Beauford Delaney Abstract Auctioned at Christie's

On May 13, 2022, Christie's New York auctioned a 1967 Beauford Delaney abstract painting during its Post War and Contemporary Art Day Sale.

Lot 167
Untitled
(1967) Oil on canvas
Signed, inscribed, dedicated, and dated (verso)
16 1⁄8 x 10 5⁄8 in. (41 x 27 cm.)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

The inscription on the back of the painting reads "For Mme Mary Callery with friendship."

Mary Callery is mentioned three times in Amazing Grace: A Biography of Beauford Delaney.  From biographer David Leeming, we learn that she was a sculptor friend of Beauford and that he was posing for her at her home when he made the acquaintance of Georgia O'Keeffe.  This likely occurred during the early 1940s, after Callery's return from a 10-year sojourn in Paris.

Photo of Mary Callery's sculpture of Beauford Delaney
Image by Entrée to Black Paris
Reproduced by permission - Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

O'Keeffe wrote about this meeting.  Read her statement here: Beauford: The Georgia O'Keeffe Portraits

Leeming reports that Callery gave Beauford "a suit, a shirt, two pairs of socks, a change of underwear, and a check for $20" in late 1945.  She saw Beauford's work at his first solo exhibition at the Galerie Prisme in Paris in May 1956, and he wrote to her later that year about a work he created during the "return" to portraiture that was an extension of his abstract work.

Beauford gave the untitled painting to Callery in 1967.  It was sold by Christie's in 2009, and the buyer submitted the work for sale in the current auction.

The estimated sale price for this work was $70,000 - $100,000. It sold for $239,400, including a buyer's premium of 26%.