Beauford Delaney's Montparnasse - Entrée to Black Paris' Newest Walking Tour

When I organized the Beauford Delaney: Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color art exhibition at Columbia Global Centers | Paris at Reid Hall, I created a new Entrée to Black Paris walking tour to honor the artist.

Beauford Delaney
© Carl van Vechten 1953
Beauford moved to Paris in 1953 and died here in 1979. For the majority of these years, he lived in the historic artists' district called Montparnasse. The walk features his homes and haunts in the 6th and 14th arrondissements, and includes two sites that bear plaques commemorating him on their façades.

Mural - Théâtre de la Gaîte - Montparnasse

 © Discover Paris!

On the day after the exhibition's grand opening, I gave the tour for the first time to students from the University of Arizona and their professor, Dr. Bryan Carter. This group traveled to Paris for the purpose of creating an Augmented Reality app that allows exhibition attendees and owners of the exhibition catalog to access information and spoken word performances on the Internet that are associated with several of the works in the show.

Professor Bryan Carter (far right), University of Arizona students,
and Monique (front left)
© Discover Paris!
The second group to experience the tour consisted primarily of travelers from Beauford's hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. Four of them represented the Knoxville Museum of Art, which has since expressed keen interest in hosting the exhibition during the spring and summer of 2017.

Knoxville group at Théâtre de Poche
© Discover Paris!
One of the participants remarked that it was very special for her to see Knoxville's name displayed on two façades in Paris!

Plaque at Hôtel Le M
© Discover Paris!
The following week, teachers attending the exhibition and participating in J Rêve International's Global Educator Program for professional development took the tour.

At Hôtel Le M
© J Rêve International

At Montparnasse Cemetery
© J Rêve International

Crossing boulevard du Montparnasse
© J Rêve International
Their mission in attending the exhibition was to learn about STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education and to explore ways to incorporate the arts into teaching practices for their respective disciplines with Beauford's life and art serving as inspiration. For a full week, the group attended and participated in several conferences on these themes, including a meeting with the Fulbright Commission.

The exhibition was originally scheduled to run from February 4 to 29, 2016, but due to its tremendous success, it has been prolonged until March 15, 2016! Entry is free and registration is required to visit. To sign up for a visit, click here.

If you'd like to experience the Beauford Delaney's Montparnasse walking tour, send e-mail to

.

Beauford Delaney
Rue Guilleminot
France 1973
© Errol Sawyer

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Beauford Delaney Exhibition in Paris

Happy New Year from Entrée to Black Paris!
In two recent ETBP blog posts I mentioned that plans are underway for a Beauford Delaney exhibition in Paris.

Today, I'm sharing details about this groundbreaking show and Entrée to Black Paris' involvement in it!

I recently founded a U.S. non-profit organization called Wells International Foundation (WIF). Beauford Delaney: Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color (formerly entitled Beauford Delaney and Paris: A Breathtaking Evolution)is the foundation’s inaugural project. Three of WIF’s focus areas will come together through the exhibition – the arts, study abroad, and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics).

To bring the project to fruition, WIF is partnering with a number of organizations, including Les Amis de Beauford Delaney, a French non-profit association that I founded in 2009, and Columbia Global Centers | Europe at Reid Hall in Paris. Columbia Global Centers is providing 1400 sq ft of exhibition space that will permit the display of over 40 paintings and works on paper by Beauford Delaney (1901-1979), most of which have never been seen by the general public before. The grand opening is scheduled for February 3, 2016 and the show will run from February 4-29, 2016. This will be the first solo exhibition of Beauford's work in Paris since the 1992 show organized by the Galerie Darthea Speyer.

Portrait of Beauford Delaney
1953 Carl Van Vechten

Untitled
Beauford Delaney
1957 Oil on canvas
Centre Pompidou, Paris
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

During the spring semester, Columbia University will be offering an undergraduate course entitled "Le Pari(s) du Jazz,” taught by Professor Alexandre Pierrepont, at Reid Hall. Upon learning of WIF’s plans for the exhibition, Professor Pierrepont decided to incorporate it into the course in the following ways:

• Spoken word artist Mike Ladd will speak at a public event about jazz in conjunction with the course. He is personally acquainted with Beauford’s biographer, David A. Leeming, and appreciates Beauford’s work. Given that his talk will be held in the exhibition space, Ladd will speak about the works in the exhibition as well.
• The university will host a public screening of a documentary about the African-American experience in Paris. Entitled Paris Noir, When African Americans Came to Paris (Blue Lion Films, 2015), the film includes several references to jazz and to artists, including Beauford.
• I will give a private presentation of Beauford’s art to the undergraduate students of the class.

