Brent Hayes Edwards Pairs Beauford's Composition 16 with Jazz Music

Several weeks ago, I posted an article that paired several of Beauford's abstracts with classical music by Tchaikovsky: Beauford and Tchaikovsky

So I was intrigued when I read that Brent Hayes Edwards, Peng Family Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, was recently inspired to pair Beauford's magnificent abstract Composition 16 with a piece called "Midnight Sun" by jazz musician and composer Henry Threadgill.

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

Edwards and Threadgill co-authored Threadgill's autobiography, Easily Slip into Another World, which was published in May 2023. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC is featuring Edwards on its Website in an article that announces a playlist of Threadgill's music coupled with Edwards' musings about how this music intertwines with several works on display at the museum.

You can find the music on Spotify in a mixtape created by MoMA called Brent Hayes Edwards Slips into Another World.

MoMA Mixtape image from Spotify
Fair Use claim

Click HERE to listen (look for Track 2 on the playlist).

Click HERE to read the entire article on MoMA's Website.

Another June Sale

ADER Nordmann has auctioned a Beauford Delaney watercolor landscape that depicts a scene in Turkey.

Lot 121
Landscape, 1966
Watercolor
Signed, dated and located "Istanbul Turkey" lower right
49 x 64 cm
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Lot 121
Landscape, 1966
Watercolor
Close-up of signature and date
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator  This work is undoubtedly one of the "watercolors of the hills of Asia" described by David A. Leeming in his biography of Beauford entitled Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney.

I've had the pleasure of publishing multiple articles about Beauford's stay in Istanbul:

Beauford and Baldwin in Istanbul

Beauford in Istanbul

Sedat Pakay's Tribute to Beauford

as well as the sale of art that Beauford produced while there:

Istanbul Calling: A Recordbreaking Sale

This post is the second one to fall in the latter category.

ADER Nordmann's Post War and Contemporary Art - Prestige sale took place in Paris on Friday, June 16, 2023. 

The estimated sale price of Landscape, 1966 was 3000€ to 5000€.  It sold for 43,250€ (including 28% buyer's premium). The hammer price of 34,000€ was almost seven times more than the highest estimated sale price.

Brisk Sales in Early June

At least two sales of Beauford Delaney works took place during the first week of June.

Piasa sold six paintings and works on paper during its Modern and Contemporary Art Part II sale on June 7. Most of these were shown for the first time in our Beauford Delaney: Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color exhibition in February - March 2016.

Portrait de Solange du Closel was the only "strictly figurative" work in the bunch.

Lot 36
Portrait de Solange du Closel
Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Its estimated sale price was 60,000€ to 80,000€, and it sold for 72,800€.

Two of my favorite abstract watercolors from the show fetched handsome prices.

 Lot 37
Untitled
Gouache on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Lot 38
Untitled
Gouache on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator 

The estimated sale price for both works was 20,000€ to 30,000€.  Lot 37 sold for 39,000€ and Lot 38 sold for 41,600€.

The Spirit, a small oil on canvas that was displayed in a glass table at the exhibition, sold at a price that exceeded expectations.  Its estimated sale price was 20,000€ to 30,000€, and it sold for 41,600€.

Lot 41
The Spirit
Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

All Piasa sale prices include a 30% buyer's premium.

For more information about this sale, click HERE and type "Delaney" in the "Search Lots" space at the left of the page.

On June 8, 2023, Christie's auctioned a beautiful abstract oil by Beauford.

Lot 148
Sans titre
(1956-1960) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Its estimated sale price was 70,000€ to 100,000€. It sold for 80,200€, including a 26% buyer's premium.

To learn more about this sale, click HERE.

Beauford's Drip Abstractions

In scanning the Black Art Auction Website to prepare for the post that I published last week on their sale of one of Beauford's portraits of Mme du Closel, I came across the image below. 

Untitled
(1959) Gouache and watercolor on paper
25 x 18 inches / 63.5 x 45.7 cm
Pour mon cher amis / Harloff et [illegible] / Clamart 1959
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

 

I was immediately captivated by the dominance of pink/rose in this work (currently held by the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery). It reminded me of the article I published in 2018 about Beauford's use of this color: "Beauford - 'La Vie en Rose'." 

 

I was also captivated by Beauford's use of the drip technique in this work. I've only seen images of a few additional paintings and works on paper for which he uses this technique.

 

Find images of them below.

 

Untitled (Green Drip Abstraction)
(1958) Gouache on wove paper
603x483 mm; 23.75x19 inches
Signed, dated, and inscribed "To Lucien, on his birthday
with affection from Beauford Delaney Paris 1958."
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator 
 

Untitled
(1970) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
 

I find it curious that Beauford created the oil painting over ten years after he did the two drip works on paper that are shown above.  It makes me wonder whether there are additional similar works that bridge the time gap between these works.

 

I wonder if the 1961 oil on paper shown below might be one of them.    

 Untitled (Abstract Composition)
(1961) Oil monotype on heavy wove paper
Photo courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator 

I'll definitely be on the lookout for more!