Les Amis de Beauford Delaney is supporting the completion of

BEAUFORD DELANEY: SO SPLENDID A JOURNEY,

the first full-length documentary about Beauford.


Join us in making this video tribute to Beauford a reality!

TO MAKE A TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION,

CLICK HERE.



Saturday, March 15, 2025

Beauford and Loïs Mailou Jones

While performing an Internet search last week, I came across an image of a painting by Loïs Mailou Jones that had been erroneously attributed to Beauford.

Screenshot of Web page displaying The Pink Table Cloth
by Loïs Mailou Jones

The image of The Pink Table Cloth clearly shows Jones' signature at the bottom right corner of the painting, so I presume the error was clerical.

The vivid hues in this work first made me think of Beauford's mastery of the juxtaposition of colors on his canvases.

It then caused me to remember that the two artists knew each other and had several things in common (in addition to being fabulous colorists).

Self-Portrait
Loïs Mailou Jones
(1940) Casein on board
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Fair use claim

They both

- took classes at the Massachusetts Normal Art School in Boston in the 1920s,

- spent considerable time in France,

- created multiple self-portraits,

- represented African art and artifacts in their artwork,

- traveled extensively (Beauford in Western Europe; Jones in Haïti and Subsaharan Africa), and

- produced hundreds of works in their lifetimes.

Both also had their work featured in the Studio Museum in Harlem's Explorations in the City of Light: African-American Artists in Paris 1945-1965 exhibition that was also shown in Chicago, New Orleans, Fort Worth, and Milwaukee in 1996-1997.

Self-portrait
Beauford Delaney
(1944) Oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
By permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

In the biography Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, author David Leeming mentions Jones twice in the chapter called "Boston and Harlem" but does not state outright that the two artists were friends or even communicated directly with each other.

A note found in the Beauford Delaney Papers at the University of Tennessee Knoxville provides evidence that they did have a social connection. It is written on a card that Jones used when she was a professor at Howard University.

Handwritten note on Professor Loïs Mailou Jones' calling card,
Beauford Delaney Papers, MS.3967.
University of Tennessee Libraries, Knoxville,
Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives.*
Image by Wells International Foundation

Jones wrote the month in French (15 août is August 15) and used the salutation Cher (Dear) in addressing Beauford. She says she is "so sorry" to have missed seeing him.

The closing salutation is also in French (A bientôt - See you soon).

Because she joined the faculty at Howard in 1930 and worked there until 1977, and because no envelope (and therefore no postmark) was associated with the card, we don't know when this encounter was to have taken place.

*Conditions Governing Use
Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator.
Held in the Beauford Delaney Papers, MS.3967,
Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives,
University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Saturday, March 8, 2025

Beauford's Art on View - Current Exhibitions

Beauford's work is currently on display in exhibitions across the U.S. through June 1, 2025.

Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago, IL
Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica (December 15, 2024 - March 30, 2025)

Co-organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona in collaboration with KANAL-Centre Pompidou Bruxelles, Project a Black Planet is the first major exhibition to survey Pan-Africanism’s cultural manifestations. 

Beauford's Self-Portrait in a Paris Bath House 1971, in which he depicts himself in African dress, is on display in the Interiors room of the exhibition. 

Listen to Professor Adom Getachew of the University of Chicago describe this work in the YouTube video below (description begins at 6:47).

Read about the exhibition HERE.

National Portrait Gallery - Washington, D.C.
This Morning, This Evening, So Soon: James Baldwin and the Voices of Queer Resistance (July 12, 2024 – April 20, 2025)

This exhibition is a celebration of the "queer voices" of James Baldwin and a circle of friends who maintained various degrees of silence about their sexuality at the same time that they were outspoken about racial injustice during the Civil Rights Movement. It features the Art Institute of Chicago's 1944 self-portrait of Beauford and the National Portrait Gallery's 1963 portrait of James Baldwin by Beauford.

James Baldwin
(1963) Pastel on Paper
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Read about the exhibition HERE.

Oglethorpe University Museum of Art - Brookhaven, GA
Fragile Genius: Catherine Wiley and Beauford Delaney (January 30 - May 4, 2025)

According to Curator John Daniel Tilford, this exhibition presents a number of major Beauford Delaney works, including a rather rare early still life that has not been publicly exhibited in several decades and two late masterpieces loaned by Clark Atlanta University.

Untitled: Self Portrait by Beauford Delaney
(1964) Oil on canvas
Tennessee State Museum Collection 2001.46
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Read about the show HERE.

