Cannes Film Festival - Possible Venue for Beauford Documentary Screening

In a blog post that I published almost eight years ago, I spoke about a film project that centered on the celebration of the laying of Beauford's tombstone at the Parisian cemetery of Thiais.

At the time, Zachary Miller of 2 Bulls on the Hill Productions wanted to create a short film (less than 30 minutes) about the many facets of Beauford's life in Paris and to share images of a few of his works owned by private collectors.

Because of the richness and volume of footage obtained, Miller also thought that a full-length documentary could be produced.

Zachary Miller
Proprietor, 2 Bulls on the Hill Productions
© Entrée to Black Paris
Miller has acquired additional material for the project and now informs me that he believes a full-length documentary is not only possible, but preferable. The project is ~90% complete and Miller would like to finish it in time to show it at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, which will take place from May 14-25. His comments on this possibility are as follows:

"The appetite and the market for films on historic Black individuals and the Black experience in general is very strong right now...

"We have the great original footage of the graveyard and the Embassy ceremony scenes, the interviews in Paris, etc. The only thing that is lacking is a strong voice-over narrative that I can write and perform if needed and some archival footage of the cities that he [Beauford] lived in, the Harlem Renaissance, and music from around the time that Beauford was in the USA and in Paris."

As you might expect, funds are required to complete the documentary and reserve a screening room for its presentation at Cannes. The budget is as follows:

Cannes Market Accreditation: 500 Euros

Cannes Screening Room: 500 Euros

Publicity, Post Card Printing: 250 Euros

Producer Rep / Marketing / Prints & Advertising: 2,500 Euros

Film footage, music, and archival stock and news footage: 2,000 Euros

Total: 5,750 Euros (needed ASAP)

Monies must be submitted to Cannes for marketing accreditation and booking the screening room no later than April 30.

Please give to support this endeavor! All you need to do is click on the Donate button below.

If you would like to become a private investor in the project, contact me as soon as possible at .

40th Anniversary of Beauford's Transition

Tuesday, March 26th will mark the 40th anniversary of Beauford's transition.

In commemoration, Les Amis is taking a look at what he was doing during his 40th year of life.

In 1941, Beauford was living at 181 Greene Street in Manhattan. According to his biographer, David Leeming, he was "already experimenting with pure abstractions concerned with light and color without reference to objective forms" at this time.

1941 was also the year that Beauford "came out" as a modernist with a one-man show at the Vendome art gallery in midtown Manhattan. His paintings entitled Greene Street,

Greene Street
(1940) Oil on canvas
Photo by André Moran from the Artsmia Web site
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Untitled (The Artist and Woman Seated),

Untitled (The Artist and Woman Seated)
(1940) Oil on linen canvas
762x914 mm; 30x36 inches
Signed and dated in oil, lower left
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
and Dark Rapture

Dark Rapture
(1941) Oil on masonite
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
were exhibited in this show.

In December 1941, several of Beauford's paintings were shown alongside the works of other African-American artists in an exhibition at Edith Halpert's Downtown Gallery. The New Yorker magazine singled out one of his abstract paintings, a "swirling red-and-yellow 'Still Life'" for comment.

A Musical Interlude

Beauford loved and had quite an eclectic taste for music.

In a letter that Beauford wrote to his friend Al Hirschfeld in 1940, he talks about painting while listening to Billie Holiday and he recommends other recordings that he thinks his friend will benefit from having. One of these is "She's a Trucking Little Baby" by Blind Boy Fuller.

I had not heard of this artist before and looked up the song. Here it is for your enjoyment!

Beauford in the "Four Sunday Painters" Exhibition at the Whitney Studio Galleries

Several years ago, I published an article about how Beauford came to show works at the Whitney Studio Galleries soon after he arrived in New York. I've recently learned more about this and am sharing the information below.

The show was entitled Exhibition by four Sunday painters : Arthur E. Cederquist, Beauford Delaney, Prosper Invernizzi, Kalman Oswald.

Cover for exhibition checklist
Source: Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York
Fair use
Beauford contributed twelve of the 40 works displayed in the exhibition, which ran from February 26-March 8, 1930. They are listed in the center panel of the image below.

Exhibition checklist
Source: Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York
Fair use
Juliana Force, director of purchasing and exhibition at the Whitney, bought two of Beauford's pastels on the first day of the show: Girl in Yellow Dress and Profile of Boy. She paid $25 for each work. (In today's dollars, she would have paid ~$730 per pastel.)

Shipping receipt for Juliana Force purchase
Source: Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York
Fair use
By the end of the show, all but two pastels were sold.

Christie's Sells Beauford's Abstraction No. 4

Beauford's Abstraction No. 4 was auctioned by Christie's New York during its Post-War to Present sale on February 28.

Abstraction No. 4
(ca. 1965) Oil on canvas
51 x 38 1/8 in. (129.5 x 96.8 cm.)
signed 'Beauford Delaney' (upper right)
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

The seller acquired the painting from Beauford's brother, Joseph, who acquired it from Beauford.

Abstraction No. 4's estimated sale price was $100,000 to $150,000. It sold for $387,000, including a buyer's premium of 20%.

For more information about the Post-War to Present sale, click HERE.