Michael Rosenfeld Gallery Presents Bienvenue: African American Artists in France

Life in Paris offers me the anonymity and objectivity to release long-stored memories of sorrow, and the beauty of the difficult effort to release and orchestrate in form and color a personal design. Being in France gives time for reflection. One never leaves home if one was never there.
~ Beauford Delaney, 1966*

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery (MRG) is well represented at the Paris Noir: Artistic circulations and anti-colonial resistance, 1950–2000 exhibition that is on view at the Centre Pompidou in Paris through June 30, 2025.

In parallel with this groundbreaking show, the gallery is presenting Bienvenue: African American Artists in France in New York through July 25, 2025.

MRG describes this exhibition as "a historical survey of seventeen Black American artists who lived and worked in France from the late nineteenth century through the present" that "offers an expanded look into the presence of Black American artists in France, many of whom were seeking respite from the systemic racism that limited their opportunities for education and the recognition of their work in the United States."

Bienvenue focuses specifically on American artists and spans nearly eight decades in its chronological scope, beginning with a 1912 painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859–1937) and ending with a 1989 sculpture by Barbara Chase-Riboud (b.1939).

Anyone who knows MRG knows of the gallery's decades-long devotion to Beauford's legacy. In addition to the work they have done to ensure the visibility of his artwork, they contributed the fundraising campaign to place a tombstone at Beauford's previously unmarked grave in 2009-2010 and have consistently supported this blog.

MRG loaned over half of the paintings by Beauford that hang in Paris Noir, and it is showing six (6) Beauford Delaney paintings in Bienvenue.

Of all the artists represented in this show, Beauford has the most works on display.

Below are images of my favorite works from Bienvenue.

Untitled
(1967) Oil on canvas
15 1/8 x 21 3/4 inches / 38.4 x 55.2 cm
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
By permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Untitled (Night Light)
(c. 1970) Oil on canvas
19 1/2 x 24 inches / 49.5 x 61 cm
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
By permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Bienvenue: African American Artists in France features works by 17 African-American artists. Beauford knew several of them personally, including Ed Clark, Herbert Gentry, and Palmer Hayden.

To see images of the works in this show, click HERE.

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
100 11th Avenue @ 19th
New York, NY 10011

Regular Hours:
Tuesday–Saturday, 10AM–6PM, or by appointment

Summer Hours
(Memorial Day–Labor Day):
Monday–Friday, 10AM–6PM, or by appointment

*Beauford Delaney quoted in John Ashbery, “American Sanctuary in Paris,” ARTnews Annual Vol. 31 (1966): 146