Beauford and the Sage

In Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, Beauford's biographer, David Leeming, tells us that Beauford's friend Larry Calcagno gave Beauford a "copy of Lao Tzu that he nearly always carried with him and was fond of quoting."

Numerous Lao Tzu quotes reference the Sage, and some translations refer to the Sage as female. I wonder if Beauford decision to call his 1967 portrait of James Baldwin The Sage Black had anything to do with his knowledge of and affinity for these references.

The Sage Black
(1967) Oil on canvas
Private collection
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Leeming does not indicate whether Beauford had favorite Lao Tzu quotes, or what these might have been. So I'm sharing several of my favorites, which I'd like to think Beauford would appreciate.

"Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity."

"If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. For truly, the greatest gift you have to offer humanity, is your own transformation."

"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."

"When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you."

"If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present."

"Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong."

"Thirty spokes share the hub of a wheel; yet it is its center that makes it useful.  You can mold clay into a vessel; yet, it is its emptiness that makes it useful.  Cut doors and windows from the walls of a house;
but the ultimate use of the house will depend on that part where nothing exists.

Therefore, something is shaped into what is; but its usefulness comes from what is not."

"Matter is necessary to give form, but the value of reality lies in its immateriality. Everything that lives has a physical body, but the value of a life is measured by the soul."

"At the center of your being, you have the answer."

"To a mind that is still the whole universe surrenders."

Beauford and W. C. Handy

W. C. Handy
(1939) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

When Beauford met W. C. Handy at a party hosted by composer Luke Theodore Upshure in Greenwich Village in August 1930, it was the beginning of a long and influential friendship. 

Already an accomplished musician and composer when he moved to NYC, Handy and his partner Harry Pace operated a successful music publishing business from an office on Times Square.  By the time he and Beauford met, he had already rebounded from a severe reversal of fortune and was enjoying renewed interest in his greatest recordings.

Beauford immersed himself in jazz and embraced Handy's suggestion that he begin sketching jazz musicians and other notables in New York City's 1930s black community. He painted the oil portrait of his friend in 1939; it was used for the poster announcement of Beauford's solo show at the Vendome Gallery in midtown Manhattan in 1941.

Beauford's biographer, David Leeming, reports that a review of the show by New York Sun journalist Melvine Upton describes Beauford's portrayal of Handy as "personal and peculiarly understanding."

Beauford's pencil sketches of celebrated black Americans illustrate Handy's 1944 book entitled Unsung Americans Sung. 

 Unsung Americans Sung book cover

Several of these sketches are posted in two Les Amis articles that feted Women's History Month in 2021:

Les Amis Celebrates Women's History Month - Part 3

Les Amis Celebrates Women's History Month - Part 4

Photo Portraits of Beauford

I thought it would be fun to post in one place several photo portraits of Beauford that were taken over the course of his adult life. I hope you enjoy them!

Delia Delaney's photo of Beauford
Fair use claim

A young Beauford Delaney
Photo: African-American Registry
Fair use claim

Portrait of Beauford Delaney
(ca. 1950)
Possibly by Gjon Mili

Beauford Delaney
© Carl van Vechten 1953

Portrait of Beauford Delaney
© 1953 Carl Van Vechten
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

Portrait of Beauford Delaney
© 1953 Carl Van Vechten

Cover of Beauford Delaney: A Retrospective catalog
Photo by Ahmed Bioud

Beauford Delaney
Rue Guilleminot
France 1973
© Errol Sawyer

Cat Stevens' Yellow Delaney

A colleague recently contacted me to tell me about a client who is researching his recently purchased Beauford Delaney abstract. One of the things mentioned in his message was the fact that Cat Stevens (now known as Yusef / Cat Stevens) mentions Beauford in a song called "Into White." I was intrigued - of course - and immediately began investigating! 

"Into White" is one of eleven songs recorded for Stevens' Tea for the Tillerman album, which was released in November 1970. The fanciful lyrics describe a house built by the songwriter and its surroundings.  The materials used are barley rice, green pepper, and water ice...

Part of the second verse of the song goes as follows:

Yellow Delaney
Would sleep well at night
With everything emptying
Into white

In Googling the song, I found several chat threads where Stevens' fans discuss and attempt to understand the meaning of this lyric.  References to Beauford as a painter who used the color "yellow" can be found in at least three of these threads.

I wondered whether Stevens collected art and might even own a Beauford Delaney painting. I did not find any information to support this, but I did learn that Stevens attended Hammersmith School of Art for a year.

I find Cat Stevens' music soothing and wonder if Beauford would have as well.  Here is a yellow self-portrait that might have "slept well" in Stevens' barley rice home.  Beauford painted it the same year that Stevens recorded and released "Into White."

Self-portrait
(1970) Gouache on paper
Collection of David A. Leeming
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Listen to "Into White" by clicking on the image below.

Swann Auction Galleries Sells Two Beauford Delaney Works at March 31, 2022 Auction

Swann Auction Galleries' March 31, 2022 African American Art sale is now history. Both of the Beauford Delaney works it offered during this auction were sold.  

The estimated sale price for Untitled (Composition in Yellow, Orange and Red) was $40,000 - $60,000. 

It sold for $137,000, including buyer's premium.

Lot 48
Untitled (Composition in Yellow, Orange and Red)
(c. 1958-59) Oil on paper mounted on linen canvas
1346x965 mm; 53x38 inches
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
By permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

The estimated sale price for Untitled (watercolor) was $8,000 - $12,000. 

 It sold for $12,500, including buyer's premium.

Lot 49 

Untitled
(1956) Watercolor on cream wove paper
450x335 mm; 17 1/2x13 1/4 inches
Signed and dated in ink, lower right
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
By permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

For more information about the auction results, click HERE.