The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University has brought together the many facets of his career in Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist. As a result we can see how the artists early successes in portraiture meld with his later triumphs as a commentator on black city life. His work is as vibrant today as it was 70 years ago; with this groundbreaking exhibition, we are honored to introduce this important American artist to the general public and help Motley's name enter the annals of art history. By doing this, he hoped to counteract perceptions of segregation. When he was a year old, he moved to Chicago with his parents, where he would live until his death nearly 90 years later. During this time, Alain Locke coined the idea of the "New Negro," which was very focused on creating progressive and uplifting images of Blacks within society. While many contemporary artists looked back to Africa for inspiration, Motley was inspired by the great Renaissance masters whose work was displayed at the Louvre. Motley was ultimately aiming to portray the troubled and convoluted nature of the "tragic mulatto. In the work, Motley provides a central image of the lively street scene and portrays the scene as a distant observer, capturing the many individual interactions but paying attention to the big picture at the same time. I just couldn't take it. After fourteen years of courtship, Motley married Edith Granzo, a white woman from his family neighborhood. Despite his early success he now went to work as a shower curtain painter for nine years. Robinson, Jontyle Theresa and Wendy Greenhouse, This page was last edited on 1 February 2023, at 22:26. "[10] These portraits celebrate skin tone as something diverse, inclusive, and pluralistic. Status On View, Gallery 263 Department Arts of the Americas Artist Archibald John Motley Jr. Described as a "crucial acquisition" by . In Nightlife, the club patrons appear to have forgotten racism and are making the most of life by having a pleasurable night out listening and dancing to jazz music. Both black and white couples dance and hobnob with each other in the foreground. Archibald J. Motley Jr. died in Chicago on January 16, 1981 at the age of 89. In his oral history interview with Dennis Barrie working for the Smithsonian Archive of American Art, Motley related this encounter with a streetcar conductor in Atlanta, Georgia: I wasn't supposed to go to the front. I didn't know them, they didn't know me; I didn't say anything to them and they didn't say anything to me." The rhythm of the music can be felt in the flailing arms of the dancers, who appear to be performing the popular Lindy hop. We're all human beings. Behind the bus, a man throws his arms up ecstatically. Motley's use of physicality and objecthood in this portrait demonstrates conformity to white aesthetic ideals, and shows how these artistic aspects have very realistic historical implications. Motley balances the painting with a picture frame and the rest of the couch on the left side of the painting. [17] It is important to note, however, that it was not his community he was representinghe was among the affluent and elite black community of Chicago. 1, "Chicago's Jazz Age still lives in Archibald Motley's art", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Archibald_Motley&oldid=1136928376. InMending Socks(completed in 1924), Motley venerates his paternal grandmother, Emily Motley, who is shown in a chair, sewing beneath a partially cropped portrait. During this period, Motley developed a reusable and recognizable language in his artwork, which included contrasting light and dark colors, skewed perspectives, strong patterns and the dominance of a single hue. [2] He graduated from Englewood Technical Prep Academy in Chicago. He treated these portraits as a quasi-scientific study in the different gradients of race. He even put off visiting the Louvre but, once there, felt drawn to the Dutch masters and to Delacroix, noting how gradually the light changes from warm into cool in various faces.. First we get a good look at the artist. And it was where, as Gwendolyn Brooks said, If you wanted a poem, you had only to look out a window. Other figures and objects, sometimes inherently ominous and sometimes made so by juxtaposition, include a human skull, a devil, a broken church window, the three crosses of the Crucifixion, a rabid dog, a lynching victim, and the Statue of Liberty. Cars drive in all directions, and figures in the background mimic those in the foreground with their lively attire and leisurely enjoyment of the city at night. There was a newfound appreciation of black artistic and aesthetic culture. The composition is an exploration of artificial lighting. The conductor was in the back and he yelled, "Come back here you so-and-so" using very vile language, "you come back here. At the time he completed this painting, he lived on the South Side of Chicago with his parents, his sister and nephew, and his grandmother. The impression is one of movement, as people saunter (or hobble, as in the case of the old bearded man) in every direction. While Paris was a popular spot for American expatriates, Motley was not particularly social and did not engage in the art world circles. Motley befriended both white and black artists at SAIC, though his work would almost solely depict the latter. Birth Year : 1891 Death Year : 1981 Country : US Archibald Motley was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1925 two of his paintings, Syncopation and A Mulatress (Motley was noted for depicting individuals of mixed-race backgrounds) were exhibited at the Art Institute; each won one of the museum ' s prestigious annual awards. It just came to me then and I felt like a fool. [22] The entire image is flushed with a burgundy light that emanates from the floor and walls, creating a warm, rich atmosphere for the club-goers. He studied painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago during the 1910s, graduating in 1918. Men shoot pool and play cards, listening, with varying degrees of credulity, to the principal figure as he tells his unlikely tale. He suggests that once racism is erased, everyone can focus on his or her self and enjoy life. She holds a small tin in her hand and has already put on her earrings and shoes. In 1980 the School of the Art Institute of Chicago presented Motley with an honorary doctorate, and President Jimmy Carter honored him and a group of nine other black artists at a White House reception that same year. His father found steady work on the Michigan Central Railroad as a Pullman porter. His night scenes and crowd scenes, heavily influenced by jazz culture, are perhaps his most popular and most prolific. What gives the painting even more gravitas is the knowledge that Motley's grandmother was a former slave, and the painting on the wall is of her former mistress. This happened before the artist was two years old. American architect, sculptor, and painter. Archibald J. Motley, Jr. American Painter Born: October, 7, 1891 - New Orleans, Louisiana Died: January 16, 1981 - Chicago, Illinois Movements and Styles: Harlem Renaissance Archibald J. Motley, Jr. Summary Accomplishments Important Art Biography Influences and Connections Useful Resources He did not, according to his journal, pal around with other artists except for the sculptor Ben Greenstein, with whom he struck up a friendship. Oil on Canvas - Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia, In this mesmerizing night scene, an evangelical black preacher fervently shouts his message to a crowded street of people against a backdrop of a market, a house (modeled on Motley's own), and an apartment building. Many of the opposing messages that are present in Motley's works are attributed to his relatively high social standing which would create an element of bias even though Motley was also black. ", Oil on Canvas - Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, This stunning work is nearly unprecedented for Motley both in terms of its subject matter and its style. Some of Motley's family members pointed out that the socks on the table are in the shape of Africa. And Motleys use of jazz in his paintings is conveyed in the exhibit in two compositions completed over thirty years apart:Blues, 1929, andHot Rhythm, 1961. The space she inhabits is a sitting room, complete with a table and patterned blue-and-white tablecloth; a lamp, bowl of fruit, books, candle, and second sock sit atop the table, and an old-fashioned portrait of a woman hanging in a heavy oval frame on the wall. Corrections? In his paintings of jazz culture, Motley often depicted Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood, which offered a safe haven for blacks migrating from the South. In addition, many magazines such as the Chicago Defender, The Crisis, and Opportunity all aligned with prevalent issues of Black representation. A woman of mixed race, she represents the New Negro or the New Negro Woman that began appearing among the flaneurs of Bronzeville. The sensuousness of this scene, then, is not exactly subtle, but neither is it prurient or reductive. Motley himself was of mixed race, and often felt unsettled about his own racial identity. There was a newfound appreciation of black artistic and aesthetic culture. [10] He was able to expose a part of the Black community that was often not seen by whites, and thus, through aesthetics, broaden the scope of the authentic Black experience. Motley returned to his art in the 1960s and his new work now appeared in various exhibitions and shows in the 1960s and early 1970s. In her right hand, she holds a pair of leather gloves. In depicting African Americans in nighttime street scenes, Motley made a determined effort to avoid simply populating Ashcan backdrops with black people. Motley's signature style is on full display here. And that's hard to do when you have so many figures to do, putting them all together and still have them have their characteristics. His gaze is laser-like; his expression, jaded. It could be interpreted that through this differentiating, Motley is asking white viewers not to lump all African Americans into the same category or stereotype, but to get to know each of them as individuals before making any judgments. He used these visual cues as a way to portray (black) subjects more positively. After his wife's death in 1948 and difficult financial times, Motley was forced to seek work painting shower curtains for the Styletone Corporation. Still, Motley was one of the only artists of the time willing to paint African-American models with such precision and accuracy. Picture 1 of 2. ", "I have tried to paint the Negro as I have seen him, in myself without adding or detracting, just being frankly honest. But Motley had no intention to stereotype and hoped to use the racial imagery to increase "the appeal and accessibility of his crowds. Motley married his high school sweetheart Edith Granzo in 1924, whose German immigrant parents were opposed to their interracial relationship and disowned her for her marriage.[1]. