Beauford Delaney

Beauford Delaney. (Knoxville 1901-1979 Paris). , Internationally acclaimed modern artist Beauford Delaney was born in 1901 in a small wooden house on Knoxville’s East Vine Street. His father was a Methodist preacher and ran a barber shop to make ends meet. Beauford always loved to draw, even in school, and one of his early works was a portrait of his Austin High School principal, Charles Cansler., As a teenager, he found work as a sign painter and impressed Lloyd Branson, Knoxville’s most successful artist at the time. Branson offered to give him lessons in painting in return for mixing paints and helping out in the Gay Street studio. Working for Branson and painter Hugh Tyler (uncle of the write James Agee) helped pay Beauford’s way to Boston, where he studied art from 1923-1929., Settling in New York by 1929, Delaney became known for colorful street scenes of Greenwich Village and portraits of several major figures, including W.E.B DuBois, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and W.C. Handy. He became close friends with writers henry Miller and James Baldwin. In 1930, when Delaney was still in his 20s, the Whitney Studio Galleries (precursor of the Whitney Museum of American Art) in New York presented a small one-person exhibition of his work that received critical acclaim., In 1953, Delaney moved to Paris and explored the Abstract Expressionism – especially the expressive power of color. As his friend James Baldwin wrote, it was “a metamorphosis into freedom.” Delaney’s exuberant oils with vibrant colors have earned him a reputation as one of America’s greatest modern painters., Beauford Delaney died in Paris in 1979. A Paris-based group called Les Amis de Beauford Delaney attend to his gravesite and his legacy. The largest of most comprehensive public collection of Delaney’s work is housed at the Knoxville Museum of Art., Downtown Art Wraps are coordinated by the Knoxville History Project, and educational nonprofit with a mission to research and promote the history and culture of Knoxville. KHP’s educational articles and publications feature colorful characters, bizarre tales, interesting buildings, curious traditions, as well as seriously influential local events. Learn more at knoxvillehistoryproject.org.