Beauford Delaney’s Metamorphosis into Freedom

Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1901, Beauford Delaney moved to New York at the height of the Harlem Renaissance. There, he executed scenes of city life and bright pastel portraits of W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, and other prominent fellow African Americans. In his early 50s, he relocated permanently to Paris, where he developed a luminous form of Abstract Expressionism. His style has been described as combining the principles of that movement with the techniques of Van Gogh and the palette of the Fauves. Beauford Delaney’s Metamorphosis into Freedom surveys the artist’s creative evolution, shaped in part by his deep bond with Baldwin.