Spelman College Museum - Atlanta, GA
We Say What Black This Is (February 7 - May 24, 2025)

We Say What Black This Is features mixed media and watercolor paintings by MacArthur award-winning artist Amanda Williams. The exhibition showcases Williams’ abstract paintings alongside works by prominent artists from Atlanta collections,including Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, and private collectors. 

The Spelman College Museum Website indicates that the show "includes works by Betty Blayton, Sheila Pree Bright, Beverly Buchanan, Beauford Delaney, Sam Gilliam, Maren Hassinger, Jacob Lawrence, Deborah Roberts, Thomas Sills, Alma Thomas, and Ming Washington to offer multifaceted perspectives on Black identity. Delaney’s expressive abstract paintings explore spirituality..."

Read more about We Say What Black This Is HERE.

Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art - Las Vegas, NV
American Duet: Jazz and Abstract Art (November 15, 2024 - June 1, 2025)

As reported in our blog post dated December 7, 2024, two of Beauford's abstracts are on display at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art in Las Vegas.

The 1956 blue and rose gouache on illustration board that was selected for this show is one of my favorites!

Untitled
(1956) Gouache on illustration board
Signed and dated in ink, lower right
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Saturday, March 1, 2025

A Successful Trip to Knoxville

My recent visit to Beauford's hometown of Knoxville was quite fruitful!

I spent over five full days perusing the correspondence, photographs, sketchbooks, notebooks, and other documents in the Beauford Delaney Papers held by UT Libraries at the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK).

Entrance to Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections & University Archives
John Hodges Library
© Wells International Foundation

Beauford Delaney Archives
© Wells International Foundation

I delivered two presentations - one for the GeoSym conference hosted by UTK's Department of Geography and Sustainability and the other for a group of collectors of Beauford's work.

Presenting "Beauford Delaney: Art, Expatriation, and Travel"
© Wells International Foundation

The first event was held on campus and the second at the university's Denbo Center for Humanities & the Arts.

Lobby of Denbo Center for Humanities & The Arts
© Wells International Foundation
Denbo Center Director Amy Elias and crowd
© Wells International Foundation

I saw the Beauford Delaney works held by the Ewing Gallery at UTK.

Ewing Gallery entrance
© Wells International Foundation
Mike Berry and Monique Y. Wells with Beauford Delaney portraits
© Wells International Foundation

I viewed the Beauford Delaney collection at the Knoxville Museum of Art.

 Higher Ground exhibition information panel
at the Knoxville Museum of Art
© Wells International Foundation

Beauford Delaney works in Higher Ground exhibition
© Wells International Foundation

Beauford Delaney at the Knoxville Museum of Art
© Wells International Foundation

I spent invaluable time viewing the works still held by the Beauford Delaney estate.

Portrait of Coretta Scott King
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image by Wells International Foundation

 

Beauford Delaney works on paper held by the estate
© Wells International Foundation

And I was interviewed for a documentary about Beauford that is being organized by the Beauford Delaney estate.

Monique on set for the Beauford Delaney estate's video documentary
© Wells International Foundation

With heartfelt thanks, I want to acknowledge everyone in Knoxville who contributed to the organization of this visit:

Derek Spratley, Court Appointed Admnistrator of Beauford's estate
Amy Elias, Chancellor's Professor and Director, Denbo Center for Humanities & the Arts
Mike Berry, Official framer of the Beauford Delaney estate
Katrina Stack, Graduate Research Assistant for the Beauford Delaney Papers
Kris Bronstad, Modern Political Archivist and Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee Libraries
Stephen Wicks, Barbara W. and Bernard E. Bernstein Curator at the Knoxville Museum of Art

Friday, February 14, 2025

Traveling to Knoxville

Today, I'm pleased to announce that I'm traveling to Beauford's hometown of Knoxville, TN next week.

As a result of my interactions with key representatives of the University of Tennessee Libraries last summer, I was invited to the GeoSym conference at the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK).

The title of my presentation is "Beauford's Odyssey: Art, Travel, and Expatriation."

While in town, I will visit the Knoxville Museum of Art to see their entire collection of Beauford's work (minus the pieces that are currently on loan).

I will also spend several days researching the Beauford Delaney Papers in support of the Beauford Delaney exhibition that UT Libraries will host at its facility in Autumn 2025.

This research will also support a project that the Wells International Foundation and UTK are working on together. It will focus on Beauford's acts of creating art as a way of coping with his mental health issues.

Look for the Les Amis blog to return in early March 2025.

