“The abstraction, ostensibly, is simply for me a penetration of something that is more profound in many ways than the rigidity of form. A form if it breathes some, if it has some enigma to it, it is also the enigma that is the abstract. I would think.”[1]

An extraordinary colorist whose style transformed from figurative expressionism to lyrical abstraction, Beauford Delaney was born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1901. He was the eighth of ten children his mother bore, but one of only a few who survived to adulthood. Beauford’s mother, Delia Johnson Delaney, had been born into slavery in 1865 and was a devout Christian who imparted her stringent religious beliefs on her children. However, her strictness did not prevent her from recognizing and nurturing her young son’s artistic talent. Beauford’s father, John Samuel Delaney (known as Sam), was a Methodist Episcopal preacher who spent much of his time traveling and ministering to black communities in need of churches. From 1910 to 1915, the family lived in Jefferson City, where church and religion dominated their social and intellectual activities. Despite the painful losses that afflicted the Delaney family, Beauford’s recollection of his childhood among his close, passionate family was largely positive. In 1915, Sam was called back to Knoxville and the Delaney family returned to their original home.[2] Delaney attended Knoxville Colored High School, where prominent attorney and educator Charles W. Cansler was principal. Cansler brought Delaney’s early artistic abilities to the attention of notable Knoxville artist Lloyd Branson, who, with the assistance of artist Hugh Tyler, became an important instructor and mentor to the young artist. Delaney’s father died in April 1919. Later that year, rioting broke out in Knoxville after a Black American man, Maurice Franklin Mays, was accused of murdering a white woman. These events later became known as Knoxville’s “Red Summer.”

In 1923, Delaney left Knoxville for Boston, Massachusetts where he studied art at the Massachusetts Normal School (later the Massachusetts College of Art), the Copley Society, the Lowell Institute and the South Boston School of Art. While in Boston, Delaney spent considerable time at local museums including the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where he became familiar with impressionist painting, especially the work of Claude Monet and the portraiture of John Singer Sargent. In 1929, Delaney moved to New York City. Witnessing the economic blight brought about by the onset of the Great Depression, Delaney “felt an affinity with the multitude of marginalized races and classes in the city and instantly connected with these disenfranchised communities.”[3] He found work in the dance studio of Billy Pierce and “began rendering portraits of the studio's dancers and its socialite clientele (although he rarely received compensation for his artwork).”[4] In 1930, the Whitney Studio Galleries (later the Whitney Museum of American Art) included a selection of Delaney’s portraits in a group exhibition. Delaney received favorable reviews, and soon after, the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library mounted Delaney’s first solo show, Exhibit of Portrait Sketches by Beauford Delaney.[5] Around this time, Delaney began his studies at the Art Students League, where he worked with John Sloan and Thomas Hart Benton, among others.

Delaney found work with the mural division of the Federal Art Project (a New Deal program sponsored by the Works Progress Administration), and in 1936, he worked with artist Charles Alston on murals at Harlem Hospital Center. During this time, Delaney frequented the salons and exhibitions held in Charles Alston’s studio, located at 306 West 141 Street. Known simply as “306,” the space served as a center for the most creative minds in Harlem, and regulars included Norman Lewis, Jacob Lawrence, Augusta Savage, Romare Bearden, Richard Wright, Robert Blackburn, Countee Cullen, Ralph Ellison, and Gwendolyn Knight. He was also a member of the Harlem Artists Guild. Delaney was consumed by his own artistic vision and, while he enjoyed participating in the Harlem art scene, the artist remained closely connected to the Greenwich Village avant-garde community, forming lasting friendships with writers and artists such as Henry Miller, Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keefe, and Al Hirschfeld. Throughout the 1940s and into the early 1950s, Delaney created portraits, still lifes, street scenes, and modernist interiors executed with a dense impasto, undulating lines and bright colors reminiscent of the fauvist tradition. These vibrant paintings became known as Delaney’s Greene Street paintings; he lived and worked at 181 Greene Street in Greenwich Village from 1936 until 1952. Hovering between abstraction and figuration, the Green Street works confound attempts to fit Delaney’s oeuvre into a definitive movement. Furthermore, although Delaney was accepted within New York’s elite circle of artists and intellectuals, he continued to experience marginalization because of his race, class, and sexuality. In 1950, Delaney received a two-month fellowship to Yaddo, a retreat for artists and writers in Saratoga Springs, New York. This experience was pivotal in Delaney’s personal and artistic growth; he wrote from Yaddo that he was “living and learning how to be a human and an artist.”[6] His time at Yaddo amplified his interest in experimenting with abstraction and intensified his aspiration to visit Europe.

