Beauford Delaney & James Baldwin
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BEAUFORD DELANEY & JAMES BALDWIN: THROUGH THE UNUSUAL DOOR selected timeline Beauford Delaney 1940 Meets Delaney for the first time 1961 While traveling by boat across 1970 Buys a home at Saint-Paul-de- James Baldwin at the artist’s 181 Greene Street studio. the Mediterranean to Greece, jumps Vence, in the South of France. 1941 Spends Christmas with his fam- overboard in a suicide attempt and is 1971 Travels to London to appear with 1901 Born Knoxville, Tennessee, ily in Knoxville. Appears in Delaney’s rescued by a fisherman. Friends pay poet/activist Nikki Giovanni on the on December 30 to Delia Johnson art for the first time in Dark Rapture for his return to Paris and hospitaliza- television program Soul. At his new Delaney and the Reverend John Samuel (James Baldwin). tion. Second essay collection, Nobody home, he is visited frequently by an Delaney, 815 East Vine Avenue. Knows My Name, published by Dial. 1942 Graduates from DeWitt Clinton increasingly unstable Delaney, who 1919 Father dies on April 30. Rioting Makes first trip to Istanbul, where he High School. sees Baldwin’s home as a refuge. breaks out in August after an African finishes writing his third novel, Another 1972 Publishes No Name in the Street, American man, Maurice Franklin Mays, 1943 Stepfather David Baldwin dies. Country. his fourth book of non-fiction, and is accused of murdering a white woman 1944 Appears in Delaney’s pastel 1962 Moves to 53 Rue Vercingetorix dedicates it to Delaney. in what would later become known as Portrait of James Baldwin. in Montparnasse. Painter and friend Knoxville’s “Red Summer.” Memories Paul Jenkins publishes a tribute, 1973 Interviewed along with dancer 1945 Lauded by friend Henry Miller of the violence haunt Delaney for years “Beauford Delaney: A Quiet Leg- Josephine Baker and novelist Cecil in his chapbook “The Amazing and afterward. end,” in the December issue of Art Brown by Professor Henry Louis Gates Invariable Beauford DeLaney.” Jr. in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. A Dialogue, 1923 Moves to Boston, taking art International. First visit to Africa; Dial 1948 Awarded a Rosenwald Founda- a conversation with Nikki Giovanni, is classes at the Massachusetts Normal publishes Another Country. tion fellowship and publishes first published by Lippincott. Collaborates Art School, Copley Society, South Bos- 1963 “The Fire Next Time” is pub- short story. Moves to Paris. with Ray Charles at the Newport Jazz ton School of Art, and Lowell Institute. lished in The New Yorker and by Dial. Festival. 1950 Visits Knoxville in March. 1924 Born Harlem, New York, on Au- Appears on cover of Time magazine. Receives a two-month fellowship to 1974 Mental health declines further gust 2 to Emma Berdis Jones. Biological Meets with Attorney General Robert Yaddo, the famous artist’s retreat in and Baldwin and other friends place father is unknown. F. Kennedy at Kennedy’s home to Saratoga Springs, New York. discuss civil rights. Participates in the him in Sainte-Anne Hospital, Paris 1927 Mother marries the Reverend for treatment. Publishes fifth novel, If 1952 Moves to 713 Broadway. Begins March on Washington for Jobs and David Baldwin. Together, they had eight Beale Street Could Talk. writing The Amen Corner. Freedom and makes his second trip biological children (four girls and four to Africa. 1976 Publishes children’s book Little boys) in addition to James, the eldest. 1953 Visits Knoxville in August before Man, Little Man, which is dedicated to leaving by boat from New York for 1964 Solo exhibition at Galerie Lam- 1929 Moves to New York, spending Delaney, and The Devil Finds Work, a Paris on August 28. Reunites with bert, Paris, featuring a mix of recent the first night sleeping on a park bench critique of the film industry. Baldwin, and settles at Hôtel des abstractions and portraits. Completes in Union Square. Settles in Harlem, Ecôles in Saint-Germain. Publishes his second play, Blues for Mister Charlie, 1978 First retrospective exhibition, where the following year he is joined by first novel, Go Tell it on the Mountain, while in Istanbul. Contributes an essay at the Studio Museum, Harlem, younger brother Joseph (1904-1991). which earns praise from Langston for the publication accompanying organized by Richard Long. Begins one Attends Public School 24 and soon Hughes. Delaney’s Galerie Lambert show. of several teaching stints at Bowling develops a talent for writing. Green College and is awarded the 1954 Paintings are included in exhibi- 1965 Paints his monumental portrait 1930 Work is selected for an exhibi- Martin Luther King Memorial Medal tions at the Musée d’Art Moderne Marian Anderson, and dedicates it tion at Whitney Studio Galleries (later by the City College of New York. Essay and the Musée des Beaux Arts in to Baldwin. Going to Meet the Man, the Whitney Museum of American from Delaney’s 1964 Galerie Lambert Paris. Earns a Guggenheim fellowship Baldwin’s first short-story collection, Art). Hired as a doorman at the Whit- exhibition brochure is included in and receives a fellowship to Yaddo. is published by Dial and dedicated to ney and given a studio and basement the publication accompanying the Giovanni’s Room, his second novel, Beauford Delaney. Debates William apartment. First one-person show, painter’s retrospective at the Studio rejected by Knopf because of its ho- F. Buckley Jr. before 1,200 students at at New York Public Library’s Harlem Museum, Harlem. mosexual themes. Finishes first draft Cambridge University and receives a branch (now the Schomburg Center for of The Amen Corner. two-minute standing ovation. Makes 1979 Dies on March 26 at age 77 at Research in Black Culture). Classes at first trip to Israel. Sainte-Anne. Teaches at the University the Art Students League with Thomas 1955 In December, moves to 68 Rue of California at Berkeley. Returns to Hart Benton and John Sloan. Finds Paul Vaillant Couturier in Clamart, 1966 Completes his fourth novel, Tell Paris on the occasion of Beauford work with the mural division of the a Paris suburb, a move arranged by Me How Long the Train Has Been Gone, Delaney’s death. Makes his first trip Federal Art Project, Works Progress Richard Olney, a friend of Baldwin’s while in Istanbul, and is visited by to Russia. Administration. who also occupied the residence. Pub- Delaney. lishes collection of essays, Notes of a 1980 Visits University of Florida for 1931 With brother Joseph moves to 18 1968 Tell Me How Long the Train’s Native Son; first play, The Amen Corner, a meeting of the African Literature Downing Street in Greenwich Village. Been Gone is published by Dial. Moves is performed at Howard University. to Los Angeles to work on the script Association, where he participates in 1933 With brother Joseph returns a dialogue on the “African aesthetic.” 1956 Travels with Baldwin and for Autobiography of Malcolm X. His to Knoxville to visit family. Beauford Travels through the American South artist friend Lawrence Calcagno to distress at Martin Luther King’s as- produces pastel portraits of Joseph and as part of the television documentary I Ibiza, Spain. Publishes second novel, sassination causes him to abandon mother Delia. Heard It through the Grapevine. Giovanni’s Room. the Malcolm X project and return to 1935 Works with Charles Alston on Europe. 1981 Playboy magazine publishes 1957 Meets Martin Luther King Jr., the Harlem Hospital mural project, Baldwin’s essay on the Atlanta child and travels across the American 1969 Spends Christmas with family in joins the Harlem Art Guild, and spends murders, “The Evidence of Things Not South as a correspondent for Harper’s Knoxville. During the visit, indepen- time at Alston’s “306” space. Seen.” Magazine. “Sonny’s Blues” appears in dent curator Elsa Honig Fine meets 1936 After living at several addresses Partisan Review. Spends time with Del- with Beauford and Joseph to propose 1986 Awarded La Légion D’Honneur on Downing Street in the 1930s, settles aney at his studio in the Paris suburb a joint exhibition at the University by President François Mitterand. Trav- nearby at 181 Greene Street, where he of Clamart, noting significant growth of Tennessee’s Frank H. McClung els to Russia with group of writers to would remain until 1952. First work in in the artist’s work. Museum, where Delia Delaney once meet Mikhail Gorbachev and discuss print, at age 12, a short story about the worked as a custodian. After returning world peace. 1958 Mother, Delia, dies in Knoxville. Spanish Revolution, appears in a church to Paris in January of 1970, writes his 1987 Dies on December 1 at age 63 of newspaper. 1960 Clamart paintings are shown for brother to explain that he is not able stomach cancer at home in Saint-Paul- the first time, at Galerie Paul Facchetti, to participate in the exhibition, which 1938 Gains national attention when de-Vence. Paris. subsequently becomes a solo exhibi- Life magazine features photographs of tion of Joseph’s work. him painting in Washington Square. Begins preaching at Fireside Pentecos- tal Assembly, his stepfather’s church..