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The Art Of Beauford Delaney At The Hunter Museum

WUTC

Published March 13, 2023 at 3:58 PM EDT

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Untitled (Abstract Circles), c. 1956 - pastel and mixed media on paper, by Beauford Delaney.

Knoxville Museum of Art

Beauford Delaney was born in Knoxville, soon after the turn of the last century.

A Black modernist painter, he is remembered for his works during the Harlem Renaissance in New York City and after his move to Paris.

Delaney was a friend - and “spiritual father” - of writer James Baldwin, who was in his teens when they met.

An exhibition now at the Hunter Museum of American Art here in Chattanooga examines Delaney’s evolution as a painter, from portraits to abstract expressionism.

The exhibition - “Beauford Delaney: Metamorphosis Into Freedom” - also features paintings by his younger brother Joseph.

Stephen Wicks is the exhibition’s curator.

He is the Barbara A. and Bernard E. Bernstein Curator of the Knoxville Museum of Art - home to the largest and most comprehensive public collection of Beauford Delaney’s art.

On Thursday, Stephen will give a tour of the exhibition at the Hunter, starting at 6 PM.

Beauford Delaney in 1952.

Carl Van Vechten / Library of Congress