Beauford and Bob Thompson at the Minneapolis Institute of Art

The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is taking full advantage of a long term loan of the Myron Kunin Collection of American Art*. Robert Cozzolino, Mia's Patrick and Aimee Butler Curator of Paintings, shared information about Kunin Collection Focus: Bob Thompson, the most recent installation that explores the strengths and character of Kunin's collector's eye.

Entry to Kunin Collection Focus: Bob Thompson
Image courtesy of Minneapolis Institute of Art
Kunin collected several works by Bob Thompson, a painter who, like Beauford, spent time in New York and Paris. Both artists worked in the Abstract Expressionist style. They participated in a group show along with fellow artist Abe Rattner at the American Artists' Center in Paris in 1962. In a scholarly article published in Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art (1999), author Geoffrey Jacques says the following about Thompson:

"His sense of color and his way of applying paint may have had their roots in art history (I find echoes of Matisse, and, to some extent, Beauford Delaney)..."

Cozzolino thought it would be good to give Mia visitors a chance to view these paintings and created the exhibition to coincide with Black History Month tours that the museum is hosting in February. It consists of 15 works - nine by Thompson, four by Beauford, one by Jan Müller (a New York-based expressionist artist whose work Thompson appreciated), and one by Baroque painter Johann Georg Platzer (Thompson frequently reinterpreted works by Baroque and Renaissance masters). By including Beauford's paintings in the show, Cozzolino aims to have viewers compare and contract his work with that of Thompson.

Mia owns four Beauford Delaney paintings, two of which are on display in the current exhibition. One of these is the famous raincoat painting from Beauford's early Paris years; the other is an untitled oil on masonite painting from his New York years. The untitled painting is hung next to Thompson's oil on canvas entitled The Wind.

Untitled (oil on masonite) by Beauford Delaney (far right);
The Wind by Bob Thompson (center)
Image courtesy of Minneapolis Institute of Art

Untitled
(1947) Oil on masonite
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
The raincoat painting is displayed alone, mounted on a plinth in the center of the room. Jazz Quartet and Untitled (Washington Square Park), both of which are on loan to the museum, are hung next to each other on one wall of the exhibition. Untitled (Washington Square Park) is part of the Kunin Collection.

Untitled (raincoat painting)(center);
Untitled (Washington Square Park) and Jazz Quartet (far right)
Image courtesy of Minneapolis Institute of Art

Untitled (Washington Square Park)
(1952) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Jazz Quartet
(1946) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Mia's sole Bob Thompson painting - Homage to Nina Simone is the focal piece of the exhibition. The remainder of the Thompson paintings on display are from the Kunin Collection.

Kunin Collection Focus: Bob Thompson is located in room G275 at Mia. It is scheduled to run through March 24, 2019. Entry to the museum is free.

Kunin Collection Focus: Bob Thompson
November 3, 2018 - March 24, 2019
Minneapolis Institute of Art
2400 Third Avenue South
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404
Telephone: (888)642-2787 (Toll Free)
Internet: visit@artsmia.org

*Over the span of four decades, Myron Kunin assembled one of the most important private collections of American paintings from the first half of the 20th century. On extended loan to Mia from the Kunin family, the 396 paintings, 64 prints and drawings, 21 sculptures, and 77 photographs comprise one of the foremost collections of American modern art in private hands.

Buyer Beware: Authenticating Your Purchase of Beauford's Art

A recently published article in ArtForum entitled "Dealers Say Counterfeit Artworks by African American Artists Are on the Rise" opens with the following statement:

"As African American artists have done increasingly well in the art market, shattering auction records and creating a surge in demand, there has been a corresponding growth in the number of forgeries attributed to African American artists, from Alma Thomas to Charles White."

This statement applies to Beauford's art. Last year, sale prices of his work at several auctions far exceeded expectations. An example is Swann Auction Galleries' sale of Untitled (Village Street Scene) for $557,000 (including buyer's premium), when the estimated sale price was $150,000 to $250,000.

