The Tyler Museum of Art is honored to present the first joint exhibition of these two outstanding artists. The exhibition was conceived as a reflection of the unique relationship that parents and children share, especially when both have similar passions and professions. Here a legacy has been passed from father to son. Early to late works have been selected to show how each artist developed their individual styles over the years, and how one influenced the other.

Father's Day was chosen as the opening date for this exhibition to honor Barney Delabano as well as other fathers who have influenced and guided their children so that they might achieve their own dreams and aspirations.

Barney Delabano (1926–1997) was born in Denison, Texas. He graduated from high school in 1942 and moved to Dallas to study at the Aunspaugh Art School. Delabano then studied painting under Olin Herman Travis at the Dallas Art Institute. Before entering the Army, Delabano became good friends with and worked alongside Charles T. Bowling. He entered Southern Methodist University in 1947 and for the next three years studied with Ed Bearden, Otis Dozier, and Jerry Bywaters. In the late forties, Delabano continued his studies with Bearden and Dozier at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts School.

In 1951, Mr. Delabano became a school teacher, teaching art for seven and a half years in the public school system. While teaching, he continued to study with Otis Dozier. In 1958, he joined the staff of the Dallas Museum of Art and continued there until his retirement in 1991. During his thirty-three years at the Museum, he worked as Assistant to the Director and Museum Exhibition Designer. He continued working as Designer Emeritus at the Dallas Museum of Art until his death in 1997.

Much of Barney Delabano's art had a figurative element. An entry in one of his sketchbooks from the mid-1940s recalled his early training at the Aunspaugh Art School: "Tonight I began thinking of Miss Aunspaugh. Somehow I think my best training was from her. Not so much from her school—as her herself. A gentle old sweet lady who somehow knows of greatness—she could dig up models of marvelous qualities—clean, wholesome faces." In assessing his father's work, Martin Delabano believes that Barney sought that same sort of simplicity and honesty in his own paintings. He found those "clean, wholesome faces" in his wife, his four children, his grandson, and among his friends. He painted them all with a quiet dignity. For the Delabano family, making art was always a family matter. Martin Delabano recalls one of the hazards of growing up in a family where painted portraits replaced walls of snapshots: if you weren't out the door on summer mornings before Barney finished his coffee, you could find yourself serving as model for the day.

Martin Delabano was born in Dallas, Texas in 1957 to Barney and Barbara Delabano. His early life was saturated with art. The Delabano home was filled with drawings, paintings, lithographs, and ancient artifacts from all over the world. Martin enrolled in a succession of art classes at the Dallas Museum of Art, and there were always abundant art supplies on hand at home. In 1974 he met Louise Nevelson, an early influence, when she had a one-person show at the Dallas Museum of Art. In 1975 Martin traveled to Florence, Rome, Venice and Paris with his family. The entire trip was dedicated to art, museums, archaeological sites and churches. In 1975, Delabano also met another source of early inspiration, Robert Rauschenberg, at the Dallas Museum of Art. During this time he was also working in SMU's sculpture studios. He married Jill Gaines in 1979 and earned his BFA from East Texas State University the following year.

Martin Delabano readily acknowledges his father's influence on his life and his art. He states: " His subject matter and the use of the figure in and of itself inspired my use of everyday experiences and events in my art. My father loved color, and he passed that love of color to me. It remains a vital, important part of my art. My work is a product of all these things and is a hybrid of all the different styles that I find useful to my image making. The images I create come from my daily life. These images express a layering of ideas which weave together into the textural narratives to which I give form in my art. My work is often about my own personal journey and a search for enlightenment. My art is sometimes about the anxiousness and restlessness I feel. At other times it's about the peace I sometimes find. Yet always I want to make the viewer smile or weep. I want my art to be intriguing now and to be just as interesting one hundred years from now."