Saturday, February 8, 2025

Beauford in the Patricia Scipio-Brim Collection

Patricia Scipio-Brim was an avid collector of postwar and contemporary Black art focusing on abstraction. On February 6, 2025, Swann Auction Galleries hosted a sale of works from her collection.

Among them were two works on paper by Beauford.

Lot 8
Untitled (Abstraction in Yellow, Blue and Red)
(1961) Watercolor on wove paper
655x503 mm; 25⅞x19⅞ inches
Signed and dated in ink, lower right
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Lot 9
Untitled (Clamart, Seine)
(1958) Watercolor and gouache on wove paper
654x508 mm; 25¾x20 inches
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

The yellow, blue, and red abstraction is dated 1961, the year Beauford attempted suicide. Biographer David Leeming wrote that friends took Beauford to San Telmo, Spain after his return from his traumatic trip to Greece and that with the help of Bernice O'Reilly and Gita Boggs, he "managed to maintain a certain calm, and even began to do some watercolors." 

Perhaps this work reflects a lightening of his spirit during that time.

The estimated sale price of this work was $30,000 - $40,000.

It sold for ???

The green and blue abstract is dated 1958. 

The words "Clamart, Seine" beneath Beauford's signature could easily signify two important events that took place during the summer of that year - the arrival of James and Gloria Jones in Paris (they lived on the Ile Saint-Louis in the middle of the Seine River) and the return of James Baldwin to Clamart. 

Beauford spent a great deal of time with all three of them, and the Joneses commissioned several paintings from him.

This abstract was part of the collection of Gloria Jones. Its estimated sale price was $20,000 - $30,000.

It sold for ???

Saturday, February 1, 2025

Case Auction Results for Beauford Delaney Watercolor and Catalogs

On January 25, 2025, Case Auctions of Knoxville, TN auctioned a single abstract watercolor and four Beauford Delaney catalogs from the estate of John Z.C. Thomas during Day 1 of its 2025 Winter Fine Art & Antiques sale.

Lot 192
Untitled
(1958) Watercolor on paper
Signed "Beauford Delaney," inscribed "Clamart"
Dated 1958 in black pen, lower right
25"x 18 3/4"
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

As indicated in the blog post announcing the sale two weeks ago, I believe Beauford painted this work during one of his happy periods in 1958. David Leeming describes several of these in Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney—the release of two cases of his paintings stored in New York, a trip to the south to visit René Laubiès, participation in a group show in Germany, a peaceful summer in Clamart with James Baldwin ....

A quote from a letter Beauford wrote to Larry Wallrich in June 1958 may well describe what Beauford wanted to accomplish with this work: "Am today still trying to bring together color compositions from the strange and many-faceted thing that is my life."

The cost estimate for the watercolor and catalogs was $14,000 - $16,000.

The lot sold for $11,590, including buyer's premium.

Saturday, January 25, 2025

New Edition of Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney

The new edition of David Leeming's biography about Beauford—Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney—was released by Karma Books on January 7, 2025 (three weeks later than the December 17, 2024 date that was originally projected).

I pre-ordered my copy well before the end of 2024 and was excited to receive it just a few days ago. I wanted to compare my tattered, thoroughly annotated first edition (Oxford University Press, 1998) with this new version in anticipation of my upcoming visit to Knoxville to peruse the Beauford Delaney Papers that the University of Tennessee Libraries made available to researchers as of January 2024.

1st and 2nd editions of Amazing Grace

I was somewhat taken aback when I read the following in Leeming's foreword:

Given the many meticulously researched exhibition catalogues produced in the last twenty years as well as what is sure to be a comprehensive account of his life from Dr. [Mary] Campbell, Amazing grace is reprinted here without any changes in the original text.

But I was gratified to read that the papers Leeming consulted to write the book are now held at UTLibraries.

This long awaited reprint is graced by a laudatory and intensely personal introduction by Hilton Als, who explains his familiarity with Leeming's writings and describes Leeming's treatment of Beauford's life story as "transcend[ing] the limitations of biography to create a historical narrative of huge scope based on Delaney's vulnerable mind and body."

Als mentions three Beauford Delaney works in his introduction—Portrait of a Young Man (ca. 1937-1940), Dark Rapture (1941), and Abstraction No. 9 (ca. 1963)—and provides his take on the emotions Beauford might have experienced in creating them.

An image of Dark Rapture can be found on page 123 of Amazing Grace.

Dark Rapture
(1941) Oil on masonite
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Unfortunately, images of the other two works are not presented in the book.

