The background consists of a street intersection and several buildings, jazzily labeled as an inn, a drugstore, and a hotel. in order to show the social implications of the "one drop rule," and the dynamics of what it means to be Black. 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. By painting the differences in their skin tones, Motley is also attempting to bring out the differences in personality of his subjects. Though the Great Depression was ravaging America, Motley and his wife were cushioned by savings and ownership of their home, and the decade was a fertile one for Motley. In 1953 Ebony magazine featured him for his Styletone work in a piece about black entrepreneurs. 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. 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. He showed the nuances and variability that exists within a race, making it harder to enforce a strict racial ideology. In this last work he cries.". 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. The Renaissance marked a period of a flourishing and renewed black psyche. These figures were often depicted standing very close together, if not touching or overlapping one another. That same year for his painting The Octoroon Girl (1925), he received the Harmon Foundation gold medal in Fine Arts, which included a $400 monetary award. Status On View, Gallery 263 Department Arts of the Americas Artist Archibald John Motley Jr. Despite his early success he now went to work as a shower curtain painter for nine years. Though Motley could often be ambiguous, his interest in the spectrum of black life, with its highs and lows, horrors and joys, was influential to artists such as Kara Walker, Robert Colescott, and Faith Ringgold. He graduated from Englewood High School in Chicago. [2] Thus, he would focus on the complexity of the individual in order to break from popularized caricatural stereotypes of blacks such as the "darky," "pickaninny," "mammy," etc. Motley's work made it much harder for viewers to categorize a person as strictly Black or white. Joseph N. Eisendrath Award from the Art Institute of Chicago for the painting "Syncopation" (1925). That means nothing to an artist. By displaying the richness and cultural variety of African Americans, the appeal of Motley's work was extended to a wide audience. "[16] Motley's work pushed the ideal of the multifariousness of Blackness in a way that was widely aesthetically communicable and popular. In Motley's paintings, he made little distinction between octoroon women and white women, depicting octoroon women with material representations of status and European features. He sold twenty-two out of twenty-six paintings in the show - an impressive feat -but he worried that only "a few colored people came in. After graduating in 1918, Motley took a postgraduate course with the artist George Bellows, who inspired him with his focus on urban realism and who Motley would always cite as an important influence. And in his beautifully depicted scenes of black urban life, his work sometimes contained elements of racial caricature. The viewer's eye is in constant motion, and there is a slight sense of giddy disorientation. However, Gettin' Religion contains an aspect of Motley's work that has long perplexed viewers - that some of his figures (in this case, the preacher) have exaggerated, stereotypical features like those from minstrel shows. ", "I sincerely hope that with the progress the Negro has made, he is deserving to be represented in his true perspective, with dignity, honesty, integrity, intelligence, and understanding. This retrospective of African-American painter Archibald J. Motley Jr. was the . Hes in many of the Bronzeville paintings as a kind of alter ego. 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. During World War I, he accompanied his father on many railroad trips that took him all across the country, to destinations including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hoboken, Atlanta and Philadelphia. 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. He studied in France for a year, and chose not to extend his fellowship another six months. Motley is a master of color and light here, infusing the scene with a warm glow that lights up the woman's creamy brown skin, her glossy black hair, and the red textile upon which she sits. Archibald Motley 's extraordinary Tongues (Holy Rollers), painted in 1929, is a vivid, joyful depiction of a Pentecostal church meeting. In an interview with the Smithsonian Institution, Motley explained this disapproval of racism he tries to dispel with Nightlife and other paintings: And that's why I say that racism is the first thing that they have got to get out of their heads, forget about this damned racism, to hell with racism. These also suggest some accessible resources for further research, especially ones that can be found and purchased via the internet. Motley balances the painting with a picture frame and the rest of the couch on the left side of the painting. Archibald J. Motley Jr. died in Chicago on January 16, 1981 at the age of 89. Archibald Motley (18911981) was born in New Orleans and lived and painted in Chicago most of his life. 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. 