In 2014, Reverend Reneé Kesler joined the Beck Cultural Exchange Center, Knoxville’s African American History and Culture hub, as the organization’s president. Soon after, she inquired about the eyesore next door—a dilapidated, abandoned house perfectly situated for challenges nobody wanted to tackle.
“It generated a lot of activity that wasn’t ideal, and is located right next to Beck. However, it wasn’t until I inquired about the possibility of acquiring the house that I discovered who the owner was,” she explains. “Derek Spratley, the attorney representing the Beauford Delaney estate, helped me connect with the Delaney family estate attorney to inquire about the property. We purchased it, cleaned it and secured it by boarding it up. We had very limited funds available for the purchase, so making the decision was challenging. We negotiated a price based on our available resources to ensure Beck would not incur any debt.”
“As it turns out,” she continues, “we received a call afterward from David Butler, who was the executive director of the Knoxville Museum of Art [at the time], and Stephen Wicks, the curator and a lover of Beauford Delaney’s work. They asked, ‘Do you know what you have acquired?’ and I replied, ‘We have certainly acquired a significant challenge!’ They then shared with me the excitement in the art world surrounding the remarkable works of Beauford Delaney.”
The house, situated at 1935 Dandridge Avenue, is the last ancestral home of Beauford and Joseph Delaney, brothers and renowned artists whose modernist works emerged during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s, and are still on display today around the world. Patrons have viewed their artwork in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the Chicago Art Institute, and in various galleries in Paris, France, including the Centre Pompidou.
“Beauford and Joseph Delaney were two extraordinary artists born in Knoxville and who rose above significant challenges—poverty, racism, mental illness—to pursue significant art careers,” says KMA Curator Stephen Wicks. “They kept in touch despite following divergent social and artistic paths. Their journeys reflect their remarkable courage and perseverance. They were determined to be artists despite all the obstacles and challenges, and they prevailed.”
Today, the Knoxville Museum of Art is home to the largest collection of Beauford Delaney’s oil paintings and other works, while the University of Tennessee’s Ewing Gallery of Art holds a large collection of sketchbooks, photographs, personal correspondence and other archival materials from Joseph Delaney. Now, the board of directors and supporters of Beck Cultural Exchange Center are ready to restore the Delaney home to a museum where the brothers’ legacies can be celebrated, solidifying what Wicks calls the “Delaney Triangle of Cities,” New York, Paris and Knoxville.
“When the KMA opened, we received a generous gift of Joseph Delaney’s paintings, so his work is on display here, but we owned nothing from Beauford. I wanted to find some way to buy or borrow paintings from the family, but that was back when we had no acquisition funds,” says Wicks. “Eventually, we developed a strong bond with the Delaney estate and could raise money to purchase abstractions on paper in 2014. That launched the KMA’s crusade to build Beauford’s collection. By 2018, we were able to buy nine works from the estate, so we’ve been building it in several stages.”
With the Delaney house secured, Rev. Kesler and others are eager to give the structure its due restoration, thereby solidifying Knoxville as the artists’ hometown. They strive to honor the history of the Delaney family in Knoxville and the two artists who’ve long been celebrated in other cities and countries. Architects have done the planning, and permits have been pulled. They’ve already raised more than $2 million, but an additional $1 million or more is needed to initiate the restoration work.
In fact, for ready donors, the organization is seeking sponsors for two proposed sculptures to kick-start the fundraising efforts. Beck commissioned Andrew Jumonville from Bloomington, Illinois, to create two maquettes—or scaled models—of the proposed life-sized sculptures. One is a standing male figure, representing the artists’ father, John Samuel Delaney, while the other is a young woman sitting on a church pew with two small children, representing the young boys with their mother, Delia. Upon completion, the sculptures will be prominently featured outside the museum in a landscaped section of the property.
“It’s hard to talk about Beauford and Joseph without acknowledging the family that played a crucial role in their development. The family arrived here after the Emancipation. Their father, John Samuel, was a traveling evangelist and itinerant preacher, while their mother, Delia, was a domestic worker and an artist in her own right. Despite their poverty, they remained committed to community, although difficult times caused them to move often," says Rev. Kesler. “Out of ten children, only four survived into full adulthood.”
Born in 1901 and 1904 respectively, Beauford and Joseph learned to draw alongside each other, doodling on Sunday School cards at church. Over time, their distinct styles took shape, and they both left Knoxville for bigger cities up north, namely New York City, with Beauford arriving in 1929 and Joseph a year later. At the time, Harlem was the epicenter of African American culture and expression, a place any burgeoning artist, musician, or writer would want to be and be seen. Both brothers studied at the Art Students League and enjoyed some measure of recognition. Joseph was a beneficiary of President Roosevelt’s New Deal arts initiative, and in 1938, Beauford's work was featured in Life magazine. The brothers shared experiences and friendships with some of the most prominent names of the Modern era, including James Baldwin, Georgia O’Keeffe and Henry Miller.
“Joseph was a virtuoso of the human figure and expressive lines, and was an exceptionally gifted parade and portrait painter,” says Wicks. “Beauford was a courageous and tireless experimenter, a seeker of elevated aesthetic experiences, a visionary whose alchemy with color and texture enabled him to penetrate surface reality and reshape the visible world in order to reveal his notion of the eternal.”