Mike Ladd (detail)
Image courtesy of Mike Ladd

J Rêve International, an organization that fosters visual and performing arts, creative education, and global exchanges to transform lives and communities, will host a Global Educator Program workshop on STEAM education and multiple intelligences inspired by Beauford’s life and work. Six teachers from New York, South Korea (via Ohio), and Texas will participate in the week-long workshop designed to develop experience that equips them with the global competencies necessary to bring an international arts perspective to their schools.

Jacqueline Cofield, founder of J Rêve International
Screenshot from Beauford Delaney Paris Program video

Additionally, the University of Arizona and WIF are working together to organize the Augmented Reality Project that I described previously on this blog. Six students, led by Professor Bryan Carter, will come to Paris to create an app (a small, specialized program that is downloaded into mobile devices) that will allow persons attending the exhibition to view videos on their smartphones that provide information about the paintings. Mike Ladd will provide commentary for several of these videos. The teachers from the Global Educator Program will be able to use this app during their workshop in Paris and take the technology back to their respective school districts in the U.S. at the end of the program.

Teachers and students will also enjoy the newest Discover Paris! walking tour, Entrée to Black Paris' Beauford Delaney’s Montparnasse, which I created for the exhibition.

Going forward, WIF will work with Discover Paris! to support its study abroad initiatives and with Discover Paris! and Les Amis de Beauford Delaney to support its arts initiatives.

The University of Arizona students are currently raising money for their trip to Paris and have created a 2’15” video that explains why they are so passionate about this project. Click on the link below to view it and make a donation to support them. If you need a last minute tax deduction for 2015, this is a great way to get one!

University of Arizona Students Travel to Paris for Art/Technology Project

University of Arizona Students
Screenshot from U of A fundraising video
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Entrée to Black Paris!™ is a Discover Paris! blog.

Romare Bearden's Paris Odyssey - The Exhibition

Two weeks ago, I wrote about a Paris Soirée presentation that Professor Bob O'Meally gave about the Paris Odyssey exhibition that opened this Monday at Columbia Global Centers at Reid Hall. Though I listened with rapt attention and was entirely captivated by his talk, I was not prepared for the breadth, depth, and richness of this show.

Circe
Romare Bearden
1977 Collage of various papers with foil, paint, and graphite on fiberboard
Image courtesy of Professor Robert O'Meally


The opening reception, held on Monday, January 19th, was very well attended.

Professor O'Meally, Columbia University president Lee Bollinger, and Columbia Global Centers Europe director Paul LeClerc launched the exhibit with powerful and thoughtful words, followed by musicians who "called forth the spirits" in a room packed with visitors and flanked by tables laden with hors d'oeuvres, sandwiches, champagne, and soft drinks.

Robert O'Meally (left), Lee Bollinger (top right), Paul LeClerc (bottom right)
© Discover Paris!

Musicians at opening reception
© Discover Paris!

Guests at opening reception
© Discover Paris!


The Grande Salle at Reid Hall is hung with scrolls of luminous white paper, against which play the vibrant colors and shapes of reproductions of works from Romare Bearden's Black Odyssey.

La Grande Salle
© Discover Paris!


Labels and panels are presented in English and French, which is important since Professor O'Meally stressed during his opening remarks that the majority of French people had never heard of Romare Bearden prior to learning about this show.

The official name of the exhibition is Paris Odyssey: Romare Bearden, Henri Matisse, and Homer.

It has two themes that make it both local and global in scope: Homer's epic poems - The Odyssey and The Iliad - and jazz.

Matisse was the most important source of artistic influence on Bearden and both men created works inspired by these themes. Reproductions from Matisse's book Jazz (1947) and several of his Odyssean drawings (1935) are displayed with reproductions of Bearden's Paris Jazz series (ca. 1980), his Iliad drawings (1946), and his Odyssey collages (1977).

