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Saturday, May 11, 2019

Beauford at the Galerie Prisme

According to biographer David Leeming, Beauford had his first solo show at the Galerie Prisme in May 1956. Leeming describes the works as being "abstractions marked by large areas of paint applied thickly in swirls and various colors - blues, pinks, softer colors than those of the Greene Street period." He remarks that these paintings may represent a transition between Beauford's use of "Fauve-like coloration" in his New York paintings and the use of "tightly textured, less varied coloration" during his Paris years.

"...paint applied thickly in swirls and various colors..." implies that the abstractions from the Galerie Prisme show were done with oils.

Composition 16 is a painting that fits this description, but I do not know that it was shown at the Galerie Prisme.

Composition 16
(1954-1956) Oil on canvas
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

While I have no additional images of oil paintings from 1955 / 1956 that fit this description, I am sharing below images of two works on paper that Beauford created during this period. Effectively, the coloring is softer in these works.

Untitled
(1956) Watercolor on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Abstract Circles
(1956) Pastel on paper
Knoxville Museum of Art
Knoxville, Tennessee
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Beauford's work was also included in a group show called L'Insurréction Contre La Forme at Galerie Prisme in June 1957. The gallery was located at 6, rue Monsieur-le-Prince in the 6th arrondissement.

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