In September 1953, Delaney followed in the footsteps of his dear friend James Baldwin and left New York City permanently for Paris, settling in Montparnasse. In 1954, his work is included in the ninth Salon des Réalités Nouvelles at the Palais des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris and, the following year, he had his first European solo show at Galería Clan in Madrid, Spain. Delaney moved to the Paris suburb of Clamart in December 1955 and supported himself through the occasional sale of his art as well as contributions from friends. Feeling a new sense of freedom from racial and sexual biases, he focused on creating non-objective abstractions. In 1940, Delaney had met and painted Baldwin, and the two had formed a close friendship that continued in Clamart, where Baldwin witnessed first-hand the transformation that Delaney’s art underwent in Europe: “a most striking metamorphosis into freedom.”[7] These works consist of elaborate, fluid swirls of paint applied in luminous hues, constituting pure, concentrated expressions of light. While his abstractions have clear ties to

SELECTED MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris, France
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA
Clark Atlanta University Art Museum, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Fisk University Galleries, Fisk University, Nashville, TN
Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Hampton University Museum, Hampton University, Hampton, VA
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
James E. Lewis Museum of Art, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD
Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
The Menil Collection, Houston, TX
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY
Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
The Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Philander Smith College, Little Rock, AR
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, New York, NY
Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN
Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, IL
University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
University of Michigan Museum of Art, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA

1930     
Exhibit of Portrait Sketches by Beauford Delaney, 135th Street Branch, New York Public Library, New York, NY

1932     
Beauford Delaney, 42nd Street Library, New York Public Library, New York, NY

1938     
Beauford Delaney, Eighth Street Playhouse Art Gallery, New York, NY
Beauford Delaney, C Gallery, Washington, DC

1941     
Beauford Delaney, Vendome Art Galleries, New York, NY

1947     
Paintings by Beauford Delaney, Seventh Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, The Pyramid Club, Inc., Philadelphia, PA

1948     
Delaney: An Exhibition of Paintings by Beauford Delaney, The Artists’ Gallery, New York, NY

1950     
Oil Paintings and Pastels by Beauford Delaney, University of Maine Art Gallery, Carnegie Hall, University of Maine, Orono, ME
Beauford Delaney, Roko Gallery, New York, NY

1952     
Beauford Delaney, Roko Gallery, New York, NY
Beauford Delaney, Roko Gallery, New York, NY

1955     
Exposición Beauford Delaney, Galería Clan, Madrid, Spain

1956     
Beaufort-Delaney: Peintures et Pastels, Galerie Prismes, Paris, France 

1960     
Beauford Delaney, Galerie Paul Facchetti, Paris, France

1964     
Tableaux de Beauford-Delaney, Galerie Lambert, Paris, France

1969     
Beauford Delaney, Rétrospective, Centre Culturel Américain, Paris, France

1973     
Beauford Delaney, Galerie Darthea Speyer, Paris, France               

1978     
Beauford Delaney: A Retrospective, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston, MA; The Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA

1988     
Beauford Delaney: From Tennessee to Paris, Philippe Briet Gallery, New York, NY

1991     
Beauford Delaney, A Retrospective: Fifty Years of Light, Philippe Briet Gallery, New York, NY
Beauford Delaney, Philippe Briet Gallery, New York, NY

1992     
Beauford Delaney, Galerie Darthea Speyer, Paris, France

1994     
Beauford Delaney: The New York Years [1929-1953], Philippe Briet Gallery, New York, NY

1995     
Beauford Delaney, The 1960s: Paris Abstractions, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

1998     
Beauford Delaney: An Introduction, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN 

1999     
Beauford Delaney: Liquid Light: Paris Abstractions, 1954-1970, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC

2002     
Beauford Delaney: The Color Yellow, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Anacostia Museum and Center for African History and Culture (now Anacostia Community Museum), Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