Untitled (Village Street Scene)
(1948) Oil on canvas
737x1016 mm; 29x40 inches
Signed and dated in oil, lower left.
Image from Swann Auction Galleries Web site
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
At the same time, there were many occasions when I wanted to publish an article about one or more works being offered at auction and permission to publish was denied by the Beauford Delaney estate because the pieces were suspected to be forgeries.

Requiring proof of authentication is a critical step in acquiring works of fine art and yet this is not always the easiest thing to accomplish. If you are new to collecting, you may want to learn more about this. So I am providing links to several online sources of information that pertain to this topic. I hope you'll find them useful!

Note that Les Amis does not endorse any of these sources or the information that they provide.

What Counts as an Artwork’s Proof of Authenticity

What Every Art Collector Needs to Know About Provenance

Art Provenance: What It Is and How to Verify It

Everything You Need to Know About the Certificate of Authenticity

How to Tell if your Artwork is Fake

Time Out: A Contemplative Exercise with Beauford's Art

In an article entitled "Double Vision: Beauford Delaney and Ted Joans in France," art historian and curator Karima Boudou makes two insightful statements about Beauford's art:

"A Delaney painting is a poem rather than a picture. It portrays an emotion called up by a scene, and not the scene itself in all its elaborate complexity."

" If you spend time in front of a Delaney painting and watch, figures and objects come in and out of focus, just as if everything in the world is elusive. The reason for this ambiguity in Delaney’s work is that a Delaney painting is not simply a depiction of a new way of seeing; it is, rather, the visual articulation of a metaphysical state."

I invite you to take some time out from your busy schedule and look at the images of several of Beauford's paintings below, keeping these two statements in mind. Give yourself a wonderful break from the hustle and bustle of your daily routine and contemplate what you see and feel!

Rosa Parks
(1967) oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

Can Fire in the Park
(1946) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

The Eye
(1965) Oil on canvas
Private Collection
© Discover Paris
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Dark Rapture (a portrait of James Baldwin)
(1941) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Untitled
Watercolor on paper
Signed and dated lower left in red ink, "Beauford Delaney 1971"
Photo courtesy of Case Antiques
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Café Scene
(1966) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Portrait of Vasilli Pikoula
(1970) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Solliès-Toucas

The images below represent two paintings by Beauford that bare the (misspelled) name of the French town of Solliès-Toucas. Beauford's friends, Richard Olney and Bernard Hassell, owned a home there.

Sollis Toucan 

(1963) Oil on canvas

Signed, dated and titled, on the stretcher

16 3/8 x 13 inches

© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Soullis Toucas

(Beauford's gift to Roy Freeman)

Oil on canvas

© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
In the book entitled The Gourmand's Way, we find descriptions of the property where Beauford created these works. It overlooked the valley of the Gapeau River, where

"...cherry orchards transformed the valley into a blanket of white blossom in early April, the ground of the hillsides formed a tapestry of the blues and violets of flowering wild thyme, punctuated by bushes of wild rosemary..."

Author Justin Spring describes Olney and Hassell's home as a "ruined shepherd's cottage," a "one-bedroom home" featuring "a combination kitchen and hearth as its main room." He says that the terrace was the place where guests gathered and describes a "dining table tucked into a combination of sun awning and grape arbor" there. Olney decorated the terrace with a string of lights and planted flowers and herbs on parterres below. The house had a southeastern exposure, which provided for plenty of sun most of the year. The surrounding land consisted of seven acres of olive groves.

Throughout much of the 1960s (the period when at least one of the above paintings was created), there was no road leading to the property. The house had no running water and no phone. Cooking was done on a gas ring. The garden housed "a walk-in aviary and chicken run, a gently dripping fountain, a persimmon tree..."

Over time, improvements to the property included the addition of a fireplace in the kitchen, a driveway and parking area, and a wine cellar.

Guests would commonly stay 1-2 weeks at a time and were expected to contribute to the functioning of the household - foraging for wild herbs and vegetables, preparing meals, stacking wood were all activities in which they could expect to partake.

This was the world where biographer David Leeming says that "Beauford painted a great deal, and, as always, enjoyed the sun..."