oil on canvas
10-5/8 x 5-1/4 inches
Signed on stretcher verso
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It sold for $13,000.
Untitled, a gouache on paper dated March 1962, had an estimated sale price of $10,000 - $20,000.
(1961) Gouache on paper (J-Annonay watermark)
29-1/4 x 20-3/4 inches
Signed and dated, March 1962
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
It sold for $18,000.
Sale prices include a 25% buyer's premium.
For more information about the results of the Fall Auction, click HERE.