Beauford Delaney

An American modernist painter during his New York years, Beauford Delaney (1901-79) produced engaging portraits, landscapes, and abstractions celebrated for their brilliance and technical complexity. This book explores Delaney's dramatic stylistic shift from figurative compositions of New York life to abstract expressionist studies of color and light following his move to Paris in 1953. A generous selection of paintings illuminates some of Delaney's most innovative years and firmly places his work among the dominant art movements of the day. Essays explore the phases of Delaney's creative output, including an overview of the personal, societal, and art historical contexts in which Delaney lived and worked in New York and Paris. Also addressed are the artist's earlier Parisian works - few ever exhibited or reproduced - that visually bridge the transformation from his New York style to the Parisian works after 1960.