Beauford Delaney

Beauford Delaney was an influential American artist known for his vibrant use of colour and distinctive Abstract Expressionist style. Born in 1901 in Knoxville, Tennessee, Delaney was part of a large Christian family. A love of art and music was instilled in him from an early age. He left home in 1923 and, after attending Massachusetts Normal School and the Copley Society in Boston, moved to Harlem in 1929.

As he arrived, the Harlem Renaissance was declining, and the Great Depression left many people in poverty. Feeling a connection with the many diverse populations in New York, he often featured the marginalised people he saw in the city. Works like Can Fire in the Park (1946) show sobering scenes of life at the time that prominently feature African American subjects.

However, far from a realist sensibility, Delaney’s paintings from this period embrace bright colours and thick brushwork that lend a vibrant energy to otherwise dark images of despair. During this time, the artist also began spending time with the cultural avant-garde present in Greenwich Village where he became associated with artists like Georgia O’Keeffe and Willem de Kooning, and musicians like Louis Armstrong. Among the most important of these connections was his friendship with the writer James Baldwin who looked up to Delaney as a mentor. Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin inspired each other’s work, and Baldwin sat for his portrait several times throughout the course of their acquaintance. In 2022 Christie’s sold Delaney’s 1966 portrait of James Baldwin for £1,026,000 in London.

In 1953, Delaney left New York and settled in Paris, where he remained for the rest of his life. His expatriation resulted in a near-complete shift in style that traded the earlier figural compositions and urban subjects for a mode of Abstract Expressionism marked by a fascination with light and bright colour. He was greatly influenced by the literary circles and jazz clubs in Paris, which prompted his non-representational, expression-driven style — much akin to the free-flowing improvisation of jazz music.

Though he had left the United States, these abstract works connected with the New York School artists and brought an increase in attention from critics and audiences. Nonetheless, the first few years of the artist’s time in Paris were marked by depression as he began drinking and self-isolated. In 1956, Delaney met gallerist Paul Facchetti, who is often credited with being one of the first people to truly introduce Abstract Expressionism to Europe. Impressed with Delaney’s work, Facchetti gave him an exhibition in 1960 that signalled a pivotal moment in the artist’s career.

Delaney’s subject matter included post-Great Depression poverty, homelessness and Black disenfranchisement, but the vibrancy and dynamism in his work seem to suggest the artist’s priority in self-expression through his art. Delaney died in 1979 in Paris.