Beauford loved the blues, and he particularly loved the blues as sung by Bessie Smith.
Biographer David Leeming writes that Beauford "copied blues songs of love, ... which he would sing when he was alone at night, sometimes with Bessie Smith on the phonograph."
In perusing one of the sketchbooks that is part of the Beauford Delaney archive at UTKnoxville, I found the lyrics to which Leeming refers.
I've embedded YouTube videos of these songs below.
Another French auction house sold a Beauford Delaney abstract last week.
Thierry de Maigret offered Beauford's Sans titre ocre et jaune gouache on paper at its PHOTOGRAPHIES - TABLEAUX MODERNES - ART NOUVEAU - ART DÉCO - DESIGN sale on Friday, July 7, 2023.
The estimated sale price was 6,000€ - 10,000€.
The work sold for 41,213€ (including 24% buyer's premium and 20% VAT; total of 28.8% in fees).
The swirling pattern in this work on paper reminded me of an oil painting that Beauford created in 1960, which also sold by a French auction house for a price that far exceeded the estimated value.
It was shown at Beauford's monographic exhibition at the Facchetti gallery in June-July 1960.
On June 28, 2023, the Delon-Hoebanx auction house offered a Beauford Delaney abstract during its TABLEAUX - MOBILIER & OBJETS D'ART - MÉDAILLES - ARTS D'ASIE - ORFÈVRERIE - ARTS DU XXE SIÈCLE sale.
They went so far as to use an image of the work as the cover for their catalog.
The signature on this work is almost illegible. But it appears that the date is "61" and that "San" is the first word in the notation that Beauford wrote beneath his name.
As mentioned in last week's blog post, Beauford created several watercolors when he visited San Telmo, Mallorca with friends in 1961. The work offered by Delon-Hoebanx may well be one of them.
The visit to the seaside town of San Telmo was meant to provide Beauford with healing time after his suicide attempt earlier in the summer. For me, this blue and orange abstraction evokes the sand (orange), the sea (blue and green), and the suspension of the haze of mental confusion and stress (purple).
The estimated sale price of Abstraction bleue et orange was 20,000€ - 30,000€. It sold for 22,000€ (hammer price).
Beauford traveled to San Telmo in Mallorca, Spain with Charley and Gita Boggs and Joe and Bernice O'Reilly after his suicide attempt during the summer of 1961.
Biographer David A. Leeming wrote that:
"In San Telmo he did eat well and rest, and, with the help of soothing talks with Bernice and Gita especially, managed a surface calm and even began to do some watercolors."
On Wednesday, June 28, during its Modern and Contemporary Day Auction, Sotheby's London offered three gouaches on paper by Beauford for sale. The inscriptions of two them mention Mallorca and San Telmo.
Composite image of three Beauford Delaney works auctioned by Sotheby's London
Leeming devotes two pages to Beauford's activities and state of mind during 1963. While he does not refer to abstract watercolors in these pages, he indicates that the spring "brought a new burst of painting" and mentions Beauford's musing about Kandinsky's working with "mood values" of color.
Perhaps the monochrome green gouache is a reflection of this musing.
Sotheby's auctioned these three works in a single lot (Lot 240) and estimated the sale price at 50,000 - 70,000 GBP.
The works sold for 63,500 GBP, including 26% buyers premium and additional fees.
Click on the image below to get your copy of Beauford's biography - Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney - today!
