Object Record
Images
Metadata
Artist |
Delaney, Beauford |
Title |
Dante Pavone as Christ, 1948 |
Medium |
pastel on paper |
Date |
1948 |
Description |
Beauford Delaney (Knoxville 1901-1979 Paris) Dante Pavone as Christ, 1948 Pastel on paper 23 ¼ x 19 ¾ inches Knoxville Museum of Art, 2016 purchase with funds provided by the KMA Collectors Circle with additional gifts from Barbara Apking, June and Rob Heller, Donna Kerr, Alexandra Rosen and Donald Cooney, Ted Smith and David Butler, Mimi and Milton Turner, John Cotham, Jan and Pete Crawford, Cathy and Mark Hill, Florence and Russell Johnston, John Z. C. Thomas, Donna and Terry Wertz, Jayne and Myron Ely, Sarah Stowers, Robin and Joe Ben Turner, and Jacqueline Wilson This portrait depicts one of Beauford Delaney's closest friends during the period in which the artist was living at 181 Greene Street in New York (1936-1953). Pavone (1910-1997) was a singer and later a voice coach for performers including Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Aretha Franklin, and Steven Tyler. For years, Delaney was obsessed with depicting Pavone, and produced many portraits of him--several of which appear to represent the sitter's essence rather than his physical likeness. This portrait is especially unusual as the artist presents his subject as Christ, with his left hand raised in a gesture of blessing, and his head encircled by a halo of brilliant white light. As Delaney's friend author Henry Miller observed in The Amazing and Invariable Beauford Delaney (1945), Supposing that for the next five years he [Delaney] were to do nothing but Dante...Dante was a wondrous landscape for Beauford; he had cosmic proportions, and his skull though shorn of locks was full of mystery. A man studying his friend day in and day out for five years ought to arrive at some remarkable conclusions. With time Dante could become for Beauford what Oedipus became for Freud. |
Catalog Number |
2016.12.01 |
Search Terms |
Pastels (Visual works) Drawings Portrait drawings Portraits Men LBGTQ+ Artist |
Credit line |
purchase with funds provided by the KMA Collectors Circle with additional gifts from Barbara Apking, June and Rob Heller, Donna Kerr, Alexandra Rosen and Donald Cooney, Ted Smith and David Butler, Mimi and Milton Turner, John Cotham, Jan and Pete Crawford, Cathy and Mark Hill, Florence and Russell Johnston, John Z. C. Thomas, Donna and Terry Wertz, Jayne and Myron Ely, Sarah Stowers, Robin and Joe Ben Turner, and Jacqueline Wilson |