Architects of the Spirit

Beauford wrote the following about his work in a November 1965 letter to Henry Miller:

Something has happened to my color and the paintings seem to have sunlight and the feeling sometimes of all you wonderful people it has been my privilege to have as friends and architects of the spirit.

Whenever I have read this quote before, my attention always turned to Beauford's references to color and sunlight.

When I read the quote again a couple of days ago, I found my attention drawn to the part that refers to "friends and architects of the spirit."

Beauford had many friends and ardent supporters, but by the mid 1960s, I daresay that only a few of them could truly be considered architects of Beauford's spirit.

Less than a handful of them were true confidants with whom Beauford felt he could share his most intimate thoughts and emotions.

I have included Beauford's portraits of them here.

Portrait of James Baldwin
(1965) Oil on canvas
Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator 

Portrait of Henry Miller
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image (detail) from Abe Books Web site

Portrait of a Young Man (Larry Calcagno)
(1953) Oil on canvas
31.75" x 25.5" (80.6 cm x 64.8 cm)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Portrait of Howard Swanson
(1967) Oil on canvas
Museum of Modern Art, NYC
Image courtesy of Levis Fine Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Knoxville's Bearden Elementary School Celebrates Beauford

The Autumn 2024 exhibition at the Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA) Education Gallery features works by Bearden Elementary students in Grades K-5.

Not since the 2018-2020 Classes Duo program that brought together children from Knoxville and Paris have I seen such a robust production of work by elementary school students that celebrates Beauford!

KMA mounts exhibitions of children's artwork throughout the year to highlight "the fundamental importance of the arts in the school curricula, an essential component to the healthy development and complete education of our young people."

Les Amis extends sincere thanks to KMA Director of Education, Rosalind (Rozz) Martin, for sharing the information and images below.

Illuminated Letter Quilt

Students in Grades K-5 selected fabrics, measured strips of material, then cut and wove the pieces together. These quilt squares were arranged with illuminated letters in which students took inspiration from illuminated texts to create art honoring Bearden Elementary and Beauford Delaney.

Portraits of our Friends

Students in Grades K-5 studied Delaney’s portraits. They noticed details including textures, hidden figures in the backgrounds, and an experimental use of color.

The students used these concepts to create portraits of their friends inspired by Beauford Delaney’s work. The pieces are arranged on a painted background created by 3-5 students.

After studying Delaney’s textured paintings, they created a background for their drawings.

Portrait of Beauford Delaney

The students in Grades 3-5 painted this portrait of Delaney and added a textured background inspired by his textured paintings.

Textured Collages

The students in Grades 2-5 students created textured collages inspired by Delaney’s textured paintings. Later, students created their own frames for the pieces using canvas and sharpie.

The Bearden Elementary School exhibition at KMA opened on November 1, 2024.

It will hang in the Education Gallery through January 26, 2025.

Birthplace of "The Saints"

Biographer David Leeming reports in Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney that when they lived in NYC, Beauford and his brother, Joseph, saw each other at Cloyd Boykin's Primitive African Art Center.

He says that "Joe and Beauford eventually modeled and taught drawing classes there and met two painters, Ellis Wilson and [Palmer] Hayden, who became their lifelong close friends, forming with them a group they all referred to as "The Saints."

Palmer C. Hayden and Beauford Delaney at Washington Square, NYC (1930s)
Photo from the National Archives, Harmon Collection

Joseph Delaney at the first annual Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibition (1931)
Photo from the Beck Cultural Exchange Center, Knoxville, TN
Fair Use Claim

Click HERE to see images of Ellis Wilson.

I have not been able to find images of Cloyd Boykin.

I decided to research the school to see if I could find out more about it, beginning with where it was located.

I found an image of a letter written by Boykin to W.E.B. DuBois whose letterhead presents "The Primitive Art Center" and "Afro-American Museum" as subheaders under the words "Boykins' School of Art and Adjuncts." The letter is dated October 11, 1930 and indicates the address of the center as 43-45, Grove Street, New York City. Note the sign in the window in the image below.

45 Grove Street, Manhattan
Berenice Abbott
October 1935
Public domain

From another source, I learned that Boykin ran an arts and crafts shop on Grove Street in 1928 and 1929 (exact address not mentioned) and that he opened the school in 1929/1930. This means that the school would have been fairly new when Beauford and Joseph frequented it, given that Beauford moved to NYC in November 1929 and Joseph moved there in 1930.

The building was known as the Old Governor's Mansion and the Whittemore Mansion. It has an incredible history that indirectly links it with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. It is still standing, and it looks pretty much the same now as it did in the 1930s.

Click HERE to read the story about the assassination and see a recent image of the property.

Boykin opened a second location for the school and the Primitive African Art Center at the New York Urban League, 202–206 West 136th Street in Harlem in July 1932.

Partial view of façade of NY Urban League
Screenshot from YouTube video
National Urban League and NYC Tenants (1911)
Fair Use Claim

The Grove Street address remained functional until at least November 1932, when a problem with space at the NY Urban League facility caused the Center's autumm exhibition as well as some art classes to be held at this address.

New Edition of Amazing Grace to Be Released

The original edition of the Beauford Delaney "bible" - Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney - has been out of print for some time.

Published by Oxford University Press in 1998, it is the sole comprehensive exploration of Beauford's life in book form.

Author David A. Leeming spoke about Beauford and James Baldwin at the Stonington Free Library in Stonington, CT in May 2024 as a prelude to the release of a new, second edition of the book.

Finally, the release date has been announced.

Karma Books of NYC will make the second edition of Amazing Grace available on December 17, 2024!

Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney
2024 book cover

A major addition to this new edition is an introduction by curator, writer, theater critic, and Pulitzer Prize winner Hilton Als. Als has referenced Beauford's relationship with James Baldwin in numerous writings about Baldwin, so it will be interesting to see what he has penned for the biography.

The cover for the Karma Publishing edition uses a black background and the same self-portrait of Beauford as did the Oxford University Press edition.

Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney
1998 book cover

It is 292 pages long, compared to 221 pages for the Oxford University Press edition.

This is due, at least in part, to the increased emphasis that photographs and images of Beauford's work are given in the book. Several images are now displayed solo on individual numbered pages instead of in a color plate insert bound into the center of the book.

Sample page view from Amazon.com

To pre-order the new edition of Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney from Amazon.com, click HERE.