2004     
Beauford Delaney: From New York to Paris, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (now Minneapolis Institute of Art), Minneapolis, MN; Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN; Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

2016     
Beauford Delaney: Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color, organized by Les Amis de Beauford Delaney and the Wells International Foundation, Reid Hall, Columbia Global Centers, Paris, France

2017     
Gathering Light: Works by Beauford Delaney from the KMA Collection, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN

2020     
Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin: Through the Unusual Door, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN
The Paris Years: Paintings by Beauford Delaney from the Artist’s Estate, Student Union Art Gallery, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
Beauford Delaney: Transcending Race + Time, UT Downtown Gallery, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN

2021     
Beauford Delaney’s Metamorphosis into Freedom, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN
Be Your Wonderful Self: The Portraits of Beauford Delaney, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA

1930
Exhibition by Four Sunday Painters: Arthur E. Cederquist, Beauford Delaney, Prosper Invernizzi, Kalman Oswald, Whitney Studio Galleries (now Whitney Museum of American Art), New York, NY

1933
Cooperative Art Market and Roxy Theatre, New York, NY
Exhibition of Work by Negro Artists, presented by The Harmon Foundation, The Art Center, New York, NY

1934
Eighteenth Annual Exhibition, The Society of Independent Artists, Grand Central Palace, New York, NY
Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit, New York, NY
Jumble Shop, New York, NY
Poet's Inn, New York, NY

1935
International Art Center, Roerich Museum, New York, NY
Exhibition of the Work of Negro Artists, The Harmon Foundation, New York, NY
Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit, New York, NY
Jumble Shop, New York, NY
Poet's Inn, New York, NY

1936
Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit, New York, NY

1937
Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit, New York, NY

1938
Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit, New York, NY

1939
First Annual Exhibition, Salon of Contemporary Negro Art, New York, NY

1940
Exhibition of the Art of the American Negro (1851-1940), Tanner Hall Art Galleries, Chicago Coliseum, Chicago, IL

1941
McMillen Galleries, New York, NY
8th Street Cafeteria, New York, NY
American Negro Art: 19th and 20th Centuries, Downtown Gallery, New York, NY

1944
Institute of Modern Art (now Institute of Contemporary Art), Boston, MA
American Negro Art: Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, The Newark Museum (now The Newark Museum of Art), Newark, NJ
New Names in American Art, Collis P. Huntington Library, Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), Hampton, VA; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; G Place Gallery, Washington, DC; City Art Museum of Saint Louis (now Saint Louis Art Museum), St. Louis, MO; Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

1945
[Exhibition of contemporary American work by Negro artists], Powell House, New York, NY

1946
[Exhibition of paintings and sculpture by leading Negro artists], Roko Gallery, New York, NY

1948
Exhibition of Watercolors by Beauford Delaney, Alfred Van Loen, Paul England, Village Art Center, New York, NY

1949
Negro Artists, Roko Gallery, New York, NY
Fifteen Artists, Roko Gallery, New York, NY
[Annual group show of work by contemporary painters], Downtown Community School, New York, NY

1950
1950 Whitney Annual Exhibition: Sculpture, Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1951
Contemporary Americans, Roko Gallery, New York, NY
[Young Americans], Roko Gallery, New York, NY
[First exhibit of paintings, prints and culture], Skowhegan Gallery, Skowhegan, ME

1952
147th Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE

1954
9ème Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Palais des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

1955
Les plus mauvais Tableaux, Nuagisme, Galerie Prismes, Paris, France

1956
Les Arts en France et dans le Monde, Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, France
Musée Iserlohn, Germany
Abstract American, Galerie Arnaud, Paris, France
First Exposition of Negro Progress, Wanamaker Building, New York, NY

1957
Comparaisons, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
L'insurrection Contre La Forme, Galerie Prismes, Paris, France
Groupe de la Galerie Facchetti, Galerie Paul Facchetti, Paris, France; Bordighera, Italy; University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
Micro-Salon d’Avril, Galerie Iris Clert, Paris, France

