Beauford at The Drawing Center

The Drawing Center will host a first-of-its-kind exhibition of Beauford's work from May 30 through September 14, 2025.

In the Medium of Life: The Drawings of Beauford Delaney will exclusively feature works on paper. It will be the first comprehensive Beauford Delaney exhibition since the retrospective mounted by the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1978.

The Drawing Center has amassed approximately 90 drawings, gouaches, pastels and notebook sketches for this show. Sources include the Beauford Delaney estate, the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, the Knoxville Museum of Art, and the Beauford Delaney Papers held at the University of Tennessee Libraries.

One of the gouaches on paper in the exhibition was shown in public for the first time in the 2016 Beauford Delaney: Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color exhibition organized by the Wells International Foundation and Les Amis in Paris, France.

Untitled
(1961) Gouache on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

The show will also include several works on canvas and archival materials such as documentary photographs, correspondence, exhibition brochures, and press clippings that are intended to provide a biographical backdrop for Beauford's artistic practice.

Delaney Family Portrait, 1909
Beauford Delaney Papers, MS.3967.
University of Tennessee Libraries, Knoxville,
Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives.*
Image by Wells International Foundation

Founded 24 years after Beauford left NYC for Paris, The Drawing Center's original address (137 Greene Street) was in the same block as Beauford's studio (181 Greene Street). The center moved to its present location at 35 Wooster Street in 1987. 

Click HERE to read about the interesting history of this neighborhood.

For detailed information about the exhibition, click HERE. 

*Conditions Governing Use
Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator.
Held in the Beauford Delaney Papers, MS.3967,
Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives,
University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

French Press Captivated by Beauford's Portrait of James Baldwin

In his article for The Guardian about the Paris Noir exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, journalist Jason Okundaye writes:

"If [Gerard] Sekoto is the face of the Paris Noir exhibition, then [Beauford] Delaney is its beating heart."

Articles published by the French press about the exhibition seem to corroborate this observation.

L'EssentiART published an article that focuses solely on the Beauford Delaney works in the show. The title of the piece refers to Beauford as the "luminous red line" (fil rouge lumineux) of the exhibition.

A large number of articles include an image of one of Beauford's iconic portraits of James Baldwin.

James Baldwin
(c. 1945-1950) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

The painting represented in the image above is one of the two Beauford Delaney portraits of Baldwin that hang in the second room of the exhibition.

Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin portraits in Room 2
Artwork © Estate of Beauford Delaney
By permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo © Entrée to Black Paris

James Baldwin in Room 2
(1967) Oil on canvas
Artwork © Estate of Beauford Delaney
By permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Photo © Entrée to Black Paris

Of the 13 write-ups I found on the first three pages of Google by using the prompt "Beauford Delaney and Paris Noir," seven (7) of them use a full or cropped image of the older, multicolored portrait as the article's anchor image.

An additional two (2) of the articles use the image in the body of the article or in an image slider.

One can only speculate as to why so much attention is being paid to this particular work, especially since Beauford's dazzling portrait of Marian Anderson and his own stunning self-portrait are also part of the show.

What is certain is that Beauford has captivated the French press!

Beauford and Langston Hughes

I recently received notification that the Nevada Museum of Art would include work by Beauford in its exhibition entitled When Langston Hughes Came to Town.

I immediately went to the museum's Website to see what information I could find about the premise of the show and why Beauford is being included in it.

The copy on the Web page indicates that the exhibition will be divided into three parts that explore:

1) Hughes' relationship with the State of Nevada
2) Work created by leading artists of the Harlem Renaissance who had close ties to Hughes
3) Contemporary artists who were inspired by Hughes and made work about his life

A slider near the bottom of the page shows Beauford's portrait of Ella Fitzgerald as one of the works to be displayed in the show.

Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald
(1968) Oil on canvas
Permanent collection of the SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah
Gift of Dr. Walter O. and Mrs. Linda J. Evans
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Beauford's name is mentioned in reference to the artists of the Harlem Renaissance with whom Hughes had close ties.

Not being familiar with any close relationship between the two men, I set out to investigate what this might have entailed.

I did not find any mention of Beauford in either of the two volumes of The Life of Langston Hughes, a biography by Arnold Rampersad.

I only found a few mentions of Hughes in Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney by David Leeming, the only Beauford Delaney biography that currently exists.

Leeming says that Beauford encountered Hughes at "the old stable at 306 West 141st Street" in Harlem, which was known simply as "306" by the Black intellectuals who gathered there.

He says that Beauford read "whatever was published in journals by Langston Hughes."

And he mentions that Hughes attended the party celebrating the production of James Baldwin's The Amen Corner in Paris in 1965, which Beauford attended as well.

In 1948, Hughes authored the radio transcripts for an NBC summer replacement series called Swing Time at the Savoy, which was recorded at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Ella Fitzgerald and her then husband, Ray Brown performed there on July 28, 1948.

I reached out to the museum to request information to supplement my findings. 

Director of Communications Valerie Primeau responded, informing me that Beauford's portrait of Fitzgerald will be the only work of his in the exhibition. 

She also said:

"Although Langston Hughes and Beauford Delaney were prominent figures during the Harlem Renaissance and had shared mutual respect for their art practices, documented interactions are limited.

"This portrait of Ella Fitzgerald was selected because she is one of the greatest jazz vocalists who often performed in the Savoy Room during the period before receiving her major break in the 1930s at the Apollo Theater. Her iconic voice, visually presented with the bold application of color, shows how she illuminated concert halls and jazz venues. 

"Merging the histories of these three artists envelops Hughes’s appreciation of jazz and blues and core expressions of Black Life."

When Langston Hughes Came to Town opens today - May 3, 2025.

It will be on display through February 15, 2026.

Thoughts of Spring

When I saw the image of the work on paper depicted below, I immediately thought of spring – the season of new beginnings, of rebirth. 

For me, spring is the season of hope.

Untitled (Yellow and Green Composition)
(1961) Watercolor on wove paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

The brownish vertical lines in this work remind me of tree bark and the green blotches and sweeping curvilinear strokes remind me of leaves and branches covered with the foliage of the season.  

The yellow core evokes a mighty rush of sun-derived energy filling the core of this hollow tree.

But the choice of the pale greens for the background somehow mutes the power of that energy. 

This leaves me with a slight feeling of melancholy.

Beauford created this work in 1961.  In Amazing Grace, Beauford's biographer, David Leeming, talks about three letters that Beauford wrote during the first ten days of March that year.

In a letter to Lynn Stone, he wrote about not having found a "solution" to living in "a jungle of the world."

In a letter to his brother, Joseph, he spoke of sadness and having come through great trials and tribulations.  He then indicated his belief that "God understands us all and has love for us and mercy."

In a letter to his dear friend, Larry Calcagno, he wrote:

"... movement for me is inside rather than without." 

I wonder if Untitled (Yellow and Green Composition) could be an artistic representation of the solace Beauford was seeking during this difficult emotional period – a way of painting into existence what he wanted to feel inside.