Early Abstract and Modernist Painting

Untitled (Village Street Scene), 1948
Object-Beauford Delaney, Untitled (Village Street Scene)
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Beauford Delaney moved to New York City in 1929 and became captivated by the urban landscape. Seeking to convey the energy of modern life in his paintings, Delaney blended social realism’s interest in the life of the streets with an expressionistic variant of abstract expressionism. Untitled (Village Street Scene) is emblematic of this distinctive interpretation of life in New York City. In 1936 Delaney moved to a studio on Greene Street in Soho and painted several versions of intersections similar to this one around his neighborhood. He relays the corner’s noisy dynamism with vibrant colors, animated lines, and markers of the urban environment— street lamps, trash cans, and manhole covers. With its clarity of subject matter, assertive palette, and bold outlines, Untitled (Village Street Scene) is a buoyant interpretation of the artist’s interest in the rhythms of urban life.
Untitled (Village Street Scene), 1948
Early Abstract and Modernist Painting

Telegraph Poles with Buildings, 1917

Construction, 1915

Peinture, 1917–18

Painting No. 50, 1914–15

Nature Symbolized #3: Steeple and Trees, 1911–12

Sails, 1911–12

Welcome to Our City, 1921

Boy with Cow, 1921

Super Table, 1925

Purple and Green Leaves, 1927

Boat Going through Inlet, c. 1929

The Green Chair, 1928

Politics, 1931

Brooklyn Bridge, on the Bridge, 1930

Sailboat, Brooklyn Bridge, New York Skyline, 1934

Red Amaryllis, 1937

Room Space, 1937–38

Adolescence, 1947

Highway, 1953

Topcat Boy, 1970

Untitled (Village Street Scene), 1948

Passing Show, 1951

Kalounna in Frogtown, 1986