Location

227 Abstract Expressionism

Fun Fact

Delaney was a very good friend and inspirational mentor to writer James Baldwin.

Description

Believing in the power of color to communicate emotions and symbolize ideas, Beauford Delaney loved yellow for its associations of light, healing, and spiritual radiance. In works such as Untitled, he created a sense of happiness and uplift even when his personal circumstances were challenging. Born in the racially segregated southern United States, the artist eventually relocated to Paris during the early 1950s, hoping to live and work more freely as a queer Black man.

Provenance

Beauford Delaney, Paris, FR

(Galerie Paul Facchetti, Paris, FR)

Paul Facchetti, Paris, FR

Bruno Facchetti, Paris, FR, and Brooklyn, NY

1998

Private Collection

(Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY)

2022–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Leeming, David. "Beauford, Abstraction, and Light," Beauford Delaney: Liquid light, Paris Abstractions, 1954-1970, exh. cat. (New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 1999). Mentioned P. 7; Reproduced p. 11

Powell, Richard J. Beauford Delaney: The Color Yellow, exh.cat. (Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 2001). Reproduced P. 37.

Abstract Expressionism: Further Evidence, Painting and Sculpture, exh. cat. (New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2009). Reproduced P. 25

Childs, Adrienne. Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, exh. cat. (New York: Rizzoli, 2020). Reproduced P. 157

Exhibition history

Beauford Delaney: Liquid Light, Paris Abstractions, 1954-1970. Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York (September 9 - October 30, 1999).

Beauford Delaney: The Color Yellow. High Museum of Art, Atlanta (February 9 - May 5, 2002); The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (July 10 - September 15, 2002); Anacostia Museum and Center of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (October 11 - December 30, 2002); Sert Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (February 15 - May 4, 2003).

Abstract Expressionism: Further Evidence, Part 1: Painting. Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York (March 14 - July 31, 2009).

Blues for Smoke. The Geffen Contemporary at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (October 21, 2012 - January 7, 2013); Wexner Center of the Arts, Columbus, OH (September 21, 2012 - January 5, 2014).

Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition. Phillips Collection, Washington, DC (February 29 - January 3, 2021).