The Clown
Henri Matisse
1947 Reproduction of the pochoir for Jazz
© Discover Paris!

Ellington, Bill Strayhorn (Sacré Coeur)
Romare Bearden
ca. 1980 Reproduction of collage
© Discover Paris!


Six framed, original silkscreens of Bearden's most captivating Odyssean collages are the highlight of the show. They are located in an enclosed area at the rear of the room. The Sirens' Song is my personal favorite!

Silkscreens
© Discover Paris!

The Sirens' Song
Romare Bearden
1977 collage (above); 1979 silkscreen (below)
Collage by Discover Paris!


A video in one corner of the room reveals how the exhibition literally touches the life of each and every Columbia University undergraduate (all are required to read The Odyssey and The Iliad), reaches up through the ranks of Columbia's faculty as professors are challenged to reflect upon and present scholarly interpretations of the exhibition's works, and draws upon Bearden's passion for music as inspiration for his art.

Romare Bearden in Harlem
© Discover Paris!


One of the things that Professor O'Meally encourages visitors to note is that Bearden chose to make all of the subjects in his collages, from the Greek deities to Odysseus himself, black. He believes that Bearden wanted people of African descent to see themselves in Homer's tales and wanted non-black viewers to see themselves in these black characters as well.

In the final paragraph of the introduction to the catalog for the show, Professor O'Meally states:

Maybe above all Bearden's point here is that we are all one global family, saints and sinners, all a collage of a human race living in a shape-shifting world. That we could only realize this global kinship and the mighty sense of responsibility it brings: this seems to be the over-riding message of these bright blue pieced-together pictures.

Paris Odyssey: Romare Bearden, Henri Matisse, and Homer will run until February 22, 2015 and will be open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at

Columbia Global Centers | Europe
4 rue de Chevreuse
75006 Paris

You don't want to miss this!

Banner for Paris Odyssey - Reid Hall
© Discover Paris!

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Romare Bearden's Paris Odyssey - Prelude

When I wrote Patricia Laplante-Collins' Black Paris Profile, I referred to her as the "undisputed doyenne of the Paris salon scene."

Patricia once again proved that to be true on Sunday evening, January 4, 2015, when the guest speaker at her Paris Soirée presented a taste of what the Paris public can expect to experience at the Paris Odyssey art exposition that is being mounted at Columbia Global Centers in Reid Hall.

Paris Odyssey slide presentation
© Discover Paris!
Professor Robert O'Meally is Columbia University’s Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature. He conceived and curated Paris Odyssey, which is a modified version of the Smithsonian Institution's traveling exhibition Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey (also conceived and curated by O'Meally) that currently hangs at the Wallach Gallery on Columbia's New York campus. The show features Bearden's collages and watercolors based on Homer's epic poems, the Odyssey and the Iliad.

Professor Robert O'Meally
© Discover Paris!
Paris Odyssey is the first stop of a global tour that will include Istanbul, Johannesburg, and potentially, Beijing. In Paris, Bearden's work will be paired with that of Henri Matisse, the French master, who was one of Bearden's primary artistic influences. His Odyssey and Iliad series will hang side-by-side with Matisse's own Odyssean sketches.

Also to be shown is Bearden's "Paris Blues" series, which is based on his memories of his life in Paris during the 1950s and features themes from the 1961 film Paris Blues. Matisse's well-known Jazz collages will provide counterpoint to this set of Bearden's works.

Slide presenting a work from the "Paris Blues" series
© Discover Paris!
At Sunday's soirée, there was a full house in attendance.

Packed house
© Discover Paris!
As usual, Patricia introduced everyone before the presentation began.

Patricia makes an introduction
© Discover Paris!
Professor O’Meally then spoke of Bearden's upbringing, his passion for portraying strong women in his art, his love of jazz, and his relationship with legendary jazz greats, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. He discussed the nuances of Bearden's portrayals of scenes from Homer's Odyssey from an artistic and a cultural perspective that focused on Bearden's ability to pay tribute to those who inspired his art and still create works that were uniquely his.

Bob O'Meally presents Paris Odyssey
© Discover Paris!
Paris Odyssey opens at Reid Hall on January 19th. A symposium will be held on January 20th. You must sign up to attend.

See you there!

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