Beauford and "The Rhythm of New York"

In the book entitled Making Race: Modernism and “Racial Art” in America, author Jacqueline Francis devotes roughly two pages of text to Beauford's work from the early New York years in her chapter on "Type/Face/Mask: Racial Portraiture." She cites a quote that Beauford gave to the New York Telegraph in a 1930 interview:

"I never drew a decent thing until I felt the rhythm of New York. New York has a rhythm as distinct as the beating of a human heart. And I'm trying to put it on canvas..."

Today I'm sharing images of a few of the paintings Beauford created in the years subsequent to this interview to capture the landscape of New York.

Greene Street
(1940) Oil on canvas
Image by André Moran from the Artsmia Web site
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Greenwich Village
(1945) Oil on canvas
Image by Manu Sasoonian, from Amazing Grace
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Exchange Place
(1943) Oil on panel
Image Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York , NY
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Untitled (Washington Square Park)
(1952) Oil on canvas
Myron Kunin Collection of American Art
Minneapolis Institute of Art
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Untitled (Trees)
(c. 1945) Oil on canvas
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator