A Successful Trip to Knoxville

My recent visit to Beauford's hometown of Knoxville was quite fruitful!

I spent over five full days perusing the correspondence, photographs, sketchbooks, notebooks, and other documents in the Beauford Delaney Papers held by UT Libraries at the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK).

Entrance to Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections & University Archives
John Hodges Library
© Wells International Foundation

Beauford Delaney Archives
© Wells International Foundation

I delivered two presentations - one for the GeoSym conference hosted by UTK's Department of Geography and Sustainability and the other for a group of collectors of Beauford's work.

Presenting "Beauford Delaney: Art, Expatriation, and Travel"
© Wells International Foundation

The first event was held on campus and the second at the university's Denbo Center for Humanities & the Arts.

Lobby of Denbo Center for Humanities & The Arts
© Wells International Foundation

Denbo Center Director Amy Elias and crowd
© Wells International Foundation

I saw the Beauford Delaney works held by the Ewing Gallery at UTK.

Ewing Gallery entrance
© Wells International Foundation

Mike Berry and Monique Y. Wells with Beauford Delaney portraits
© Wells International Foundation

I viewed the Beauford Delaney collection at the Knoxville Museum of Art.

 Higher Ground exhibition information panel
at the Knoxville Museum of Art

© Wells International Foundation

Beauford Delaney works in Higher Ground exhibition
© Wells International Foundation

Beauford Delaney at the Knoxville Museum of Art
© Wells International Foundation

I spent invaluable time viewing the works still held by the Beauford Delaney estate.

Portrait of Coretta Scott King
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image by Wells International Foundation

 

Beauford Delaney works on paper held by the estate
© Wells International Foundation

And I was interviewed for a documentary about Beauford that is being organized by the Beauford Delaney estate.

Monique on set for the Beauford Delaney estate's video documentary
© Wells International Foundation

With heartfelt thanks, I want to acknowledge everyone in Knoxville who contributed to the organization of this visit:

Derek Spratley, Court Appointed Admnistrator of Beauford's estate
Amy Elias, Chancellor's Professor and Director, Denbo Center for Humanities & the Arts
Mike Berry, Official framer of the Beauford Delaney estate
Katrina Stack, Graduate Research Assistant for the Beauford Delaney Papers
Kris Bronstad, Modern Political Archivist and Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee Libraries
Stephen Wicks, Barbara W. and Bernard E. Bernstein Curator at the Knoxville Museum of Art

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.

Lot 8
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

Lot 9
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.

Lot 192
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.