May Is Mental Health Awareness Month

In contemplating the observance of May as Mental Health Awareness Month, my thoughts turned to Beauford's stays at the Maison de Santé de Nogent sur Marne in the wake of his suicide attempt in Greece in August 1961.

On May 5, 1962, Beauford was re-admitted to the clinic only months after having undergone psychiatric treatment there in December 1961.

According to biographer David A. Leeming, he remained at the clinic until May 25, 1962.

Self-portrait
(1962) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Leeming devotes two pages to Beauford's stay at the Maison de Santé and Beauford's fulfillment of his doctor's assignment to write about "his early life and his own sense of where his art came from and what it meant to him."

In reading these pages, we learn that Beauford contemplated suicide during his first few days at the clinic and that he was not allowed almost no visitors. And we learn that his friends rallied to raise the money required to pay for his stay at the clinic and his daily expenses once he returned home.

Leeming quotes extensively from Beauford's "homework" in these pages. One particularly powerful passage reads as follows:

The artist may perhaps ... never have any other satisfaction than being a willing worker hoping for revelation and time enough to release what life and experience has brought through his apprenticeship.

This quote brought to mind an event held at the Hunter Museum of Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee in March 2023.

Art+ Issues: Art Health & Social Justice with CHI Memorial was a free program inspired by themes found in the Metamorphosis into Freedom exhibition of Beauford's art organized by the Knoxville Museum of Art and shown at the Hunter Museum from January 27 - May 1, 2023. Focused on [LGBTQ] teen mental health, identity and reproductive health, it provided an opportunity for local Black and Latinx creatives to work with youth in schools to offer them a space for creation and truth-sharing through the creation of performances in dance, music, and poetry.

These performances were staged in the viewing space of the museum, with art by Beauford and his brother Joseph providing the ambiance.

Screenshot from Art+ Issues: Art Health & Social Justice
with CHI Memorial

Chyela Rowe, CHI Memorial Hospital's Manager of Arts Therapies & Well-Being, facilitated this event. Information from local agencies offering support for youth in these areas was made available for attendees.

The young people who performed at these event were likely unaware of Beauford's reflection. But their words and movements embodied it completely.

Click HERE to see the Metamorphosis into Freedom exhibition - including video frames featuring six of Beauford's works - and watch the performances (47:18 minutes).