1958
Neues aus der neuen Malerei, Städtisches Museum, Leverkusen, Germany
L’Art du XXime siècle, Palais des Expositions, Charleroi, Belgium
13ème Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
[Acht, Gaitis, Beauford-Delaney, Fiorini, Gea-Panter, Kimber-Smith, Lataster, Georges Noël, Revol, Sima, Wemaëre, Wendt], Galerie Paul Facchetti, Paris, France
Micro-Salon 58, Galerie Iris Clert, Paris, France

1959
Galerie Breteau, Paris, France
Musée des Beaux-Arts
Trois Peintures Américains: Beaufort-Delaney, Boggs, Magnuson, sponsored by The Crafts Section, Special Services Division of the US Army, Hp. Seine Area Command, rue Marbeuf, Paris, France
Galleria Numero, Florence, Italy

1960
Antagonismes, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Palais de Louvre, Paris, France
Twentieth Anniversary Exhibit, Roko Gallery, New York, NY
Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris, France
Galerie Paul Facchetti, Paris, France

1961
Beauford Delaney, Joe Downing, and Caroline Lee, Centre Culturel Américain, Paris, France
James Bishop, David Budd, Gaston Chaissac, Beauford Delaney, Manuel Duque, Sam Francis, Alain Jacquet, and Pouget, Galerie Breteau, Paris, France
Das Naive Bild der Welt (Naive Pictures of the World), Baden-Baden, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Germany
42nd Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Carnegie Institute (now Carnegie Museum of Art), Pittsburgh, PA

1962
Collections d’Expression Française, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France
Resurgence, Galerie Breteau, Paris, France
Centre Culturel Américain, Paris, France
Paris-London 1961, Lincoln Gallery, London, England

1963
Salon international de galeries pilotes, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, France
Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris, France

1964
Le Nuage Crève, Galerie Internationale d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France
10 American Negro Artists Living and Working in France, Den Frie, Copenhagen, Denmark
…Some Negro Artists, Art Gallery, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ

1965
La Boutique d'Été, Galerie Lambert, Paris, France
Quinze Peintres Américains de la collection Vent d’Ouest, Centre Cultural Americain, Paris, France
U.S.A. Nouvelle Peinture, Musée des beaux-arts, Lyon, France; Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France

1966
Petite Cosmogonie pour un homme seul, Gallery A, Paris, France
Galerie Paul Facchetti, Paris, France
Galerie Arnaud, Paris, France

1967
L’Age du Jazz, Musée Galliera, Paris, France
Peintures de Mai, Galerie Paul Facchetti, Paris, France
The Evolution of Afro-American Artists: 1800-1950, Great Hall, The City College of New York, New York, NY
USA-GROUPE 67, Maison de la Culture, Amiens, France
[Group exhibition with Delaney, Hultberg, Chelimsky, Biala, Jenkins, Weber, Yanikun, Muse, Barr-Sharrar], Centre Culturel Américain, Paris, France

1968
Black Artists in America: 19th and 20th Centuries, Wilcox Gallery, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
Septième Biennale de Peinture 1968, dedicated to Marc Chagall, Palais de l'Europe, Menton, France
Douze Peintres Americains, Hotel de Ville de Paris, Paris, France
In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
[10 American painters], chateau, Saint Restitut, Drôme, France
21 Peintres Américains, Musée de Brest, Brittany, France
Invisible Americans: Black Artists of the 30’s, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

1969
A Tribute to the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., The Community Church Art Gallery (now Gallery35 at Community), New York, NY

1970
Afro-American Artists Abroad, University of Texas Art Museum (now Blanton Museum of Art), University of Texas, Austin, TX

1971
Black Artists: Two Generations, The Newark Museum (now The Newark Museum of Art), Newark, NJ

1972
Les Amis Parisiens de Henry Miller, Centre Culturel Américain, Paris, France

1976
Hommage a Julien Alvard, Chateau de Anzy-le-Franc, Paris, France

1974
Six Afro-American Artists: A View from the Morgan State College Gallery of Art Collection, Gallery of Art (now James E. Lewis Museum of Art), Morgan State College (now Morgan State University), Baltimore, MD

1981
Le Clair et l’Obscur, Musée d’Évreux, Évreux, France; Musée d'art Hyacinthe Rigaud, Perpignan, France; Musée de Clamecy, Clamey, France
[Paintings by 10 Black artists including Delaney, Woodruff, Alma Thomas], Community Gallery, New York, NY

