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Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney
Described by those who knew him best as a Buddha, a Merlin, and "a cross between Brer Rabbit and St. Francis of Assisi," the artist Beauford Delaney was anything but ordinary. James Baldwin, his closest friend, wrote that "He has been starving and working all of his life--in Tennessee, in
Boston, in New York, and now in Paris. He has been menaced more than any other man I know by his social circumstances and also by all the emotional and psychological stratagems he has been forced to use to survive; and, more than any other man I know, he has transcended both the inner and the outer
darkness." Indeed, these themes--grinding poverty, excruciating psychological torment, and the transcendence of inner and outer darkness through the light of his art--give shape and drama to Beauford Delaney's most extraordinary life.
In Amazing A Biography of Beauford Delaney David Leeming, author of the acclaimed life of James Baldwin, tells the story of one of the most important black artists of our time with an affection, tact, and insight all too rare in recent biography. In chronicling Delaney's remarkable
trajectory from a strong religious family in Knoxville to his death in an Parisian insane asylum, Leeming maintains a dual focus on Delaney's troubled inner life--his complicated homosexuality and the "voices" that would drive him mad--and his vibrant external life--his friendships with an amazing
range of writers, artists, and musicians. Delaney seems to have known everyone, from Henry Miller, Jean Genet, Countee Cullen, and Elizabeth Bishop to Al Hirshfield, W.C. Handy, Alfred Steiglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Louis Armstrong, and virtually every other significant creative figure in New York and
Paris. In many ways, Delaney's life focuses the major currents of twentieth century art. Leeming quotes generously from the journals, notebooks, letters, and critical reviews, tracing Delaney's movement away from representation--the street scenes and portraits of his "blues aesthetic"--into the
abstract paintings where his dominant concern is with the "architecture" of color and a religious sense of light that "held the power to illuminate, even to redeem and reconcile and heal." Along the way, we're treated to a wealth of delightful anecdotes--Delaney in the manner of a Zen master telling
James Baldwin to look at the water standing in a gutter; William de Kooning trying to tell Delaney how to market his work better and Delaney responding by rolling his eyes, patting de Kooning on the shoulder, and saying "Bless you, child"; Delaney immersed in the cafe life of Greenwich Village and
Montparnasse, painting in his unheated studio in a parka and wool hat, giving away to friends and strangers what little money came to him.
Amazing Grace illuminates both the work and milieu of a major black talent and gives us a portrait of a man spiritually devoted to his art, a man we would have very much liked to know and who, after closing the book, we feel we have known.
Boston, in New York, and now in Paris. He has been menaced more than any other man I know by his social circumstances and also by all the emotional and psychological stratagems he has been forced to use to survive; and, more than any other man I know, he has transcended both the inner and the outer
darkness." Indeed, these themes--grinding poverty, excruciating psychological torment, and the transcendence of inner and outer darkness through the light of his art--give shape and drama to Beauford Delaney's most extraordinary life.
In Amazing A Biography of Beauford Delaney David Leeming, author of the acclaimed life of James Baldwin, tells the story of one of the most important black artists of our time with an affection, tact, and insight all too rare in recent biography. In chronicling Delaney's remarkable
trajectory from a strong religious family in Knoxville to his death in an Parisian insane asylum, Leeming maintains a dual focus on Delaney's troubled inner life--his complicated homosexuality and the "voices" that would drive him mad--and his vibrant external life--his friendships with an amazing
range of writers, artists, and musicians. Delaney seems to have known everyone, from Henry Miller, Jean Genet, Countee Cullen, and Elizabeth Bishop to Al Hirshfield, W.C. Handy, Alfred Steiglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Louis Armstrong, and virtually every other significant creative figure in New York and
Paris. In many ways, Delaney's life focuses the major currents of twentieth century art. Leeming quotes generously from the journals, notebooks, letters, and critical reviews, tracing Delaney's movement away from representation--the street scenes and portraits of his "blues aesthetic"--into the
abstract paintings where his dominant concern is with the "architecture" of color and a religious sense of light that "held the power to illuminate, even to redeem and reconcile and heal." Along the way, we're treated to a wealth of delightful anecdotes--Delaney in the manner of a Zen master telling
James Baldwin to look at the water standing in a gutter; William de Kooning trying to tell Delaney how to market his work better and Delaney responding by rolling his eyes, patting de Kooning on the shoulder, and saying "Bless you, child"; Delaney immersed in the cafe life of Greenwich Village and
Montparnasse, painting in his unheated studio in a parka and wool hat, giving away to friends and strangers what little money came to him.
Amazing Grace illuminates both the work and milieu of a major black talent and gives us a portrait of a man spiritually devoted to his art, a man we would have very much liked to know and who, after closing the book, we feel we have known.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published February 19, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 1, 2025
When reading something for work is both fun and interesting. Beautiful biography about a beautiful artist
June 2, 2025
I can’t believe this is the first biography I’ve ever read. It will not be the last.
“[Delaney] suggests that success as an artist is not measured by publicity or influential friends but by ‘how many disappointments [the artist] has withstood.’ The real questions for the artist in New York City in 1940 are ‘How shall one live and what shall one do?’ Beauford’s answer is ‘study art,’ and to study art means to ‘learn to see,’ to ‘learn to be conscious,’ and ‘to learn to be conscious one must learn to love.’
‘The human stimulant of love,’ writes Beauford, ‘is the great moved to growing consciousness.’ And in an introduction to a Delaney show in 1964 Baldwin would write of his friend: ‘I do know that great art can only be created out of love, and that no greater lover has ever held a brush.’
Beauford went on to say in the 1940 journal:
‘Love when unimpeded realizes the miraculous, the genius of glowing purification. But when muddled by sentimental moralistic hands its noble purpose is dragged into error by ignorance of its boundless orbit. Love is pure—it’s only through love that we approach the portal of greatness; in no other way is it possible to comprehend…wholeness.’”
“[Delaney] suggests that success as an artist is not measured by publicity or influential friends but by ‘how many disappointments [the artist] has withstood.’ The real questions for the artist in New York City in 1940 are ‘How shall one live and what shall one do?’ Beauford’s answer is ‘study art,’ and to study art means to ‘learn to see,’ to ‘learn to be conscious,’ and ‘to learn to be conscious one must learn to love.’
‘The human stimulant of love,’ writes Beauford, ‘is the great moved to growing consciousness.’ And in an introduction to a Delaney show in 1964 Baldwin would write of his friend: ‘I do know that great art can only be created out of love, and that no greater lover has ever held a brush.’
Beauford went on to say in the 1940 journal:
‘Love when unimpeded realizes the miraculous, the genius of glowing purification. But when muddled by sentimental moralistic hands its noble purpose is dragged into error by ignorance of its boundless orbit. Love is pure—it’s only through love that we approach the portal of greatness; in no other way is it possible to comprehend…wholeness.’”
August 8, 2021
So I'm sure if you're a person who is steeped in art theory and art history etc this will probably be a very engaging book, but as somebody who doesn't have much of a background in that area I found this tough to get through at times. The sections about Delaney's personal life were pretty engaging, but so much of the text was either (1) commenting/analyzing his philosophy of art and/or his artistic influences, or (2) literally just long lists of people he met in his life. Whenever I got to one of those sections my eyes started to glaze over, and I had a bit of trouble keeping track of who was who. As a person though Delaney was extremely interesting and somewhat tragic, and the author clearly knows quite a bit about both his life and his artwork.
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December 5, 2013A complex and brilliant man. At first I found the book maddening in it covered every individual he met. However, after learning a little something about them all I discovered an equally wonderful pallet of vibrant colors/pastels/ and purposeful strokes that showed a more spiritual canvas of the man. Excellent.
July 11, 2021
A concise, illuminating biography of the Knoxville-born and raised African American artist who James Baldwin described as "a cross between Brer Rabbit and St. Francis of Assisi."
September 10, 2016
Overlooked artist and mentor of James Baldwin. Queer and roots in knoxville.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews