JOSEPH DELANEY (1904 - 1981) Untitled (Tribal Dance).
Gouache, watercolor and crayon on illustration board, 1940. 405x480 mm; 16x19 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right.
A striking work from 1940 by the artist that recalls the risque and "primitive" performances of the Harlem Renaissance. Joseph Delaney moved from his native Tennessee to New York in 1930 at the age of 26, where he studied at the Art Students League with Thomas Hart Benton. In 1932, he exhibited in the first Washington Square Outdoor Art Show and continued to work as a sketch artist there. From 1934 to 1940, Delaney worked for the WPA on projects in New York City including the Index of Design for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Pier 72 mural, and the Story of the Recorded Word mural at the New York Public Library. He was very active in New York - also teaching at the Harlem and Brooklyn settlement houses and the Art Students League.