1983
Selections, Salander O'Reilly Galleries, Inc., New York, NY
Color Expressions, James E. Lewis Museum, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD

1984
Since the Harlem Renaissance: 50 Years of Afro-American Art, The Center Gallery (now Samek Art Museum), Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA; The Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, College at Westbury (now SUNY Old Westbury), State University of New York, Old Westbury, NY; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY; University of Maryland Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; Museum of Art (now Palmer Museum of Art), Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

1985
Hidden Heritage: African American Artists: 1800 – 1950, Bellevue Art Museum (now Bellevue Arts Museum), Bellevue, WA

1989
African-American Artists, 1880-1987: Selections from the Evans Tibbs Collection, circulated by SITES (Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services), Washington, DC
Don’t You Know By Now, curated by Ornette Coleman, Philippe Briet Gallery, New York, NY

1990
Against the Odds: African American Artists and the Harmon Foundation, The Newark Museum (now The Newark Museum of Art), Newark, NJ; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL

1991
The Search for Freedom: African American Abstract Painting 1945-1975, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, NY
The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art, The Beach Institute African-American Cultural Center / King-Tisdell Cottage, Savannah, GA; Hammonds House Galleries and Resource Center (now Hammonds House Museum), Atlanta, GA; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL; Boston University Art Galleries, Boston University, Boston, MA; Main Gallery, Arts Consortium of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH; UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures, University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), San Antonio, TX; Canton Art Institute (now Canton Museum of Art), Canton, OH; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Art Gallery, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL; Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, Pittsburgh, PA; Cheekwood Museum of Art, Cheekwood Estate & Gardens, Nashville, TN; Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV; Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Ocean Springs, MS; Meadows Museum of Art at Centenary College of Louisiana, Shreveport, LA; Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC; The Museum of Art/Tallahassee, Tallahassee, FL; Museum of Arts and Sciences, Macon, GA; Henry Ford Museum (now The Henry Ford), Dearborn, MI; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA; Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, TX; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN; Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY; Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS

1992
Free Within Ourselves: African-American Artists in the Collection of the National Museum of American Art, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, NY; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN; The Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA
Selections from the Permanent Collection, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Paris Connections: African American Artists in Paris, Bomani Gallery and Jernigan Wicker Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
Doménikos Theotokópoulos: A Dialogue, Philippe Briet Gallery, New York, NY

1993
Summer Group, Philippe Briet Gallery, New York, NY
Then and Now: African-American Artists, Sack Fine Arts, New York, NY
The 25th Anniversary Exhibition: Recent Acquisitions and Selected Works, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

1994
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
African American Art: Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection, San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX; Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, GA; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN
Empowerment: The Art of African American Artists, Krasdale Gallery, White Plains, NY
On Paper: Abstraction in American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Selections from the Permanent Collection, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Selection of Paintings and Drawings by African-American Artists, 1920-1970, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Norman Lewis and His Contemporaries, G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, Birmingham, MI

1995
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, II, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
Selections from the Permanent Collection, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE

1996
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks III, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
City of Ambition: Artists & New York, 1900-1960, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Explorations in the City of Light: African-American Artists in Paris, 1945-65, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA; The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Selections from the Permanent Collection, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Selections from the Permanent Collection, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC

1997
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, IV, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Fisk University Galleries, Nashville, TN
Facets of the Figure: A Spectrum of 20th Century American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Revisiting American Art: Works from the Collections of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
Southern Collection Highlights, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Soul and Spirit: 200 Years of African-American Art, Renaissance Gallery, Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA
Visions of My People: African-American Art in Tennessee, Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN
Singular Impressions: The Monotype in America, National Museum of American Art (now Smithsonian American Art Museum), Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

1998     
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, V, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; The Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
African-American Artists from the Permanent Collection, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Black New York Artists of the 20th Century: Selections from the Schomburg Center Collections, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, New York, NY
Tradition & Conflict: A Visual History of African-Americans in Art 19th and 20th Centuries, Ledbetter Lusk Gallery, Memphis, TN
Selections from the Permanent Collection, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
Galerie Darthea Speyer, Paris, France

1999     
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VI, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI

