Vibrant Energy and Intricate Patterns: The Art of Joseph Delaney

The Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA) Announces a New Exhibition Celebrating Knoxville Native Joseph Delaney

More than 40 paintings and drawings from public and private collections around the country celebrate the life and achievement of Joseph Delaney (1904–1991), a well-known Knoxville native.

Delaney rose from humble beginnings in Knoxville to establish himself as a tireless and prolific painter of Manhattan’s urban scene. Over the span of his 60-year career, Delaney displayed a remarkable ability to express the city’s vitality using the loose brushwork of gestural abstraction, which at the time represented the cutting edge of studio practice, without sacrificing the narrative content many of his contemporaries had abandoned. The works featured in “On the Move” represent the variety of ways in which he used this hybrid method to infuse his painted scenes with vibrant energy, and intricate patterns of movement.

While capturing the ebb and flow of life on the boulevards and back alleys, Delaney’s vigorous brushwork also reveals his restless spirit and insatiable creative drive. “On the Move” has been organized by the KMA in the hopes of generating newfound appreciation for and scholarly attention on an artist who captured his time and place with uncommon energy and a fiercely independent spirit. In depicting Manhattan’s urban scenes, the artist trains his ever-shifting vantage point on gleaming plazas and gritty nightspots with equal intensity and familiarity. In some compositions, near-panoramic views emphasize the pulse of crowds within vast architectural arenas. In others, the artist focuses on specific urban structures — subway cars, bridges, and roadways — that make movement possible.

“Joseph Delaney: On the Move” will be on view at the Knoxville Museum of Art (Knoxville, TN) through November 4, 2018. For more information, please visit www.knoxart.org.

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