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Archibald Motley Self Portrait (1920) / Art Institute of Chicago, Wikimedia Commons Motley's colors and figurative rhythms inspired modernist peers like Stuart Davis and Jacob Lawrence, as well as mid-century Pop artists looking to similarly make their forms move insouciantly on the canvas. The background consists of a street intersection and several buildings, jazzily labeled as an inn, a drugstore, and a hotel. ), so perhaps Motley's work is ultimately, in Davarian Brown's words, "about playfulness - that blurry line between sin and salvation. In his youth, Motley did not spend much time around other Black people. Upon Motley's return from Paris in 1930, he began teaching at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and working for the Federal Arts Project (part of the New Deal's Works Projects Administration). The New Negro Movement marked a period of renewed, flourishing black psyche. In The Crisis, Carl Van Vechten wrote, "What are negroes when they are continually painted at their worst and judged by the public as they are painted preventing white artists from knowing any other types (of Black people) and preventing Black artists from daring to paint them"[2] Motley would use portraiture as a vehicle for positive propaganda by creating visual representations of Black diversity and humanity. Born in 1909 on the city's South Side, Motley grew up in the middle-class, mostly white Englewood neighborhood, and was raised by his grandparents. The tight, busy interior scene is of a dance floor, with musicians, swaying couples, and tiny tables topped with cocktails pressed up against each other in a vibrant, swirling maelstrom of music and joie de vivre. In the foreground, but taking up most of the picture plane, are black men and women smiling, sauntering, laughing, directing traffic, and tossing out newspapers. Motley spent the years 1963-1972 working on a single painting: The First Hundred Years: He Amongst You Who Is Without Sin Shall Cast the First Stone; Forgive Them Father For They Know Not What They Do. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist, the first retrospective of the American artist's paintings in two decades, will originate at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University on January 30, 2014, starting a national tour. Motley died in Chicago on January 16, 1981. Motley died in Chicago in 1981 of heart failure at the age of eighty-nine. These also suggest some accessible resources for further research, especially ones that can be found and purchased via the internet. Fat Man first appears in Motley's 1927 painting "Stomp", which is his third documented painting of scenes of Chicago's Black entertainment district, after Black & Tan Cabaret [1921] and Syncopation [1924]. Motley used portraiture "as a way of getting to know his own people". Organizer and curator of the exhibition, Richard J. Powell, acknowledged that there had been a similar exhibition in 1991, but "as we have moved beyond that moment and into the 21st century and as we have moved into the era of post-modernism, particularly that category post-black, I really felt that it would be worth revisiting Archibald Motley to look more critically at his work, to investigate his wry sense of humor, his use of irony in his paintings, his interrogations of issues around race and identity.". The flesh tones are extremely varied. [2] Motley understood the power of the individual, and the ways in which portraits could embody a sort of palpable machine that could break this homogeneity. The whole scene is cast in shades of deep indigo, with highlights of red in the women's dresses and shoes, fluorescent white in the lamp, muted gold in the instruments, and the softly lit bronze of an arm or upturned face. InThe Octoroon Girl, 1925, the subject wears a tight, little hat and holds a pair of gloves nonchalantly in one hand. In the beginning of his career as an artist, Motley intended to solely pursue portrait painting. Archibald Motley (1891-1981) was born in New Orleans and lived and painted in Chicago most of his life. In the image a graceful young woman with dark hair, dark eyes and light skin sits on a sofa while leaning against a warm red wall. Richard J. Powell, curator, Archibald Motley: A Jazz Age Modernist, presented a lecture on March 6, 2015 at the preview of the exhibition that will be on view until August 31, 2015 at the Chicago Cultural Center.A full audience was in attendance at the Center's Claudia Cassidy Theater for the . In an interview with the Smithsonian Institution, Motley explained his motives and the difficulty behind painting the different skin tones of African Americans: They're not all the same color, they're not all black, they're not all, as they used to say years ago, high yellow, they're not all brown. The mood is contemplative, still; it is almost like one could hear the sound of a clock ticking. Archibald Motley, in full Archibald John Motley, Jr., (born October 7, 1891, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.died January 16, 1981, Chicago, Illinois), American painter identified with the Harlem Renaissance and probably best known for his depictions of black social life and jazz culture in vibrant city scenes. While in Mexico on one of those visits, Archibald eventually returned to making art, and he created several paintings inspired by the Mexican people and landscape, such as Jose with Serape and Another Mexican Baby (both 1953). Motley spoke to a wide audience of both whites and Blacks in his portraits, aiming to educate them on the politics of skin tone, if in different ways. For example, a brooding man with his hands in his pockets gives a stern look. Painting during the time of the Harlem Renaissance, Motley infused his genre scenes with the rhythms of jazz and the boisterousness of city life, and his portraits sensitively reveal his sitters' inner lives. "[21] The Octoroon Girl is an example of this effort to put African-American women in a good light or, perhaps, simply to make known the realities of middle class African-American life. The woman stares directly at the viewer with a soft, but composed gaze. The figures are highly stylized and flattened, rendered in strong, curved lines. [5] He found in the artwork there a formal sophistication and maturity that could give depth to his own work, particularly in the Dutch painters and the genre paintings of Delacroix, Hals, and Rembrandt. The presence of stereotypical, or caricatured, figures in Motley's work has concerned critics since the 1930s. [9], As a result of his training in the western portrait tradition, Motley understood nuances of phrenology and physiognomy that went along with the aesthetics. In the end, this would instill a sense of personhood and individuality for Blacks through the vehicle of visuality. In 1929, Motley received a Guggenheim Award, permitting him to live and work for a year in Paris, where he worked quite regularly and completed fourteen canvasses. He attended the School of Art Institute in Chicago from 1912-1918 and, in 1924, married Edith Granzo, his childhood girlfriend who was white. He graduated from Englewood High School in Chicago. $75.00. She appears to be mending this past and living with it as she ages, her inner calm rising to the surface. By painting the differences in their skin tones, Motley is also attempting to bring out the differences in personality of his subjects. There are other figures in the work whose identities are also ambiguous (is the lightly-clothed woman on the porch a mother or a madam? 