2000     
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery: The First Decade, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala, FL     
A Brush with the Past, G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, Birmingham, MI

2001     
1950 – 1965: Abstraction on Paper, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
An Artistic Friendship: Beauford Delaney and Lawrence Calcagno, Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA; Hampton University Museum, Hampton University, Hampton, VA; Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME; The Arkansas Arts Center (now Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts), Little Rock, AR; Musée d’Art Americain Giverny, Giverny, France
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VIII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Texas Southern University Museum, Houston, TX
Abstract Expressionism-Expanding the Canon, Gary Snyder Fine Art, New York, NY
Monet and Modernism, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, Germany
Out of the Fifties - Into the Sixties: Six Figurative Expressionists, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

2002     
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, IX, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
No Greater Love: Abstraction, Jack Tilton/Anna Kustera Gallery, New York, NY

2003     
African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, X, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
African American Masters: Highlights of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, New York Historical Society, New York, NY; Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, TN; The Cummer Museum of Art, Jacksonville, FL; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH; Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH; The Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT
Challenge of the Modern: African-American Artists 1925-1945, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Modernism: A Century of Style & Design, Seventh Regiment Armory, New York, NY
An American Legacy: Art from the Studio Museum in Harlem, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
The Harlem Renaissance and Its Legacy, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA

2004     
Embracing the Muse: Africa and African American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Mood Indigo: The Legacy of Duke Ellington - A Look at Jazz and Improvisation in American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

2005     
Stroke! Beauford Delaney, Norman Lewis & Alma Thomas, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Another View: New York School, Opalka Gallery, The Sage Colleges, Albany, NY
Eye Contact: Painting and Drawing in American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY
Syncopated Rhythms: 20th-Century African American Art from the George and Joyce Wein Collection, Boston University Art Gallery, Boston University, Boston, MA

2006     
American Modernism on Paper, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

2007     
Decoding Myth:  African American Abstraction, 1945-1975, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY
Body Beware: 18 American Artists, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY
Americans in Paris: Abstract Painting in the Fifties, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY

2008     
African American Art:  200 Years, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY
Circa 1958:  Breaking Ground in American Art, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Beyond the Canon: Small-Scale American Abstraction, 1945-1965, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY

2009     
Larry and Brenda Thompson Collection, David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Abstract Expressionism: Further Evidence (Part One: Painting), Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY 

2011     
Evolution in Action, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Abstract Expressionism: Reloading the Canon, A Selection of Paintings and Sculpture, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2012     
African American Art in the Twentieth Century, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Blues for Smoke, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
INsite/INchelsea: The Inaugural Exhibition, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
…On Paper, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

2013     
Abstract Expressionism / In Context: Seymour Lipton, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Brothers and Sisters, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

2014     
Face Value: Portraiture in the Age of Abstraction, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Beyond the Spectrum: Abstraction in African American Art, 1950-1975, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
RISING UP/UPRISING: Twentieth Century African American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue from the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby Jr., Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC
Making Connections: The Art & Life of Herbert Gentry, Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery, Boston University, Boston, MA

2015     
Glenn Ligon: Encounters and Collisions, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, England; Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, England
Represent: 200 Years of African American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
In Profile: Portraits from the Permanent Collection, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Night Visions: Nocturnes in American Art, 1860-1960, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME   
I Got Rhythm: Art and Jazz since 1920, Stiftung Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
Collectors Legacy: Selections from the Sandra Lloyd Baccus Collection, The David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD     
The Art of Music, The San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
75 Gifts for 75 Years, Walker Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN

2016     
Circa 1970, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic, 1945-1965, Haus Der Kunst, Munich, Germany; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Gay Gotham: Art and Underground Culture in New York, Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY
Tête-à-tête: Art and Fashion from the SCAD Museum of Art Permanent Collection, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Modern Heroics: 75 Years of African-American Expressionism at the Newark Museum, The Newark Museum (now The Newark Museum of Art), Newark, NJ

2017     
20/20: The Studio Museum in Harlem and Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Expanding Tradition: Selections from the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA
Artists in Exile: Expressions of Loss and Hope, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
Figuratively Speaking, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Tate Modern, London, England; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; The Broad, Los Angeles, CA; de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX

