Greene Street
Beauford Delaney
(American, 1901–1979)
1940
Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas
Dimensions57.2 x 44.5 cm (22 1/2 x 17 1/2 in.)
Credit LineThe John Axelrod Collection—Frank B. Bemis Fund, Charles H. Bayley Fund, and The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection
Accession number2011.1824
On View
On viewClassificationsPaintings
Collections
Delaney first studied art in Boston. In 1929, he moved to New York, settling in Soho in 1936 at 181 Greene Street. Many of his cityscapes are abstractions of street signs, traffic lights, and directional arrows. Delaney’s compositions are comparable to those of his white friend Stuart Davis, with whom he also shared a love of jazz music. Davis’s works can be seen in gallery 334.
InscriptionsLower right: BEAUFORD DELANEY/1940ProvenanceBy 1991, Collection of Lawrence Hilton; by 1993, with Kenkeleba House, Inc., New York; December 1993, sold by Kenkeleba House, Inc. to John Axelrod, Boston; 2011 sold by Axelrod to the MFA. (Accession date: June 22, 2011)
CopyrightEstate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
