University of Tennessee Knoxville Launches Campaign to Acquire Beauford Delaney Archive

The University of Tennessee Knoxville's University Libraries has the rare opportunity to purchase the Beauford Delaney archive that is currently held at the Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA). In partnership with the Beck Cultural Exchange Center and the Knoxville Museum of Art, UT Libraries will leverage their collective Delaney holdings through programs, exhibitions, digital projects, and other programs and initiatives for the advancement of Beauford's legacy.

In addition to material documenting his work and life, the archive contains correspondence with leading artistic and literary greats such as James Baldwin, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Henry Miller, as well as sketchbooks containing drawings, daily musings, and preliminary studies for some of Beauford's major paintings. Many of these sketches were shown for the first time at Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin: Through the Unusual Door, the outstanding exhibition curated by Stephen Wicks, Barbara W. and Bernard E. Bernstein Curator at KMA, at the museum in 2020.

I had the pleasure of visiting Knoxville and attended the opening of this exhibition. The archival materials displayed there were extraordinary.

Sketchbooks from archive
Display from Through the Unusual Door
Photograph by Les Amis de Beauford Delaney
© The Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Photos, sketches, and work on paper from archive
Display from Through the Unusual Door
Photograph by Les Amis de Beauford Delaney
© The Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Sketch of James Baldwin, circa 1966
Blue ink on sketchbook paper, 5 ½ x 3 ½ inches
Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee
Photograph by Bruce Cole
© The Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

The archive will be an indispensable resource for scholars working locally to internationally in art history, Black cultural studies and aesthetics, Modernism, American civil rights history and cultural studies, and queer theory/history.

The cost to purchase the collection is $1,000,000, and UT Libraries anticipates an additional $100,000 in processing and digitization costs once it procures the archive. With the University of Tennessee agreeing to invest $500,000 for the purchase, the overall fundraising goal for the acquisition is $600,000.

UT Libraries is seeking pledges for contributions from philanthropic organizations and individuals interested in preserving Beauford's legacy and retaining the archive in his hometown of Knoxville. The Henry Luce Foundation has already expressed interest in contributing to costs associated with processing the collection.

All pledges must be secured by March 1, 2022. Donors will be allowed to make multi-year payments.

To learn more about the Beauford Delaney Archive or to make a donation, contact:

Stacy Palado, Director of Advancement
University of Tennessee Libraries
1015 Volunteer Blvd.
Knoxville, TN 37996-1000

865-974-0055 (office) or 865-274-7529 (cell)

Addendum: The University of Tennessee Knoxville successfully acquired the Beauford Delaney archives in March 2022.

1964 Beauford Delaney Abstract for Auction

On January 21, 2022 a beautiful Beauford Delaney abstract, signed and dated 1964, was offered at auction by De Baecque et Associés in Paris.

Untitled (1964) Oil on canvas
41 x 33 cm; 16.1 x 12.9 in
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Nineteen sixty-four (1964) was a busy year for Beauford. He received a $3,500 grant from the Fairfield Foundation in January, participated in a group show at the Galerie Internationale d'Art Contemporaine in the spring, displayed ten abstract gouaches in the Copenhagen exhibition entitled 10 American Negro Artists in July, and sold a large oil painting to the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Beauford sold several paintings to a collector in October, had works shown at Farleigh Dickinson University in October/November, and participated in a television interview for artists and writers who were members of the Artists Abroad for Johnson Committee. Most importantly, he prepared for the opening of his monographic exhibition at the Galerie Lambert in December.

Untitled, 1964 was part of the collection of Hélène Baltrusaitis, the woman who became director of the art center at the American Cultural Center in Paris in the wake of the departure of Darthea Speyer. According to biographer David Leeming, Baltrusaitis arranged for Beauford to contribute three abstract paintings for an itinerant show of works by American artists in December 1966. She also organized his participation in many exhibitions at the American Cultural Center and sponsored an evening dedicated to Beauford at the center in March 1969.

This painting (Lot No. 101) was estimated to sell for 8000€ - 12000€. It sold for 52,000€ (not including buyer's fees).