2023 The Art Story Foundation. ", Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Oil on Canvas, For most people, Blues is an iconic Harlem Renaissance painting; though, Motley never lived in Harlem, and it in fact dates from his Paris days and is thus of a Parisian nightclub. During his time at the Art Institute, Motley was mentored by painters Earl Beuhr and John W. Norton,[6] and he did well enough to cause his father's friend to pay his tuition. Archibald J. Motley Jr. Photo from the collection of Valerie Gerrard Browne and Dr. Mara Motley via the Chicago History Museum. Motley has also painted her wrinkles and gray curls with loving care. Motley pays as much attention to the variances of skin color as he does to the glimmering gold of the trombone, the long string of pearls adorning a woman's neck, and the smooth marble tabletops. She wears a red shawl over her thin shoulders, a brooch, and wire-rimmed glasses. Shes fashionable and self-assured, maybe even a touch brazen. Archibald Motley captured the complexities of black, urban America in his colorful street scenes and portraits. Motley's family lived in a quiet neighborhood on Chicago's south side in an environment that was racially tolerant. That brought Motley art students of his own, including younger African Americans who followed in his footsteps. As art critic Steve Moyer points out, perhaps the most "disarming and endearing" thing about the painting is that the woman is not looking at her own image but confidently returning the viewer's gaze - thus quietly and emphatically challenging conventions of women needing to be diffident and demure, and as art historian Dennis Raverty notes, "The peculiar mood of intimacy and psychological distance is created largely through the viewer's indirect gaze through the mirror and the discovery that his view of her may be from her bed." Audio Guide SO MODERN, HE'S CONTEMPORARY In this last work he cries.". Omissions? The preacher here is a racial caricature with his bulging eyes and inflated red lips, his gestures larger-than-life as he looms above the crowd on his box labeled "Jesus Saves." He stands near a wood fence. The family remained in New Orleans until 1894 when they moved to Chicago, where his father took a job as a Pullman car porter.As a boy growing up on Chicago's south side, Motley had many jobs, and when he was nine years old his father's hospitalization for six months required that Motley help support the family. There was nothing but colored men there. While Motley strove to paint the realities of black life, some of his depictions veer toward caricature and seem to accept the crude stereotypes of African Americans. Motleys intent in creating those images was at least in part to refute the pervasive cultural perception of homogeneity across the African American community. Honored with nine other African-American artists by President. Updates? His paternal grandmother had been a slave, but now the family enjoyed a high standard of living due to their social class and their light-colored skin (the family background included French and Creole). Brewminate: A Bold Blend of News and Ideas, By Steve MoyerWriter-EditorNational Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). He studied painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago during the 1910s, graduating in 1918. They pushed into a big room jammed with dancers. This piece portrays young, sophisticate city dwellers out on the town. It was where policy bankers ran their numbers games within earshot of Elder Lucy Smiths Church of All Nations. The Renaissance marked a period of a flourishing and renewed black psyche. In Stomp, Motley painted a busy cabaret scene which again documents the vivid urban black culture. The following year he received a Guggenheim Fellowship to study abroad in Paris, which he did for a year. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to Mary Huff Motley and Archibald John Motley Senior. She wears a black velvet dress with red satin trim, a dark brown hat and a small gold chain with a pendant. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to Mary Huff Motley and Archibald John Motley Senior. [5] Motley would go on to become the first black artist to have a portrait of a black subject displayed at the Art Institute of Chicago. Archibald Motley, the first African American artist to present a major solo exhibition in New York City, was one of the most prominent figures to emerge from the black arts movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. Archibald J. Motley, Jr. was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1891 to upper-middle class African American parents; his father was a porter for the Pullman railway cars and his mother was a teacher. It was the spot for both the daytime and the nighttime stroll. It was where the upright stride crossed paths with the down-low shimmy. He also created a set of characters who appeared repeatedly in his paintings with distinctive postures, gestures, expressions and habits. 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