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Beauford Delaney
1901–1979
Death placeParis, France
BirthplaceKnoxville, Tennessee, United States
Biography
Beauford Delaney was born in 1901 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the eighth of ten children. His natural artistic talent was supported by his mother Delia and his father, Samuel, a Methodist preacher. As a young boy Delaney took painting lessons from a local white artist, Lloyd Branson, who encouraged him to continue his studies more formally. In 1924 Delaney moved to Boston and spent five years there, studying at the Massachusetts Normal Art School (now the Massachusetts College of Art and Design) and at the Copley Society.
Delaney relocated to New York City in 1929, settling in Harlem and then moving to a studio on Greene Street in Greenwich Village. He took classes at the Art Students League, where he became familiar with the rhythmic style of Thomas Hart Benton and the urban realism of John Sloan. In 1930 Delaney had his first solo exhibition at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library; by 1947 his reputation had grown considerably. That year he was invited to participate as a guest artist in an exhibition organized by Philadelphia’s Pyramid Club, an association of elite African American artists whose recognition of Delaney’s talents stood out as one of the highlights of his career.
Delaney’s interest in modern literature, music, and art garnered him a wide circle of friends and supporters including the writer James Baldwin, singer Marian Anderson, and bandleader Duke Ellington, and he captured many of his friends in pastel portraits during the 1930s. However, Delaney’s individualism and his identity as a gay black man caused him to feel marginalized in New York. Like others of his generation, he found greater acceptance in Paris, where he relocated in 1953. During his early years in Paris, Delaney gradually moved away from representation and towards colorful abstract canvases that retained traces of his earlier thick, impasto technique but allowed him to focus more closely on color and light. Eventually overcome by mental health issues and alcoholism, Delaney was hospitalized for the last four years of his life and died in 1979.
Beauford Delaney’s first retrospective was held at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1978, the year before his death. While the artist has been the subject of posthumous gallery and group exhibitions from then into the early 2000’s, there is currently a growing renewal of interest in his work as a leading figure of 20th century African American art, bolstered by his second major museum retrospective. Organized in 2004 by the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris traveled to the Knoxville Museum of Art, the Greenville County Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Delaney relocated to New York City in 1929, settling in Harlem and then moving to a studio on Greene Street in Greenwich Village. He took classes at the Art Students League, where he became familiar with the rhythmic style of Thomas Hart Benton and the urban realism of John Sloan. In 1930 Delaney had his first solo exhibition at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library; by 1947 his reputation had grown considerably. That year he was invited to participate as a guest artist in an exhibition organized by Philadelphia’s Pyramid Club, an association of elite African American artists whose recognition of Delaney’s talents stood out as one of the highlights of his career.
Delaney’s interest in modern literature, music, and art garnered him a wide circle of friends and supporters including the writer James Baldwin, singer Marian Anderson, and bandleader Duke Ellington, and he captured many of his friends in pastel portraits during the 1930s. However, Delaney’s individualism and his identity as a gay black man caused him to feel marginalized in New York. Like others of his generation, he found greater acceptance in Paris, where he relocated in 1953. During his early years in Paris, Delaney gradually moved away from representation and towards colorful abstract canvases that retained traces of his earlier thick, impasto technique but allowed him to focus more closely on color and light. Eventually overcome by mental health issues and alcoholism, Delaney was hospitalized for the last four years of his life and died in 1979.
Beauford Delaney’s first retrospective was held at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1978, the year before his death. While the artist has been the subject of posthumous gallery and group exhibitions from then into the early 2000’s, there is currently a growing renewal of interest in his work as a leading figure of 20th century African American art, bolstered by his second major museum retrospective. Organized in 2004 by the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris traveled to the Knoxville Museum of Art, the Greenville County Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.