Delaney Family, c. 1906
Delaney Family, c. 1906
Standing: Samuel, Jr., Rev. Samuel Delaney, Mrs. Delia Delaney
Seated: Joseph, Ogust, Beauford, Naomi

Joseph Delaney
Biography




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1904 Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, to Rev. & Mrs. Samuel Delaney, the ninth of ten children and the last of six boys.
1917 Joseph receives a prize for his drawing from his teacher at Austin School in Knoxville.
1919 Father dies. Joseph drops out of school to work as a caddy at Cherokee Country Club and as a bellhop at the Farragut Hotel in Knoxville.
1922 Takes a train from Knoxville to work odd jobs in Cincinnati and Detroit.
1925 Arrives in Chicago. Serves 3 years in Chicago National Guard, makes friends with Albert Ammons and other jazz musicians.
1929 Returns to Knoxville, sells insurance, and helps to found Knoxville's first black Boy Scout troop.
1930 Moves to New York to join his brother Beauford. Opens his own studio, enrolls in the Art Students League and in the next years studies with Alexander Brooke, Thomas Hart Benton, and George Bridgeman.
1932 Exhibits work in the first Washington Square Outdoor Art Show. For over 40 years, he works as a sketch artist at the show, drawing such notable visitors as Ertha Kitt, Arlene Francis, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Tallulah Bankhead.
1934 Works for WPA, Works' Progress Administration 1934-40, on various NYC projects including the Index of Design for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Pier 72 mural, and the Story of the Recorded Word mural at NYC Public Library. Teaches at Harlem and Brooklyn settlement houses and the Art Students League. Works with artists such as Norman Lewis, Edward Lanning, Jackson Pollack, Reginald Marsh, and Ernest Crichlow. Continues to exhibit work in his studio, art galleries and exhibitions.
1942 Receives Julius Rosenwald grant of $1200 to travel, sketch and later paint the Eastern seaboard.
1964 Works as a sketch artist for the New Orleans exhibit and later the Ghana exhibit at the NYC World's Fair.
1970 The University of Tennessee exhibits Joseph's work and purchases V-J Day, Times Square.
1978 Works for CETA, the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act 1978-80, as an artist in residence at the Henry Street Settlement.
1979 Brother Beauford dies at St. Anne's Hospital, an insane asylum, in Paris. Joseph pays over $6,000 to the French government for taxes, storage, and shipping, to have Beauford's art and personal effects shipped to the U.S.
1986 Ewing Gallery exhibits, "Joseph Delaney: A Retrospective," as part of the Homecoming '86 Festival. At the suggestion of old friend Alex Haley, Delaney is invited to become an artist-in-residence at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Delaney moves from New York to a house on 22nd Street, near the UT campus.
1991 Joseph Delaney dies on Wednesday, November 21st, 1991, at The University of Tennessee Medical Center, Knoxville. His funeral is held on Sunday, November 24th, at Lennon-Seney United Methodist Church, Knoxville.


Major Exhibitions
  • New York Federal Art Project, 1936-39
  • Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibition, New York, 1931-74
  • American Negro Exposition, Chicago, 1940
  • McMillen Gallery, New York, 1941
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1942
  • Riverside Museum, New York, 1942
  • Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga., 1942, 1946
  • Roko Gallery, New York, 1944
  • Greenwich House, New York, 1944
  • Art Students League, New York, 1944
  • Audubon Artists Fifth Annual, New York, 1946
  • National Academy of Design, New York, 1946, 1948
  • Hotel Diplomat, New York, 1948
  • Pyramid Club, Philadelphia, 1948
  • William Anthony Madden's Theater, New York, 1951
  • Hotel New Yorker, New York, 1958
  • Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York, 1960
  • New York Public Library, Little Gallery, Hudson Park Branch, 1961
  • Invisible Americans: Black Artists of the '30's, the Studio Museum in Harlem, 1968.
  • Frank H. McClung Museum, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1970
  • Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, 1969, 1971
  • The Art Museum, Princeton University, New Jersey, 1976
  • Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, Ca., 1976
  • Fragments of American Life: An Exhibition of Paintings, organized in 1976 by The Art Museum, Princeton University
  • Louis Abrons Arts for Living Center, Henry Street Settlement, New York, 1982
  • Robeson Art Gallery, Rutgers University, New Jersey, 1984
  • Hidden Heritage, Afro-American Art, 1800-1950, organized in 1985 by Bellevue Art Museum and the Art Museum Association for a tour at ten national museums.
  • Visions of My People: African-American Art in Tennessee, organized in 1997 by the Tennessee State Museum


Major Collections


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Online Web Exhibit
by Teresa Smith Welsh
Updated 9/11/00