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Metadata Embedded, 2019
Untitled (Village Street Scene)
Metadata Embedded, 2019
Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
(American, 1901–1979)

Untitled (Village Street Scene)

1948
Oil on canvas
Image: 29 x 40 in. (73.7 x 101.6 cm)
Frame: 34 5/16 x 45 3/8 x 3 1/4 in. (87.2 x 115.3 x 8.3 cm)
Credit LineTerra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund
Object number2018.2
CopyrightEstate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
SignedSigned and dated Lower Left: B. Delaney 48
Interpretation
The facades, lampposts, and general activity of Greenwich Village were the focus of many works, including Untitled (Village Street Scene), that Beauford Delaney made between 1940 and 1952 while living in New York City. Delaney was captivated by the urban landscape and sought to visually interpret the energy of modern life through brilliant colors, thickly applied paint, and bold, animated lines. Untitled (Village Street Scene) represents the most successful of the artist’s numerous attempts to depict this particular intersection. Its perspective is accurate yet still evocative, while its composition is capacious in ways that allowed Delaney to assemble and reconcile the arrangement of a variety of elements and motifs, that appear frequently in other works of this period, including traffic lights, lampposts, manhole covers, and clouds.

  Socially, Delaney straddled two worlds. He was part of the burgeoning Harlem Renaissance movement and friendly with artists like Norman Lewis, Jacob Lawrence, Augusta Savage, and Romare Bearden. But desiring to pursue his own particular artistic vision, through his friendship with contemporary artist Stuart Davis, he also became tied to the avant-garde movements of Greenwich Village, where he associated with gallerist Alfred Stieglitz and artists in his circle, such as Georgia O’KeeffeJohn Marin, and Arthur Dove. Moving easily between various groups, Delaney developed a spirited, energetic style for his figural work and cityscapes.

  The prominence of yellow in Untitled (Village Street Scene) contributes to the work’s liveliness, but also holds a deeper significance: while Delaney was fond of large passages of bright color, he connected most deeply with the color yellow, which held a spiritual significance for him. Untitled (Village Street Scene) is one of the earliest works in his oeuvre that contains a large amount of yellow, covering nearly three-quarters of the canvas, and linking this work to developments later in the artist’s career. Delaney struggled throughout his life with mental health issues and social anxieties pertaining to race and sexuality; for him, the color yellow represented light, healing, and redemption, and he would use it almost exclusively in the portraits and abstract paintings he made in the 1960s and 1970s, near the end of his life.
ProvenanceThe artist
Private collection, New York
Private collection, Connecticut
Swann Auction Galleries, New York, New York, April 5, 2018, lot 33
Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund

Exhibition History
Seeing Beauford Delaney, Gallery installation. [Gallery 160b].  The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, May 14–September 2019.

In the Streets: Modern Life and Urban Experiences in the Art of the United States, 1893-1976 (Pelas ruas: vida moderna e experiências urbanas na arte dos Estados Unidos, 1893–1976). Terra Foundation for American Art and Pinacoteca de São Paulo (organizers). Venue: Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, August 27, 2022–January 30, 2023. [exh. cat.]

 
Published References
Swann Auction Gallery, New York, New York. (African American Fine Arts Sale 2472, April 5, 2018): lot 33. Ill. lot 33 (color).

Bourguignon, Katherine M., and Peter John Brownlee, eds. Conversations with the Collection: A Terra Foundation Collection Handbook. Chicago: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2018. Text p. 276; ill. p. 276 (color).

 Piccoli, Valéria, Fernanda Pitta, and Taylor Poulin. Pelas ruas: vida moderna e experiências urbanas na arte dos Estados Unidos, 1893-1976. (exh. cat., Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and Terra Foundation for American Art). São Paulo, Brazil: Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, 2022. Text p. 38; pl. p. 39 (color).

 

There are no additional artworks by this artist in the collection.