The Artist's Party by Joseph Delaney

I was in New York for an annual symposium on American art in the spring of 2003. I went even though the IMA was still contemplating the purchase of a work that I had strongly advocated for the museum’s African American collection. The symposium was important, but so was the purchase, so I kept an open communication with the IMA via cell phone.  The decision to purchase this painting was difficult because Joseph Delaney is not a well known African American artist.

At the time, his brother, Beauford had a broader reputation for his abstract canvases, but Joseph was just beginning to be acknowledged for his expressionist New York scenes populated with crowds of people.  I had very few examples of this type of art in the American collection and none by an African American artist.

I thought this was a rare opportunity to acquire a painting that not only showed the expressionist style but also contained images of a group of Abstract Expressionist friends of Delaney that he had invited to his studio for a party.  The party appeared to have turned into a heated discussion with Delaney at the head of the table facing away from the viewer.  I also liked the setting which was Delaney’s Harlem studio complete with fire escape and kitchen interior typical of 1940s New York apartments.

The artists in the painting were tentatively identified as Adolph Gottlieb opposite Delaney, Willem de Kooning on the left and the most famous of all Jackson Pollock, who is the one artist in the scene whose identity is most certain.  This would be the second painting supported in part by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Indianapolis Chapter fund.  As in the previous blog other funds would have to be found to support the remainder of the purchase price, which would not prove difficult. There were numerous back and forth phone calls and voicemail messages between me, the IMA director and chief curator which resulted in a decision to purchase the painting.

Delaney’s work has since become more sought after, but that is true of much of African American art before 1945.  It seems that museums and collectors have discovered this wealth of great art and are trying to make up for lost time.  The Artist’s Party bring together the museum’s American and contemporary collections in that it leads to a discussion of Abstract Expressionism, the first art movement that is represented in the contemporary galleries and the first art movement that made America a leader in the art world and New York an art scene similar to Paris.  It also leads to a discussion of the relationship between Abstract Expressionism and earlier art and what artists like Delaney, who still focused on representation, thought about this relatively new abstract art movement.  It looks like that topic could be part of the heated discussion depicted in the painting.

You can’t miss the Delaney hanging in the American Scene section of the American galleries.  It makes a striking contrast as well as a welcome addition to the other pieces in the gallery that focus on American life in the 1930s and 40s.

Loch Long by Robert Duncanson

The next step was to research the artist and the painting to make sure the landscape represented Duncanson’s best work. The artist traveled to Scotland many times bringing back numerous sketches that he turned into landscape paintings.  Some of these paintings are considered his most important pieces.  Research showed that Loch Long certainly belonged in this category.  Since the painting was being offered at auction, we could not bring it into The IMA to be examined by our conservation department prior to its purchase.  Our conservation department recommended a conservator near the auction who sent us a condition report.  Although the painting would require cleaning along with some additional work, this was not considered a deterrent to its acquisition.

Having taken all the necessary steps to make sure the painting would make an important addition to the collection and its condition was not problematic, I still had to decide on the maximum amount we should bid and find someone who would step in and purchase the work if the committee or the Board turned it down.  Considering all the research a curator does before suggesting a work be acquired by the museum, it is very unlikely that it would be rejected, but it is still necessary to be prepared.  I contacted a local art collector who agreed to purchase the work if it did not obtain approval.  We decided on a maximum bid, but not before researching the artist’s auction records.  It was necessary to also establish where the painting fit into previous sale prices and how much the museum, and in this case the collector, could pay.  Most auction catalogs contain estimated sale prices for each piece in the sale, but these estimates are not always reliable. It is critical to understand the art market and the painting’s place in it before deciding on a maximum bid.  I also had to determine which art acquisition fund could support this purchase.  Some of these funds are designated for specific types of art and others are general funds that can be used for any purchase. It is possible that none of the funds would be accessible, if they were already designated for other purchases.  Funds were found to be available that could be used to purchase Loch Long in the Alliance of the Indianapolis Museum of Art Fund.

I placed the bid by telephone, which is the typical method of bidding if it is not possible to attend the auction.  The final bid was double the auction house’s high estimate, which was not surprising.  Collectors and museums were beginning to recognize the significance of African American art and prices were climbing. Duncanson’s Loch Long was not only an important landscape but also a very striking one.  The final bid was one bid under the maximum the museum and collector were willing to pay, so we were extremely fortunate to be the high bidder.  The purchase was unanimously approved by the committee and the Board, which, as expected, eliminated any obligation on the part of the collector. After undergoing conservation, Loch Long was placed on view in the American galleries with the Hudson River School paintings already on display.

I was in the process of organizing the exhibition A Shared Heritage: Art by Four African Americans when I made my first African American acquisition for the museum in 1993.  It was an atypical purchase because the painting, Little Brown Girl by Indiana artist John Wesley Hardrick, had been a gift to the museum in 1929.  At that time the IMA was known as the Herron Art Museum or the John Herron Art Institute.  The policy in those days for lending works from the museum’s collection was very broad and record keeping was not what it is today.  This resulted in the painting being listed as missing in inventory in 1942. Repeated inventories failed to reveal its whereabouts.  The painting remained unaccounted for until 1993 when it was offered to the IMA by a New York dealer because of the artist’s Indianapolis connection.  A discussion with the dealer revealed that the painting belonged to a collector in Maine, but the trail leading back to the Herron Art Museum had gone cold.  The museum’s director went to see the painting and noticed the number 29.40 on the frame, the wooden stretcher and the back of the canvas.  This number confirmed the painting belonged to the IMA, since it was the accession number placed on the work when it was acquired by the museum.  The number indicates that it was the 40th piece of art to be added to the collection in 1929.

Little Brown Girl by John Wesley Hardrick

John Wesley Hardrick was one of the artists in A Shared Heritage exhibition, which was why research was being done on him and his work.  Little Brown Girl had been awarded the Harmon Foundation Bronze Medal in 1927. The Harmon Foundation presented awards to African Americans for distinguished achievement in the fine arts. The painting became so popular that a group of African Americans in an Indianapolis congregation took up a campaign to raise funds to purchase it for the museum. The sitter, Nellie Henderson about eleven years old, was a singer in the church choir at Allen Memorial Chapel where Hardrick was a member.  Hardrick chose this young girl to sit for a portrait required for his class at Herron.  Every Saturday Nellie’s father would bring her to the art school to sit for the artist.

The problem of how to bring the painting back into the collection had to be solved.  The museum could not buy back a painting that was already part of its collection, but it could compensate the dealer for her financial investment in the painting.  Negotiations are often difficult with any acquisition, but they were even more problematic since the IMA was trying to acquire a painting it already owned.  The dealer bought the painting in good faith and the seller knew nothing about its history. After numerous discussions, the dealer and the museum reached an amicable agreement that resulted in the return of Little Brown Girl after more than a 50-year absence. Through an accident of fate, Little Brown Girl was offered to the IMA at a time when I was researching Hardrick for the Shared Heritage exhibition.  Otherwise, I would not have recognized the work as ours or realize its importance to the artist and the collection.   However, fate cannot always be depended upon to make things right, so we now rely on strict rules and regulations along with meticulous record keeping to ensure that such a loss is never repeated.