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Home > Exhibitions > Beauford Delaney’s Metamorphosis into Freedom

Beauford Delaney’s Metamorphosis into Freedom

Dates:
April 2, 2021–June 21, 2021
Location:
Explore Asheville Exhibition Hall

Featuring more than 40 paintings and works on paper, Beauford Delaney’s Metamorphosis into Freedom examines the career evolution of modern painter Beauford Delaney (Knoxville, TN 1901–1979 Paris, France) within the context of his 38-year friendship with writer James Baldwin (New York 1924–1987 Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France).

The works in this exhibition bring into special focus Delaney’s intensified experiments with abstraction sparked by the artist’s 1955 move to the Paris suburb of Clamart, as well as the ways that the artist and Baldwin’s ongoing intellectual exchange shaped one another’s creative output and worldview from their first meeting in 1940 until Delaney’s death in 1979. This exhibition also calls attention to Baldwin’s role as “witness” to the painter’s evolution, which he deemed “one of the most extraordinary personal and artistic journeys of our time.”

Baldwin found in Delaney a father figure, muse, and model of perseverance as a gay man of color, who opened for him the transformative possibility that a Black man could become an artist. Delaney found in Baldwin a powerful intellectual and spiritual anchor who inspired some of his finest works and who provided vital emotional support and creative validation. Amidst this selection of works, Delaney’s Clamart abstractions represent the pinnacle of his artistic achievements and the fullest realization of his lifelong search to express metaphysical concepts of light and movement. In an essay for a 1964 show at Galerie Lambert, Baldwin noted Delaney’s extraordinary painted light was such that it “held the power to illuminate, even to redeem and reconcile and heal.”

Beauford Delaney’s Metamorphosis into Freedom is organized by the Knoxville Museum of Art, which owns the largest and most comprehensive public collection of Beauford Delaney’s art.

Related Programs & Events

Thursday, Apr 1, 2021

Members-Only Preview: Beauford Delaney’s Metamorphosis into Freedom

As a valued Museum Member, we invite you to join us for the exclusive opening of our newest exhibition, Beauford Delaney’s Metamorphosis into Freedom. Please

Tuesday, Apr 13, 2021

Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin: Through the Unusual Door edited by Stephen C. Wicks – VIRTUAL

This book examines the 38-year relationship between painter Beauford Delaney and writer James Baldwin and the ways their ongoing intellectual exchange shaped each other’s creative output and worldview.

Thursday, Apr 22, 2021

Conversation with the Curator: Beauford Delaney’s Metamorphosis into Freedom – VIRTUAL

Stephen Wicks, the KMA’s Barbara W. & Bernard E. Bernstein Curator and organizing curator of Beauford Delaney’s Metamorphosis into Freedom, gives an overview of the exhibition, offers insight into the experience of building the exhibition, and answers questions from the audience.

See All Related Events

Selected works from the exhibition

Portrait of James Baldwin
Beauford Delaney, Portrait of James Baldwin
Yaddo
Beauford Delaney, Yaddo

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Museum Hours:

Open daily 11am–6pm. Late-night Thursdays until 9pm; closed Tuesdays. Overall capacity is limited, and timed admission tickets are required to ensure safe attendance. Online ticketing is strongly encouraged; limited walk-in tickets may be available.
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Museum Location:

2 South Pack Square
Asheville, NC 28801
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Museum Contact

828.253.3227
mailbox@ashevilleart.org
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