Portrait of a Young Musician 1970

Beauford Delaney made this portrait of a young musician with oil on canvas. Look at the way he lays down the greens, yellows, and browns – it's like he’s building up the image, one brushstroke at a time. You can tell he's really thinking about the colors as he goes, letting each layer talk to the next. The paint itself has got this luscious, almost gooey quality. It's like Delaney's letting the colors blend right on the canvas, creating these juicy, unexpected combinations. See that spot of almost fluorescent yellow on the sitter's hands? It just glows. Delaney was always searching for light, and he found it everywhere, even in the darkest places. He reminds me a bit of Bob Thompson, another artist who knew how to make color sing. For Delaney, painting was a way of seeing, a way of feeling, and a way of making the world a little brighter, one canvas at a time.