in order to show the social implications of the "one drop rule," and the dynamics of what it means to be Black. Some of Motley's family members pointed out that the socks on the table are in the shape of Africa. She shared her stories about slavery with the family, and the young Archibald listened attentively. ), so perhaps Motley's work is ultimately, in Davarian Brown's words, "about playfulness - that blurry line between sin and salvation. ", "I have tried to paint the Negro as I have seen him, in myself without adding or detracting, just being frankly honest. Another man in the center and a woman towards the upper right corner also sit isolated and calm in the midst of the commotion of the club. Motley is fashionably dressed in a herringbone overcoat and a fedora, has a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, and looks off at an angle, studying some distant object, perhaps, that has caught his attention. Its a work that can be disarming and endearing at once. In 1924 Motley married Edith Granzo, a white woman he had dated in secret during high school. 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. The owner was colored. 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. He studied painting at the School of the Art Ins*ute of Chicago during the 1910s, graduating in 1918. . [15] In this way, his work used colorism and class as central mechanisms to subvert stereotypes. 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]. It was an expensive education; a family friend helped pay for Motley's first year, and Motley dusted statues in the museum to meet the costs. Many whites wouldn't give Motley commissions to paint their portraits, yet the majority of his collectors were white. Unable to fully associate with either Black nor white, Motley wrestled all his life with his own racial identity. Motley balances the painting with a picture frame and the rest of the couch on the left side of the painting. 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. 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. 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. In his portrait The Mulatress (1924), Motley features a "mulatto" sitter who is very poised and elegant in the way that "the octoroon girl" is. Archibald John Motley, Jr. (October 7, 1891 - January 16, 1981),[1] was an American visual artist. Picture Information. The Picnic : Archibald Motley : Art Print Suitable for Framing. Alternate titles: Archibald John Motley, Jr. Naomi Blumberg was Assistant Editor, Arts and Culture for Encyclopaedia Britannica. However, there was an evident artistic shift that occurred particularly in the 1930s. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Archibald Motley captured the complexities of black, urban America in his colorful street scenes and portraits. Robinson, Jontyle Theresa and Wendy Greenhouse, This page was last edited on 1 February 2023, at 22:26. The wide red collar of her dark dress accentuates her skin tones. Free shipping. Motley was the subject of the retrospective exhibition Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist, organized by the Nasher Museum at Duke University, which closed at the Whitney earlier this year.. Receives honorary doctorate from the School of the Art Institute (1980). The center of this vast stretch of nightlife was State Street, between Twenty-sixth and Forty-seventh. For example, a brooding man with his hands in his pockets gives a stern look. Is the couple in the foreground in love, or is this a prostitute and her john? 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. Archibald John Motley, Jr. (October 7, 1891 January 16, 1981), was an American visual artist. Physically unlike Motley, he is somehow apart from the scene but also immersed in it. 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. 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. [6] He was offered a scholarship to study architecture by one of his father's friends, which he turned down in order to study art. 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. The Octoroon Girl features a woman who is one-eighth black. Critic Steve Moyer writes, "[Emily] appears to be mending [the] past and living with it as she ages, her inner calm rising to the surface," and art critic Ariella Budick sees her as "[recapitulating] both the trajectory of her people and the multilayered fretwork of art history itself." ", 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. 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. One central figure, however, appears to be isolated in the foreground, seemingly troubled. For example, in Motley's "self-portrait," he painted himself in a way that aligns with many of these physical pseudosciences. 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. He attended the School of Art Institute in Chicago from 1912-1918 and, in 1924, married Edith Granzo, his childhood girlfriend who was white. Motley used sharp angles and dark contrasts within the model's face to indicate that she was emotional or defiant. 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. In depicting African Americans in nighttime street scenes, Motley made a determined effort to avoid simply populating Ashcan backdrops with black people. 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 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. 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. Motley portrayed skin color and physical features as belonging to a spectrum. [14] It is often difficult if not impossible to tell what kind of racial mixture the subject has without referring to the title. The Octoroon Girl was meant to be a symbol of social, racial, and economic progress. Consequently, many were encouraged to take an artistic approach in the context of social progress. But because his subject was African-American life, hes counted by scholars among the artists of the Harlem Renaissance. He would break down the dichotomy between Blackness and Americanness by demonstrating social progress through complex visual narratives. 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. Motley painted fewer works in the 1950s, though he had two solo exhibitions at the Chicago Public Library. 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. 