Self-Portrait

Beauford DelaneyWW-1944-013557

1944·Oil on canvas·68.6 × 57.2 cm (27 × 22 1/2 in.)

<p>Beauford Delaney offered a penetrating, uncompromising view of himself in this self-portrait. The artist used bold, thick strokes of paint in bright colors to render a portrayal of vibrant yet haunting intensity—seemingly capturing his psyche as well as his appearance—which could allude to his struggle for personal and public acceptance as a gay black man.</p> <p>The son of a Tennessee preacher, Delaney studied art in Boston before settling in 1929 in New York, where he befriended artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe and Jackson Pollock as well as writer James Baldwin, with whom he formed an especially deep, intellectual relationship of mutual inspiration and mentorship.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1944
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 68.6 × 57.2 cm (27 × 22 1/2 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Beauford Delaney

Artist

Beauford Delaney

Painting

Beauford Delaney 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.

France

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