Beauford Delaney, born in Tennessee in 1901, was an influential Abstract Expressionist artist that worked in New York City until relocating to Paris after World War 2 where he earned the title of “dean of American Negro painters living abroad.” He was even an inspiration to writers like Henry Miller and James Baldwin who described him as being “much admired for the jazzy urgency of both representational and abstract compositions.” Delaney’s paintings started out to be mainly portraits and street views of New York City applying bright colors with the impasto technique and until the 1950s when he transitioned to a nonfigurative abstract style that was very similar to the New York School of painters abstract expressionists. He was Three factors that led to this shift in style can be seen as “the techniques of Vincent Van Gogh, the color of the Fauves, and the design principles of abstract expressionism.”
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Created from 1954-56, this oil on canvas is a decently sized piece, 31.5 x 37 inches, with bright, thickly applied paint. He uses a variety of vibrant colors; blues, reds, greens, with a heavy use of yellow. Each color seems to be applied in various sized lines that are very fluid swirling and curving in small sections around the canvas. Each stroke of color leads your eye around the canvas in a circular manner leading you to the center of the piece where most of the very thick applications of layers and layers of yellow exist. The edges of the painting become less and less layered as you move from the center outward. In the bottom right section is the least layered area that shows more pure reds, blues, and greens. It gives you an idea of how the piece was created with layering on different colors. Delaney’s Composition 16 is on view at the Museum of Modern Art apart of their Collection
Created from 1954-56, this oil on canvas is a decently sized piece, 31.5 x 37 inches, with bright, thickly applied paint. He uses a variety of vibrant colors; blues, reds, greens, with a heavy use of yellow. Each color seems to be applied in various sized lines that are very fluid swirling and curving in small sections around the canvas. Each stroke of color leads your eye around the canvas in a circular manner leading you to the center of the piece where most of the very thick applications of layers and layers of yellow exist. The edges of the painting become less and less layered as you move from the center outward. In the bottom right section is the least layered area that shows more pure reds, blues, and greens. It gives you an idea of how the piece was created with layering on different colors. Delaney’s Composition 16 is on view at the Museum of Modern Art apart of their Collection