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. I had the pleasure of meeting him in Paris last fall.
Berry 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 1 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: Please remind me of circumstances under which you framed a Beauford Delaney painting for the estate for the first time.
MCB: I was assisting with the installation of an exhibition of Delaney works on the University of Tennessee campus in preparations for the Delaney symposium held on campus that year. While assisting on that exhibit I was asked by Derek L. Spratley to frame some pieces for the exhibit entitled Beauford Delaney, The Paris Years at the new Student Union Gallery in 2019.
Then, with a partnership with the School of Art at UT, we collaborate together on another exhibit entitled Beauford Delaney – Transcending Race and Time (December 4 – January 30, 2021) at the UT Downtown Gallery and then again for Beauford and Joseph Delaney – Lives in Art (February 5 – 27, 2021), also at the UT Downtown Gallery.
Les Amis: Describe how your relationship with the estate has grown since that time.
MCB: After working on three exhibitions together and framing over a hundred of Beauford’s pieces since our meeting in 2019, Derek and I have built a professional partnership and now a personal friendship that has its foundation in mutual respect and trust.
What I respect about Derek is that he approaches every matter concerning Beauford’s work with two things in mind: 1) Will it raise Beauford’s artist profile positively? and 2) Will it benefit and honor the Delaney heirs?
I am excited to continue working alongside Derek and honoring Beauford’s artistic legacy by framing and conserving his work for generations to come. I am truly lucky.
I recently learned that Derek and I have a fondness and love of donuts, however my love for them tends to show a bit more than his does. Wink! Wink!
Les Amis: Is the work you do for the estate done under the auspices of UT Downtown Gallery, independently, or both?
MCB: The work I do for the Estate is performed independently through my studio and totally separate from my work at the UT Downtown Gallery.
However, when we designed and installed the two Delaney exhibits in 2020-21, the University was involved and of course there were some overlap because the responsibility of framing and exhibit design were within my purview at the UT Downtown Gallery.
Les Amis: Talk about the Beauford Delaney exhibitions that you framed for the estate in the context of the previous question.
MCB: We decided to mount an exhibition of Beauford's work directly from the estate to showcase some never-before-seen works and make them available to collectors locally and regionally.
This was very successful, with 100% of the works selling to collectors, most of whom were first time Beauford Delaney collectors.
The second show, which was the very next month, featured the two brothers exhibiting together. I have to give a big shout out to my colleague Sarah McFalls, our collection manager at the Ewing Gallery of Art & Architecture (UT School of Art), because she championed the idea of the brothers exhibiting together by asking "When in the course of time will both collections be this readily available for exhibition ever again in Knoxville?"
Remember, we had just had a successful showing of Beauford’s the month prior with 100% sales.
Sarah proposed to exhibit the brothers together since the Ewing Gallery has one of the largest collections of Joseph Delaney works. There had never been an two-person exhibition of their work in Knoxville.
Beauford and Joseph had been invited by the McClung Museum (now the McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture located on the UT campus) to exhibit together in 1970. This resulted in an exhibition including only Joseph’s works because of the difficulty of organizing and shipping Beauford’s works from France.
So, now the time was right to exhibit the brothers together. The gallery was available and the artwork was here - it just needed to be organized and brought together in one room.
I suppose we broke one of our unwritten rules at the gallery of never showing the same artist in back-to-back exhibitions, but this was one of those rare incidents that the stars aligned to create a beautiful moment.
This would not have happened without the hard work of our team: Sam Yates (retired director), Sarah McFalls, collections manager, and Eric Cagley, gallery preparator, as well as the generosity and grace of Derek Spratley, the Court appointed administrator of the Beauford Delaney Estate.