Portrait of a Young Man
(ca. 1937-1940) Color pastel crayons
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Abstraction No. 9
(circa 1963) Oil on canvas
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator
Image courtesy of the Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina

On the last page of his introduction, Als claims Beauford as the brother he's always felt him to be.

Aside from a higher page count in the new book, there are several differences between the first and second editions of Amazing Grace that will be of interest for readers who wish to approach Beauford's life and art from a scholarly perspective:

1) While there are chapter headers at the top margin of the pages in the first edition, there are none in the second edition.

2) Detail in black and white photos is better discerned in the first edition.

3) Color representations of Beauford's art (now on individual pages) are brighter and more vivid in the second edition.

4) There are six fewer references cited in the bibliography of the second edition.

5) Importantly, the second edition has no index. Anyone who does not have the first edition of the book will be hard pressed to find specific information in the reprinted version.

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Case Antiques to Auction Beauford Delaney Watercolor and Catalogs

On January 25, 2025, Case Auctions of Knoxville, TN will place a single abstract watercolor and four Beauford Delaney catalogs up for auction during Day 1 of its 2025 Winter Fine Art & Antiques sale.

The items come from the estate of John Z.C. Thomas, one of the people I affectionately call "The Knoxville Eleven," who traveled to Paris for the Beauford Delaney: Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color exhibition in 2016.

They are being offered as a single lot.

Lot 192
Untitled
(1958) Watercolor on paper
Signed "Beauford Delaney," inscribed "Clamart"
Dated 1958 in black pen, lower right
25"x 18 3/4"
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

The watercolor is a lyrical work with broad, fluid strokes of yellow, orange, and purple - some overlapping and some lying in parallel.

They give me the impression that people are dancing, and I'm guessing that Beauford created this work during one of his happier times in 1958.

The catalogs that complete the lot are the following:

    BEAUFORD DELANEY: THE COLOR YELLOW (Richard J. Powell, Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 2002)

    BEAUFORD DELANEY: RESONANCE OF FORM AND VIBRATION OF COLOR (Les Amis de Beauford Delaney & Wells International Foundation, Paris: Columbia Global Centers - Reid Hall, 2016)

    BEAUFORD DELANEY AND JAMES BALDWIN: THROUGH THE UNUSUAL DOOR (Stephen C. Wicks, ed., Knoxville, TN: Knoxville Museum of Art, 2020), with trifold exhibition brochure and single-sheet timeline detailing Baldwin and Delaney's relationship

    BE YOUR WONDERFUL SELF: THE PORTAITS OF BEAUFORD DELANEY (New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2022).

The cost estimate for the watercolor and catalogs is $14,000 - $16,000.

For information about the sale, click HERE.

Saturday, January 11, 2025

The Philosophy of Art Seminars

In Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, biographer David Leeming tells us that Beauford held "Philosophy of Art" seminars for several months at his Greene Street studio in Greenwich Village.

Beauford in his Greene Street studio, New York City, 1944
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator 

He describes the first seminar in great detail, painting the scene of a candle-lit room filled with portraits of famous African Americans where guests listened to Beauford lecture on "The Enigma of Art," learn how to sketch with charcoal (a live model was present), and enjoy entertainment.

He then informs us that several "hostesses" served tea and caviar to attendees.

I was intrigued by the idea that Beauford would have the means to offer caviar at an event and curious about the hostesses who served it.

Leeming mentioned seven women who served in this role. I was able to find information about three of them.

Nell Occomy Becker was the youngest of three sisters born to Walter Calvert Occomy and Nellie White Occomy in Providence, RI. She graduated with a teaching degree from the State Normal School (now Rhode Island College), and moved to NYC because of the discriminatory practices of Providence public schools. There, she taught junior high school and enrolled in a post-graduate program at the Teachers’ College.

Nell Occomy Becker
Source of original image:
Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life, November 1936, p. 347.
Fair use claim

In the 1930s, Occomy developed skills as an arts and culture writer. She wrote profiles of Black playwrights and served as editor-in-chief of The Krinon, the publication for the Black women educator sorority, Phi Delta Kappa.

Another hostess, Mrs. Gertrude Robinson, was a charter member of Phi Delta Kappa and served as First Supreme Anti-Basileus, then Supreme Basileus at various times from the 1920s - 1940s.

Hostess Dorothy Gates is mentioned several times in Amazing Grace. She and Beauford met through their mutual connection with Alfred Stieglitz, Dorothy Norman, and Georgia O'Keeffe, and they became quite close. Her death in 1956 disturbed him greatly.

While Leeming does not provide precise dates for the months that Beauford hosted the seminars, I infer from his text that they took place during 1949, and perhaps, early 1950.