Beauford Delaney
1901–1979
Beauford Delaney studied art in Boston before settling in New York in 1929, drawn by the flourishing Harlem Renaissance. He lived first in Harlem, then Greenwich Village, where he intermingled with the group of downtown artists that included Abstract Expressionist painters Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. Although he remained relatively unknown throughout his career, Delaney also moved among notable literary and musical circles, establishing relationships with the novelists James Baldwin and Henry Miller and depicting Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, among other luminaries, in his portraits.
Delaney traveled to Paris in 1953 for a visit and ended up remaining there for a quarter century, until his death. Like many African American artists in the mid-1950s, he found a more hospitable welcome and more open creative community there than in the United States. In Auto- Portrait his venturesome feel for color is evident, as is his skillful manipulation of paint to emphasize its tactile qualities. The painting eschews the romanticizing, self-mythologizing proclivities of its genre for an honest, if unsettling, likeness: lines etch Delaney’s face, and a sense of vacant sadness predominates. A cigarette hangs from his mouth, and his expression is inward. A background of pink and orange, applied in coarse whorls, intensifies the dramatic tension, while intermittent strokes of electric blue animate the canvas with pulsating energy. Delaney had long been plagued by depression, feeling an acute sense of marginalization throughout his life due to racism, poverty, and homophobia. Shortly before painting Auto-Portrait, he suffered a nervous collapse, adding significance to his state of mind as rendered in this work.
Introduction
Beauford Delaney (December 30, 1901 – March 26, 1979) was an American modernist painter. He is remembered for his work with the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as his later works in abstract expressionism following his move to Paris in the 1950s. Beauford's younger brother, Joseph, was also a noted painter.
Wikidata identifier
Q2893161
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed May 13, 2025.
Introduction
Beauford Delaney was an African-American painter born in Knoxville, Tennessee who moved to Boston as a teenager to study art. He established himself a few years later in New York City with his Abstract paintings. Delaney spent the last years of his life in Paris, France.
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, painter, portraitist
ULAN identifier
500062429
Names
Beauford Delaney, Beauford de Laney, Beauford De Laney
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed May 13, 2025.