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. Originally published to the public domain by Humanities, the Magazine of the NEH 35:3 (May/June 2014). At the time when writers and other artists were portraying African American life in new, positive ways, Motley depicted the complexities and subtleties of racial identity, giving his subjects a voice they had not previously had in art before. His nephew (raised as his brother), Willard Motley, was an acclaimed writer known for his 1947 novel Knock on Any Door. He studied painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago during the 1910s, graduating in 1918. With all of the talk of the "New Negro" and the role of African American artists, there was no set visual vocabulary for black artists portraying black life, and many artists like Motley sometimes relied on familiar, readable tropes that would be recognizable to larger audiences. ", "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. BlackPast.org - Biography of Archibald J. Motley Jr. African American Registry - Biography of Archibald Motley. (The Harmon Foundation was established in 1922 by white real-estate developer William E. Harmon and was one of the first to recognize African American achievements, particularly in the arts and in the work emerging from the Harlem Renaissance movement.) It is also the first work by Motleyand the first painting by an African American artist from the 1920sto enter MoMA's collection. 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. 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. While Motley may have occupied a different social class than many African Americans in the early 20th century, he was still a keen observer of racial discrimination. In 1953 Ebony magazine featured him for his Styletone work in a piece about black entrepreneurs. Both felt that Paris was much more tolerant of their relationship. Motley creates balance through the vividly colored dresses of three female figures on the left, center, and right of the canvas; those dresses pop out amid the darker blues, blacks, and violets of the people and buildings. In addition, many magazines such as the Chicago Defender, The Crisis, and Opportunity all aligned with prevalent issues of Black representation. He used these visual cues as a way to portray (black) subjects more positively. The sensuousness of this scene, then, is not exactly subtle, but neither is it prurient or reductive. The rhythm of the music can be felt in the flailing arms of the dancers, who appear to be performing the popular Lindy hop. He goes on to say that especially for an artist, it shouldn't matter what color of skin someone haseveryone is equal. Motley's portraits are almost universally known for the artist's desire to portray his black sitters in a dignified, intelligent fashion. 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). These direct visual reflections of status represented the broader social construction of Blackness, and its impact on Black relations. ", "But I never in all my life have I felt that I was a finished artist. There was more, however, to Motleys work than polychromatic party scenes. He lived in a predominantly-white neighborhood, and attended majority-white primary and secondary schools. Motleys intent in creating those images was at least in part to refute the pervasive cultural perception of homogeneity across the African American community. Picture 1 of 2. 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. His night scenes and crowd scenes, heavily influenced by jazz culture, are perhaps his most popular and most prolific. Motley's paintings grapple with, sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly, the issues of racial injustice and stereotypes that plague America. 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. Motley enrolled in the prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he learned academic art techniques. He studied painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago during the 1910s, graduating in 1918. [2] Aesthetics had a powerful influence in expanding the definitions of race. 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. Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist, the first retrospective of the American artist's paintings in two decades, opened at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University on January 30, 2014. Archibald Motley was a prominent African American artist and painter who was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1891. InThe Octoroon Girl, 1925, the subject wears a tight, little hat and holds a pair of gloves nonchalantly in one hand. 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. Free shipping. Stomp [1927] - by Archibald Motley. By asserting the individuality of African Americans in portraiture, Motley essentially demonstrated Blackness as being "worthy of formal portrayal. 1: Portrait of the Artist's Mother (1871) with her hands clasped gently in her lap while she mends a dark green sock. Back in Chicago, Motley completed, in 1931,Brown Girl After Bath. Archibald J. Motley Jr. Photo from the collection of Valerie Gerrard Browne and Dr. Mara Motley via the Chicago History Museum. Joseph N. Eisendrath Award from the Art Ins*ute of Chicago for the painting "Syncopation" (1925). As published in the Foundation's Report for 1929-30: Motley, Archibald John, Jr.: Appointed for creative work in painting, abroad; tenure, twelve months from July 1, 1929. De Souza, Pauline. 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. Motley remarked, "I loved ParisIt's a different atmosphere, different attitudes, different people. I walked back there. 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. "[10] This is consistent with Motley's aims of portraying an absolutely accurate and transparent representation of African Americans; his commitment to differentiating between skin types shows his meticulous efforts to specify even the slightest differences between individuals. ", "I sincerely believe Negro art is some day going to contribute to our culture, our civilization. His series of portraits of women of mixed descent bore the titles The Mulatress (1924), The Octoroon Girl (1925), and The Quadroon (1927), identifying, as American society did, what quantity of their blood was African. The main visual anchors of the work, which is a night scene primarily in scumbled brushstrokes of blue and black, are the large tree on the left side of the canvas and the gabled, crumbling Southern manse on the right. 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. The books and articles below constitute a bibliography of the sources used in the writing of this page. They both use images of musicians, dancers, and instruments to establish and then break a pattern, a kind of syncopation, that once noticed is in turn felt. 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. 