The brothers’ professional trajectories eventually diverged from one another. Beauford moved to Paris in 1953, where he remained until he passed in 1979, while Joseph returned to Knoxville more frequently. In fact, Joseph was the featured artist 50 years ago for the grand opening of Beck in September 1975, and in 1986, he was named artist-in-residence at the University of Tennessee. While Joseph’s presence and influence were stronger locally, Beauford’s work is more well-known outside of Knoxville.
“I had long heard stories of the brothers being at odds with one another due to their artistic differences and sibling rivalry, but in the letters and accounts I’ve read, their bond was strong, and their mutual respect was great,” says Wicks. “After Beauford’s death, Joseph attended his brother’s funeral and went to great lengths to rescue Beauford’s belongings (paintings and archival materials) from being auctioned off by the French government. Without that intervention, our knowledge of Beauford and his achievements would likely be a fraction of what it is.”
With approximately 22 remaining heirs to the Delaney estate, special care has been taken to ensure the brothers’ legacies will endure.
“None of the KMA’s recent acquisitions of Beauford’s art would have been possible without the partnership the museum forged years ago with estate administrator Derek Spratley, who has done an exemplary job in managing the artist’s estate since the mid-1990s,” says Wicks.
Attorney Derek Spratley not only works with the KMA, UT and Beck here in Knoxville, but with organizations, institutions and galleries domestically and internationally who seek to celebrate Beauford’s and Joseph’s artistry.
“My primary objective is to keep as much artwork here as possible. My job, as far as the court is concerned, is to liquidate the art, but I want to keep as much here. It was important to me to have the legacy,” says Spratley. “They have to be the most prolific artist brothers in the world, and they’re from Knoxville. Just from the standpoint of the legacy, it’s rare for a town our size.”
The group's effort to celebrate Beauford and Joseph by establishing their local legacy is now focused primarily on restoring their ancestral home, located next to Beck.
“It’s a house museum, and when you look across the country, out of the 15,000 house museums, less than 1% are dedicated to African Americans,” says Rev. Kesler. “Much of our history has been erased. Beck will be one of the few museums to feature two house museums side by side in the same city: one dedicated to the Delaney family and the other focusing on over 230 years of African American history and culture in East Tennessee.”
None of these efforts has been born out of good luck, as far as Rev. Kesler is concerned. The house, the collections, the coming together of like-minded people—it’s all providence.
“It’s been a divine experience in every way. I firmly believe that we are called by faith to engage in this important work. Beck preserves African American history and culture in East Tennessee, and we possess a unique depth and breadth of history that no one else has,” says Rev. Kesler. “We are very close to reaching our goal for the Delaney Museum and we invite our community to join us in honoring this history.”
“African American history is rich with stories of resilience, perseverance, encouragement and inspiration,” she says. “Our goal in restoring the Delaney House is to create a space that not only honors the legacy of Beauford, Joseph and the Delaney family, but also celebrates the vibrant heritage and culture of Knoxville. We envision bringing our community together through shared experiences that resonate with everyone.”
On the Cover
Untitled (Yellow, Red, and Black Circles for James Baldwin, Istanbul), 1966, by Beauford Delaney (Knoxville, 1901-1979, Paris). Watercolor and gouache on paper, 25 5/8 x 19 inches.
Knoxville Museum of Art, 2018 purchase with funds provided by the Rachael Patterson Young Art Acquisition Reserve, Ann & Steve Bailey in honor of Rachael Patterson Young, Natalie & Jim Haslam in honor of Lindsay Young, Molly & Bob Joy, the KMA Collectors Circle, The Knoxville (TN) Chapter of the Links, Incorporated, Daniel McGehee, Marty Begalla, Nancy & Charles Wagner III, June & Rob Heller, Sandi Burdick & Tom Boyd, the Guild of the Knoxville Museum of Art, Debbie & Ron Watkins, John Z.C. Thomas, Richard Jansen, John Cotham, Monica Crane & Luke Madigan, Susan & Kent Farris, Lane Hays, Sylvia & Jan Peters, Patricia & Alan Rutenberg, Barbara & Steve Apking, Pam & Jeff Peters, Ebbie & Ronald Sandberg, Barbara & Bernie Bernstein, Karen & Reinhold Mann, Penny Lynch & Kimbro McGuire, David Butler & Ted Smith, Kitsy & Lou Hartley, Diane Humphreys-Barlow & Jack Barlow, Debbie & Jimmy Jones, Merikay Waldvogel & Jerry Ledbetter, Meredith & Mark Overholt, Alexandra Rosen & Donald Cooney, Sandy & Frank Steer, Donna & Terry Wertz, Jackie Wilson, Pat & Geoff Wolpert, Wokie Massaquoi-Wicks & Stephen Wicks, Denise DuBose & Francis Lloyd, Falen & Clark Gillespie, DeLena Feliciano, Anna Fraser & Douglas Goode, and Georgia & William Pace
"Beck will be one of the few museums to feature two house museums side by side in the same city: one dedicated to the Delaney family and the other focusing on over 230 years of African American history and culture in East Tennessee." —Rev. Reneé Kesler.
A native Knoxvillian, UT graduate and ordained pastor, Rev. Reneé Kesler joined the Beck Cultural Exchange Center as its president in 2014, after serving on the board of directors. A graduate of Leadership Knoxville and a member of the University of Tennessee Chancellor Association Program, Rev. Kesler has served on numerous nonprofit, faith-based and community boards over the past 15 years. She has a deep passion for conserving and preserving historical African American communities.
To learn more and support, please visit BeckCenter.net.