Beauford and Joseph Delaney

Beauford Delaney left Knoxville for Boston and reached New York in 1929, in the Depression, working at the Whitney to get by. In the 1940s he painted city scenes such as Can Fire in the Park. After moving to Paris in 1953 his work turned to abstract studies of color and light, and James Baldwin called him his spiritual father. Drink and illness shadowed his later years; he died in a Paris hospital in 1979 and lay in an unmarked grave until a stone was placed in 2010. A 1988 exhibition revived interest in his work.

What the plaque says

Beauford Delaney 1901-1979Joseph Delaney 1904-1991 Beauford Delaney 1901-1979: Beauford Delaney is considered one of the greatest abstract painters of the 20th century. Battling poverty, racial prejudice and mental illness, he achieved acclaim for his expressive portraits, cityscapes and abstractions. An African American artist, Beauford was one of 10 children born to the Rev. John Samuel and Delia Elizabeth Johnson Delaney at 815 East Vine Avenue near this site. He spent most of his life in New York City and Paris, France, forming lifelong friendships with writers James Baldwin, Henry Miller, and other luminaries. Beauford Delaney is buried in Cimetiere Parisien de Thiais. Joseph Delaney 1904-1991: Born near this site, Joseph Delaney, an African American artist, like his older brother Beauford, studied under local artist Lloyd Branson. In 1930, Joseph began his studies in New York at the Art Students League. He spent the next 56 years painting portraits and scenes of urban life in lower Manhattan. In 1986, he returned to Knoxville and served as artist-in-residence at the University of Tennessee until his death in 1991. His works are in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and other major museums. Joseph Delaney is buried in Knoxville's Greenwood Cemetery.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blount Mansion — 0.6 mi
  The 1792 frame house of William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory, Knoxville's only National Historic Landmark, where the people he enslaved are named.
• Beck Cultural Exchange Center — 0.9 mi
  Knoxville's Black history museum and archive, opened in 1975 in the 1912 Dandridge Avenue house the community bought for $22,500.
• Green McAdoo Cultural Center — 16 mi
  The 1935 school in Clinton that sent twelve Black students down Foley Hill to desegregate Clinton High School in August 1956, now a museum with bronze statues of the Clinton 12.
• Museum of Appalachia — 17 mi
  John Rice Irwin's 65-acre collection of moved log cabins and mountain objects north of Knoxville, opened in 1969, with a cabin believed to be Mark Twain's father's.

More markers nearby

• William Francis Yardley — 0.4 mi
• First Presbyterian Church — 0.4 mi
• White's Mill — 0.4 mi
• Battery Wiltsie — 0.5 mi