2018     
I Too Sing America: The Harlem Renaissance at 100, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
Hopes Springing High: Gifts of Art by African American Artists, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Something to Say: The McNay Presents 100 Years of African American Art, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
Histórias Afro-Atlânticas, Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) and Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil
Talisman in the Age of Difference, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Celebrating 50 Years of the US Open Championships, United States Tennis Association (USTA) President’s Suite, Arthur Ashe Stadium, Flushing Meadows, NY
Lost, Loose, and Loved: Foreign Artists in Paris, 1944-1968, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain               
Carnegie International, 57th Edition, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA

2019     
Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; Smith College Museum of Art, Smith College, Northampton, MA; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin, David Zwirner Gallery, New York, NY
Detroit Collects: Selections of African American Art from Private Collections, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
The Power of Our Own Spirit: Mental Health and Artists of the American South, TJC Gallery, The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, SC
One Life: Marian Anderson, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
“Action Painting II,” Collection 1940s-1970s, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Afrocosmologies: American Reflections, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Abstraction, Color, and Politics: The 1960s and 1970s, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
African American Art in the 20th Century, organized by Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, IA; Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL; The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA; Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS; Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY

2020     
Black Histories, Black Futures, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA
Spectrum: A Celebration of Artistic Diversity, Richard and Barbara Basch Visual Arts Center, Ringling College of Art + Design, Sarasota, FL
Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, curated by Adrienne L. Childs, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
Tell Me Your Story: 100 Years of Storytelling in African American Art, curated by Rob Perrée, Kunsthal KAde, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
“Awakened in You”: The Collection of Dr. Constance E. Clayton, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Paper Power, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Degree Zero: Drawing at Midcentury, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

2021     
United States of Abstraction: American Artists in France, 1946-1964, Musée d’Arts de Nantes, Nantes, France; Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France
Beauford and Joseph Delaney: Lives in Art, UT Downtown Gallery, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
Distinctive/Instinctive: Postwar Abstract Painting, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, Virginia Museum of the Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX; Crystal Bridges
Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO
re: collections, Six Decades at the Rose Art Museum, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Enduring Voices: African American Art from the David R. and Susan S. Goode Collection, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA
Painting Identity, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
The Kinsey African American Art & History Collection, Greenwood Cultural Center and ONEOK Boathouse, Gathering Place, Tulsa, OK; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA
Oh, Honey… A Queer Reading of UMMA’s Collection, University of Michigan Museum of Art, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Black American Portraits, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Afro-Atlantic Histories, curated by Kanitra Fletcher; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Soul Deep: African-American Masterworks, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
A Drawing Show, Paula Cooper Gallery, Palm Beach, FL

2022
Manhatta: City of Ambition, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Vero Collections: Hidden Treasures Revealed, Vero Beach Museum of Art, Vero Beach, FL
Amalgamation: Celebrating 10 Years of Shin Gallery, Shin Gallery, New York, NY
When We See Us, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), Cape Town, South Africa; Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Stories Artists Tell: Art of the Americas, the 20th Century, permanent collection exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Dead Lecturer/distant relative: Notes from the Woodshed, 1950-1980, curated by Genji Amino, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Lenfest Center for the Arts, Columbia University, New York, NY
Summer At Its Best, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
In the Streets: Modern Life and Urban Experiences in the Art of the United States, 1893-1976, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

2023
God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin, Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA
American Watercolors, 1880-1990: Into the Light, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
Crosscurrents: Intercultural Conversations in Art, Mott-Warsh Collection, Flint, MI
Southern/Modern, curated by Dr. Jonathan Stuhlman and Martha R. Severens, Georgia Museum of Art, The University of Georgia, Athens; Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN; The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Black Artists in America: From Civil Rights to the Bicentennial, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN

2024
The Harlem Renaissance and TransAtlantic Modernism, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France, 1946-1962, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY; Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
Americans in Paris, Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York, NY
Century: 100 Years of Black Art at MAM, The Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
This Morning, This Evening, So Soon: James Baldwin and the Voices of Queer Resistance, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
Rupture and Connection, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX
Toward Joy: New Frameworks for American Art, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Edges of Ailey, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
The Street, curated by Peter Doig, Gagosian, New York, NY