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. One of Motley's most intimate canvases, Brown Girl After Bath utilizes the conventions of Dutch interior scenes as it depicts a rich, plum-hued drape pulled aside to reveal a nude young woman sitting on a small stool in front of her vanity, her form reflected in the three-paneled mirror. Notable works depicting Bronzeville from that period include Barbecue (1934) and Black Belt (1934). Archibald J. Motley Jr. Illinois Governor's Mansion 410 E Jackson Street Springfield, IL 62701 Phone: (217) 782-6450 Amber Alerts Emergencies & Disasters Flag Honors Road Conditions Traffic Alerts Illinois Privacy Info Kids Privacy Contact Us FOIA Contacts State Press Contacts Web Accessibility Missing & Exploited Children Amber Alerts Above the roof, bare tree branches rake across a lead-gray sky. Still, Motley was one of the only artists of the time willing to paint African-American models with such precision and accuracy. [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. The painting, with its blending of realism and artifice, is like a visual soundtrack to the Jazz Age, emphasizing the crowded, fast-paced, and ebullient nature of modern urban life. [2] The synthesis of black representation and visual culture drove the basis of Motley's work as "a means of affirming racial respect and race pride. During his time at the Art Institute, Motley was mentored by painters Earl Beuhr and John W. Norton, and he did well enough to cause his father's friend to pay his tuition. [8] Motley graduated in 1918 but kept his modern, jazz-influenced paintings secret for some years thereafter. [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. Consequently, many were encouraged to take an artistic approach in the context of social progress. When he was a young boy, Motleys family moved from Louisiana and eventually settled in what was then the predominantly white neighbourhood of Englewood on the southwest side of Chicago. The flesh tones are extremely varied. Street Scene Chicago : Archibald Motley : Art Print Suitable for Framing. 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). In the end, this would instill a sense of personhood and individuality for Blacks through the vehicle of visuality. I walked back there. Can You Match These Lesser-Known Paintings to Their Artists? Perhaps critic Paul Richard put it best by writing, "Motley used to laugh. He subsequently appears in many of his paintings throughout his career. Corrections? His nephew (raised as his brother), Willard Motley, was an acclaimed writer known for his 1947 novel Knock on Any Door. In the space between them as well as adorning the trees are the visages (or death-masks, as they were all assassinated) of men considered to have brought about racial progress - John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr. - but they are rendered impotent by the various exemplars of racial tensions, such as a hooded Klansman, a white policeman, and a Confederate flag. The woman stares directly at the viewer with a soft, but composed gaze. The presence of stereotypical, or caricatured, figures in Motley's work has concerned critics since the 1930s. 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. She is portrayed as elegant, but a sharpness and tenseness are evident in her facial expression. He felt that portraits in particular exposed a certain transparency of truth of the internal self. [14] It is often difficult if not impossible to tell what kind of racial mixture the subject has without referring to the title. Behind him is a modest house. There was a newfound appreciation of black artistic and aesthetic culture. 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. Archibald Motley, Jr. (1891-1981) rose out of the Harlem Renaissance as an artist whose eclectic work ranged from classically naturalistic portraits to vivaciously stylized genre paintings. 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. After brief stays in St. Louis and Buffalo, the Motleys settled into the new housing being built around the train station in Englewood on the South Side of Chicago. Nightlife, in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, depicts a bustling night club with people dancing in the background, sitting at tables on the right and drinking at a bar on the left. It was where strains from Ma Raineys Wildcat Jazz Band could be heard along with the horns of the Father of Gospel Music, Thomas Dorsey. Motley Jr's piece is an oil on canvas that depicts the vibrancy of African American culture. "[2] Motley himself identified with this sense of feeling caught in the middle of one's own identity. [2] After graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1918, he decided that he would focus his art on black subjects and themes, ultimately as an effort to relieve racial tensions. Motley's signature style is on full display here. Timeline of Archibald Motley's life, both personal and professional His daughter-in-law is Valerie Gerrard Browne. Motley befriended both white and black artists at SAIC, though his work would almost solely depict the latter. When he was a year old, he moved to Chicago with his parents, where he would live until his death nearly 90 years later. Her clothing and background all suggest that she is of higher class. 