Celebrating MLK Day

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have been 93 years old today. His journey as a civil rights leader was profoundly important to Beauford and I want to acknowledge this fact and celebrate his birth in today's blog post.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Photo from the collection of the Library of Congress

Dr. King is mentioned three times in Beauford's biography entitled Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney. Author David Leeming first evokes King's name in the chapter called "Boston and Harlem," when he refers to William Monroe Trotter as possibly being the "ancestor" of Dr. King's nonviolent civil disobedience movement. In the same chapter, he notes that Beauford moved from Boston to New York City in November of the year of King's birth.

Much later in the book, Leeming indicates that Dr. King's assassination had a "disastrous" effect on Beauford's mental health.

Dr. King and Beauford both loved jazz and gospel music, and both particularly loved Mahalia Jackson's singing. Watch a video of Jackson singing to Dr. King at a 1967 Chicago, IL church service here:

and watch her sing "I'm glad salvation is free"—a song that Beauford recalled as he traveled back to his hometown of Knoxville, TN in March 1950—here.

Happy Birthday, Dr. King!

Sold! Two paintings from the Resonance of Form exhibition in Paris

A few days before Christmas, two paintings from the 2016 Beauford Delaney: Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color exhibition were put up for auction by Pierre Bergé et Associés in their Art Moderne et Contemporain (Modern and Contemporary Art) sale.

One was the self-portrait that served as the cover image for the exhibition catalog.

Self-portrait
(undated) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

The other was a lyrical abstract work in pastel hues.

Composition
(1961) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Pierre Bergé & Associés chose Composition as the work to display on its catalog cover.

Pierre Bergé & Associés catalog cover

Both paintings fetched handsome prices.

The estimated price range for the abstract (Lot 6) was 300,000€ - 400,000€. The actual sale price was 371,120€, including the buyer's fee.

The estimated price range for the self-portrait (Lot 7) was 250,000€ - 300,000€. The actual sale price was 308,220€, including the buyer's fee.

New Year Greetings from Les Amis de Beauford Delaney

In January 1962, Beauford moved into what would be his last studio in Paris - a space at 53, rue Vercingétorix purchased by Solange Du Closel and her husband, Jacques, for the express purpose of providing Beauford a place to live and work.

That was sixty years ago!

Today, in commemoration of this anniversary and in celebration of the New Year, I'm presenting an abstract work that Beauford created in 1962. Similar to last year's New Year post, I'm hoping it is a visual metaphor for what 2022 will bring.

Untitled
(1962) Gouache and watercolor on paper, signed
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

This untitled abstract fairly glows with warm, vibrant colors. It was shown in the recent Frieze Masters exhibition mounted by the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery* in the UK.

I see orange and yellow as the predominant hues in this work, with red, pink, and a touch of white as accents.

Here's what several Websites have to say about the positive symbolism of these colors:

"Orange is the color of joy and creativity. Orange promotes a sense of general wellness and emotional energy that should be shared, such as compassion, passion, and warmth. Orange will help a person recover from disappointments, a wounded heart, or a blow to one’s pride."

"Associated with the more pleasant things in life, yellow kindles joy and happiness. Most prominently recognized as a cheerful and lively hue, yellow inspires positivity. With its effortless innocence, the color yellow resonates deeply with children."

"Red is powerfully linked to our most primitive physical and emotional needs of survival and self-preservation. It is the color of physical energy, passion, courage, power, will, and desire. Red symbolizes energy, action, confidence, courage, and change.

"The color pink symbolizes charm, sensitivity, tenderness, the feminine, politeness, and the romantic. It also stands for universal love of others and of oneself."

"White is the lightest color, meaning purity, innocence, and integrity. It is considered to represent perfection, as it is the purest and most complete color. It ... represents new begging and erases any trace of past actions. It is like a piece of white paper not being written yet. It leaves the mind open and free to whatever it might create in the way."

I hope you infuse all these elements into your life in 2022!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM
LES AMIS DE BEAUFORD DELANEY!

*Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC is Special Advisor and Representative of the Estate of Beauford Delaney.