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Saturday, July 21, 2012

Beauford's Art - Monotypes

In surfing the Web the other day, I came across an interesting tidbit of information about Beauford's art: he created monotypes - prints that are produced using a technique through which a painted image is transferred through pressure to a sheet of paper, producing a unique impression.

Searching further, I found images of two of Beauford's monotypes that Swann Galleries auctioned in 2008 and 2010. The gallery describes the first print as a "possible self-portrait":

Untitled (Smiling Man)
(circa 1960-65) Color oil monotype
Photo courtesy of Swann Galleries

The second work is described as follows:
This striking and large montoype dates from the summer of 1966 when Beauford Delaney traveled to Istanbul to visit James Baldwin after attending the Venice Biennale.

Untitled (Istanbul, Turkey)
(1966) Oil monotype on thick cream wove paper
Photo courtesy of Swann Galleries

The "self-portrait" sold for $30,000 at auction in 2008, while the painting of Istanbul was unsold in 2010.

The Istanbul painting was illustrated in the catalog of an exposition of American monotypes called Singular Impressions: The Monotype in America that was mounted by the National Museum of American Art at The Smithsonian in 1997. Beauford's painting did not actually hang at this exposition.

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