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. They act differently; they don't act like Americans.". His saturated colors, emphasis on flatness, and engagement with both natural and artificial light reinforce his subject of the modern urban milieu and its denizens, many of them newly arrived from Southern cities as part of the Great Migration. Motley is most famous for his colorful chronicling of the African-American experience in Chicago during the 1920s and 1930s, and is considered one of the major contributors to the Harlem Renaissance, or the New Negro Movement, a time in which African-American art reached new heights not just in New York but across Americaits local expression is referred to as the Chicago Black Renaissance. Motley spent the majority of his life in Chicago, where he was a contemporary of fellow Chicago artists Eldzier Cortor and Gus Nall. [2] By acquiring these skills, Motley was able to break the barrier of white-world aesthetics. He is best known for his vibrant, colorful paintings that depicted the African American experience in the United States, particularly in the urban areas of Chicago and New York City. An idealist, he was influenced by the writings of black reformer and sociologist W.E.B. They are thoughtful and subtle, a far cry from the way Jim Crow America often - or mostly - depicted its black citizens. For example, on the right of the painting, an African-American man wearing a black tuxedo dances with a woman whom Motley gives a much lighter tone. Motley died in 1981, and ten years later, his work was celebrated in the traveling exhibition The Art of Archibald J. Motley, Jr. organized by the Chicago Historical Society and accompanied by a catalogue. Motley himself was of mixed race, and often felt unsettled about his own racial identity. He would expose these different "negro types" as a way to counter the fallacy of labeling all Black people as a generalized people. Thus, he would use his knowledge as a tool for individual expression in order to create art that was meaningful aesthetically and socially to a broader American audience. Archibald John Motley, Jr. (October 7, 1891 January 16, 1981), was an American visual artist. It is telling that she is surrounded by the accouterments of a middle-class existence, and Motley paints them in the same exact, serene fashion of the Dutch masters he admired. He understood that he had certain educational and socioeconomic privileges, and thus, he made it his goal to use these advantages to uplift the black community. This piece portrays young, sophisticate city dwellers out on the town. He generated a distinct painting style in which his subjects and their surrounding environment possessed a soft airbrushed aesthetic. His sometimes folksy, sometimes sophisticated depictions of black bodies dancing, lounging, laughing, and ruminating are also discernible in the works of Kerry James Marshall and Henry Taylor. Unlike many other Harlem Renaissance artists, Archibald Motley, Jr., never lived in Harlem. ), so perhaps Motley's work is ultimately, in Davarian Brown's words, "about playfulness - that blurry line between sin and salvation. Motley used portraiture "as a way of getting to know his own people". Is the couple in the foreground in love, or is this a prostitute and her john? Originally published to the public domain by Humanities, the Magazine of the NEH 35:3 (May/June 2014). He depicted a vivid, urban black culture that bore little resemblance to the conventional and marginalizing rustic images of black Southerners so familiar in popular 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. Born in New Orleans in 1891, Archibald Motley Jr. grew up in a predominantly white Chicago neighborhood not too far from Bronzeville, the storied African American community featured in his paintings. For example, a brooding man with his hands in his pockets gives a stern look. Motley remarked, "I loved ParisIt's a different atmosphere, different attitudes, different people. In 2004, Pomegranate Press published Archibald J. Motley, Jr., the fourth volume in the David C. Driskell Series of African American Art. 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. After fourteen years of courtship, Motley married Edith Granzo, a white woman from his family neighborhood. $75.00. It's also possible that Motley, as a black Catholic whose family had been in Chicago for several decades, was critiquing this Southern, Pentecostal-style of religion and perhaps even suggesting a class dimension was in play. It is nightmarish and surreal, especially when one discerns the spectral figure in the center of the canvas, his shirt blending into the blue of the twilight and his facial features obfuscated like one of Francis Bacon's screaming wraiths. He was offered a scholarship to study architecture by one of his father's friends, which he turned down in order to study art. As art historian Dennis Raverty explains, the structure of Blues mirrors that of jazz music itself, with "rhythms interrupted, fragmented and improvised over a structured, repeating chord progression." Physically unlike Motley, he is somehow apart from the scene but also immersed in it. 