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. In her right hand, she holds a pair of leather gloves. After fourteen years of courtship, Motley married Edith Granzo, a white woman from his family neighborhood. While some critics remain vexed and ambivalent about this aspect of his work, Motley's playfulness and even sometimes surrealistic tendencies create complexities that elude easy readings. Archibald Motley Self Portrait (1920) / Art Institute of Chicago, Wikimedia Commons First we get a good look at the artist. It appears that the message Motley is sending to his white audience is that even though the octoroon woman is part African American, she clearly does not fit the stereotype of being poor and uneducated. The following year he received a Guggenheim Fellowship to study abroad in Paris, which he did for a year. Unlike many other Harlem Renaissance artists, Archibald Motley, Jr., never lived in Harlem. He subsequently appears in many of his paintings throughout his career. After he completed it he put his brush aside and did not paint anymore, mostly due to old age and ill health. 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. 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 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). $75.00. Though most of people in Black Belt seem to be comfortably socializing or doing their jobs, there is one central figure who may initially escape notice but who offers a quiet riposte. 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. "[2] Motley himself identified with this sense of feeling caught in the middle of one's own identity. Himself of mixed ancestry (including African American, European, Creole, and Native American) and light-skinned, Motley was inherently interested in skin tone. He then returned to Chicago to support his mother, who was now remarried after his father's death. 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 suggests that once racism is erased, everyone can focus on his or her self and enjoy life. You must be one of those smart'uns from up in Chicago or New York or somewhere." 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. Free shipping. The excitement in the painting is palpable: one can observe a woman in a white dress throwing her hands up to the sound of the music, a couple embracinghand in handin the back of the cabaret, the lively pianist watching the dancers. She wears a red shawl over her thin shoulders, a brooch, and wire-rimmed glasses. This piece portrays young, sophisticate city dwellers out on the town. In contrast, the man in the bottom right corner sits and stares in a drunken stupor. Born into slavery, the octogenerian is sitting near the likeness of a descendant of the family that held her in bondage. 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. In 1928 Motley had a solo exhibition at the New Gallery in New York City, an important milestone in any artists career but particularly so for an African American artist in the early 20th century. These physical markers of Blackness, then, are unstable and unreliable, and Motley exposed that difference. Archibald J. Motley Jr. died in Chicago on January 16, 1981 at the age of 89. 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. [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. 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. Achibald Motley's Chicago Richard Powell Presents Talk On A Jazz Age Modernist Paul Andrew Wandless. The naked woman in the painting is seated at a vanity, looking into a mirror and, instead of regarding her own image, she returns our gaze. Behind the bus, a man throws his arms up ecstatically. By doing this, he hoped to counteract perceptions of segregation. I used sit there and study them and I found they had such a peculiar and such a wonderful sense of humor, and the way they said things, and the way they talked, the way they had expressed themselves you'd just die laughing. ", "Criticism has had absolutely no effect on my work although I well enjoy and sincerely appreciate the opinions of others. Near the entrance to the exhibit waits a black-and-white photograph. So I was reading the paper and walking along, after a while I found myself in the front of the car. Motley experienced success early in his career; in 1927 his piece Mending Socks was voted the most popular painting at the Newark Museum in New Jersey. This retrospective of African-American painter Archibald J. Motley Jr. was the . Her clothing and background all suggest that she is of higher class. "[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. But Motley had no intention to stereotype and hoped to use the racial imagery to increase "the appeal and accessibility of his crowds. Oral History Interview with Archibald Motley, Oral history interview with Archibald Motley, 1978 Jan. 23-1979 Mar. 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. First One Hundred Years offers no hope and no mitigation of the bleak message that the road to racial harmony is one littered with violence, murder, hate, ignorance, and irony. The exhibition then traveled to The Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas (June 14September 7, 2014), The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (October 19, 2014 February 1, 2015), The Chicago Cultural Center (March 6August 31, 2015), and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (October 2, 2015 January 17, 2016). Motley's presentation of the woman not only fulfilled his desire to celebrate accomplished blacks but also created an aesthetic role model to which those who desired an elite status might look up to. ", "The biggest thing I ever wanted to do in art was to paint like the Old Masters. 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. Perhaps critic Paul Richard put it best by writing, "Motley used to laugh. Motley died in Chicago in 1981 of heart failure at the age of eighty-nine. 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. $75.00. There was material always, walking or running, fighting or screaming or singing., The Liar, 1936, is a painting that came as a direct result of Motleys study of the districts neighborhoods, its burlesque parlors, pool halls, theaters, and backrooms. I just stood there and held the newspaper down and looked at him. Motley's portraits take the conventions of the Western tradition and update themallowing for black bodies, specifically black female bodies, a space in a history that had traditionally excluded them. Motley's beloved grandmother Emily was the subject of several of his early portraits. [2] He realized that in American society, different statuses were attributed to each gradation of skin tone. The overall light is warm, even ardent, with the woman seated on a bright red blanket thrown across her bench. It's a white woman, in a formal pose. 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. "[10] These portraits celebrate skin tone as something diverse, inclusive, and pluralistic. 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. He produced some of his best known works during the 1930s and 1940s, including his slices of life set in "Bronzeville," Chicago, the predominantly African American neighborhood once referred to as the "Black Belt." He stands near a wood fence. