In the Medium of Life: The Drawings of Beauford Delaney exhibits nearly 100 works that serve as benchmarks of the different stages of Delaney’s career. Moving the focus away from some of his more famous on-canvas works, the exhibition chronicles Delaney’s life, and in turn, the way his experiences influenced the development of his artistic style and greater presence in the world of art. Including supporting materials such as the published writings of his close friend James Baldwin, and newspaper clippings documenting the societal reaction to the success of black artists, the gallery halls narrate the eras of Delaney.
While both the exaggerated portraiture and naturalistic landscapes of Delaney’s works from the 1930s through the early 1950s do feature two of the primary colors, yellow and red, the majority of his works lack a primary blue. Layers of teal, aqua, and turquoise can be found in his watercolor paintings, inks drawings, and oil prints, but in very few did he dare use an out-of-the-tube ultramarine. It is my belief that this decision is what keeps his pieces from reading as somber as they could, considering the lack of smiling and overall signs of life, that being either flora or fauna. By leaving out primary blue, his work is able to exist in the space between melancholic and chipper.
Hayden Holmes
This review starts off really strong, I think the first half is a great description of the show and what makes it interesting. I get a bit confused in the second paragraph as most of the writing becomes about a lack of true blue. I think that could be condensed into one sentence. I feel it is important when writing a review to understand when personal tastes take over because to me the use of a true blue or not seems insignificant when looking at the whole exhibit. That is something I might bring up in writing a critique of an individual piece but I find it hard to understand how it is significant in talking about his work in a retrospective.
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