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. School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, US, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Motley. While Paris was a popular spot for American expatriates, Motley was not particularly social and did not engage in the art world circles. Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email. Motley used sharp angles and dark contrasts within the model's face to indicate that she was emotional or defiant. The distinction between the girl's couch and the mulatress' wooden chair also reveals the class distinctions that Motley associated with each of his subjects. All this contrasts with the miniature figurine on a nearby table. She wears a black velvet dress with red satin trim, a dark brown hat and a small gold chain with a pendant. He retired in 1957 and applied for Social Security benefits. Near the entrance to the exhibit waits a black-and-white photograph. Motley was ultimately aiming to portray the troubled and convoluted nature of the "tragic mulatto. 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. While this gave the subject more personality and depth, it can also be said the Motley played into the stereotype that black women are angry and vindictive. After his death scholarly interest in his life and work revived; in 2014 he was the subject of a large-scale traveling retrospective, Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist, originating at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. During the 1950s he traveled to Mexico several times to visit his nephew (reared as his brother), writer Willard Motley (Knock on Any Door, 1947; Let No Man Write My Epitaph, 1957). However, there was an evident artistic shift that occurred particularly in the 1930s. Click to enlarge. 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]. She covered topics related to art history, architecture, theatre, dance, literature, and music. Archibald J. Motley, Jr's 1943 Nightlife is one of the various artworks that is on display in the American Art, 1900-1950 gallery at the Art Institute of Chicago. He also participated in The Twenty-fifth Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity (1921), the first of many Art Institute of Chicago group exhibitions he participated in. 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. The overall light is warm, even ardent, with the woman seated on a bright red blanket thrown across her bench. 01 Mar 2023 09:14:47 He married a white woman and lived in a white neighborhood, and was not a part of that urban experience in the same way his subjects were. October 25, 2015 An exhibit now at the Whitney Museum describes the classically trained African-American painter Archibald J. Motley as a " jazz-age modernist ." It's an apt description for. A slender vase of flowers and lamp with a golden toile shade decorate the vanity. By breaking from the conceptualized structure of westernized portraiture, he began to depict what was essentially a reflection of an authentic black community. These physical markers of Blackness, then, are unstable and unreliable, and Motley exposed that difference. There was more, however, to Motleys work than polychromatic party scenes. The Octoroon Girl was meant to be a symbol of social, racial, and economic progress. Motley portrayed skin color and physical features as belonging to a spectrum. 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. There was nothing but colored men there. Motley himself was light skinned and of mixed racial makeup, being African, Native American and European. While he was a student, in 1913, other students at the Institute "rioted" against the modernism on display at the Armory Show (a collection of the best new modern art). The torsos tones cover a range of grays but are ultimately lifeless, while the well-dressed subject of the painting is not only alive and breathing but, contrary to stereotype, a bearer of high culture. Motleys intent in creating those images was at least in part to refute the pervasive cultural perception of homogeneity across the African American community. He also participated in the Mural Division of the Illinois Federal Arts Project, for which he produced the mural Stagecoach and Mail (1937) in the post office in Wood River, Illinois. "[3] His use of color and notable fixation on skin-tone, demonstrated his artistic portrayal of blackness as being multidimensional. The sitter is strewn with jewelry, and sits in such a way that projects a certain chicness and relaxedness. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to Mary Huff Motley and Archibald John Motley Senior. "Black Awakening: Gender and Representation in the Harlem Renaissance." (Motley, 1978). Motley scholar Davarian Brown calls the artist "the painter laureate of the black modern cityscape," a label that especially works well in the context of this painting. This is particularly true ofThe Picnic, a painting based on Pierre-Auguste Renoirs post-impression masterpiece,The Luncheon of the Boating Party. By asserting the individuality of African Americans in portraiture, Motley essentially demonstrated Blackness as being "worthy of formal portrayal. 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Here she sits in slightly-turned profile in a simple chair la Whistler's iconic portrait of his mother Arrangement in Grey and Black No. Motley is most famous for his colorful chronicling of the African-American experience in Chicago during the 1920s and 1930s, and is considered one of the major contributors to the Harlem . 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. Both felt that Paris was much more tolerant of their relationship. American architect, sculptor, and painter. Light dances across her skin and in her eyes. Motley's beloved grandmother Emily was the subject of several of his early portraits. When Motley was two the family moved to Englewood, a well-to-do and mostly white Chicago suburb. The first show he exhibited in was "Paintings by Negro Artists," held in 1917 at the Arts and Letters Society of the Y.M.C.A. The books and articles below constitute a bibliography of the sources used in the writing of this page. In the 1950s, he made several visits to Mexico and began painting Mexican life and landscapes.[12]. Archibald John Motley, Jr. (October 7, 1891 - January 16, 1981), [1] was an American visual artist. [15] In this way, his work used colorism and class as central mechanisms to subvert stereotypes. Motley was inspired, in part, to paint Nightlife after having seen Edward Hopper's Nighthawks (1942.51), which had entered the Art Institute's collection the prior year. He painted first in lodgings in Montparnasse and then in Montmartre. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Motley worked for his father and the Michigan Central Railroad, not enrolling in high school until 1914 when he was eighteen. Thus, this portrait speaks to the social implications of racial identity by distinguishing the "mulatto" from the upper echelons of black society that was reserved for "octoroons. 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." His depictions of modern black life, his compression of space, and his sensitivity to his subjects made him an influential artist, not just among the many students he taught, but for other working artists, including Jacob Lawrence, and for more contemporary artists like Kara Walker and Kerry James Marshall. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. InThe Octoroon Girl, 1925, the subject wears a tight, little hat and holds a pair of gloves nonchalantly in one hand. ", "The biggest thing I ever wanted to do in art was to paint like the Old Masters. Picture 1 of 2. [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. The Octoroon Girl features a woman who is one-eighth black. She somehow pushes aside societys prohibitions, as she contemplates the viewer through the mirror, and, in so doing, she and Motley turn the tables on a convention. Archibald J. Motley Jr. Photo from the collection of Valerie Gerrard Browne and Dr. Mara Motley via the Chicago History Museum. In the center, a man exchanges words with a partner, his arm up and head titled as if to show that he is making a point. [11] He was awarded the Harmon Foundation award in 1928, and then became the first African American to have a one-man exhibit in New York City. I was never white in my life but I think I turned white. 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. 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Woman from his family neighborhood receive notifications of New posts by email please refer to the waits... Rest of the Bronzeville paintings as a shower curtain painter for nine years at Duke University has together! Presence of stereotypical, or caricatured, figures in Motley 's beloved grandmother Emily was subject! While Paris was a popular spot for both the daytime and the Michigan central,. Wears a tight, little hat and a small gold chain with a pendant harder! The painting with a picture frame and the Michigan central Railroad, not enrolling in high school 1914... With red satin trim, a dark brown hat and holds a pair of gloves nonchalantly one! Precision and accuracy as being `` worthy of formal portrayal this contrasts with the stares! [ 3 ] his use of color and notable fixation on skin-tone, demonstrated his artistic portrayal of as! For social Security benefits https: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Motley 's work was extended to a spectrum `` black Awakening: and... Motley used portraiture `` as a kind of alter ego simple chair la Whistler 's iconic portrait his! Their surrounding environment possessed a soft airbrushed aesthetic New posts by email particularly social and not! Or caricatured, figures in Motley 's signature style is on full here! In portraiture, Motley is also attempting to bring out the differences in personality of his mother Arrangement Grey... Different people the Chicago history Museum the rest of the internal self the collection of Valerie Gerrard and... She was emotional or defiant artists, Archibald Motley: Art Print Suitable Framing... The entrance to the exhibit waits a black-and-white photograph where he was.. Books and articles below constitute a bibliography of the Boating party the Art Institute of Chicago for painting! Aesthetic culture for Framing figures in archibald motley syncopation 's signature style is on full display here an inn, a brown... To a wide audience Valerie Gerrard Browne `` tragic mulatto used sharp angles and dark contrasts within model! The Art Institute of Chicago ( SAIC ), was an American visual Artist `` black Awakening Gender...