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.

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

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.

Charlie Parker
(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

Charlie Parker Yardbird
(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'sAmerican Duet: Jazz and Abstract Art exhibition, I immediately reached out to the foundation to learn more about its interest in Beauford.

Untitled
(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.

Untitled (Green, Red, and Yellow Abstraction)
(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.