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Saturday, November 7, 2015

Beauford's Marian Anderson Portrait in "The Art of Music"

The San Diego Museum of Art is hosting a mega exhibition called The Art of Music. It is billed as "a multifaceted and culturally diverse exploration of the intersection between music and art."

Focused around three central themes: "The Musician as Motif," "Social Intersections of Art and Music," and "Formal Connections of Art and Music," the show celebrates the centennial of Balboa Park, which is home to the museum. It pays tribute to the daily musical performances held in the park during the year-long 1915 Panama–California Exposition.

Beauford loved music. I imagine he'd be thrilled to know that his portrait of Marian Anderson, which is currently held by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, is being shown as part of The Art of Music.

Marian Anderson
(1965) Oil on canvas
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

In a San Diego Union-Tribune review of the exhibition, journalist James Chute has the following to say about the portrait:

Anderson was an iconic figure in the early civil rights movement, and in this seated portrait — with its vivid yellow background, with her hands folded, and an expression in which each viewer will find his own meaning — she’s looking right at you. This is the sort of painting that if you were living with it, it could change your life. As that’s unlikely (the living-with-it part), just make a point of stopping by to see her whenever you are in the museum. You may even find yourself starting up a conversation...

The museum has included this painting as part of the "The Musician as Motif" theme. It can be found in the subsection for portraits in Gallery 4.

The Art of Music will be on display until February 7, 2016. For more information, click HERE.

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Les Amis de Beauford Delaney, Reid Hall, and the Wells International Foundation (WIF) are partnering to bring an exhibition of original Beauford Delaney works to Reid Hall in Paris in February 2016! WE VALUE YOUR SUPPORT!

To contribute to the show, click HERE.

To sign-up to receive the latest behind-the-scenes news about the show, click HERE.

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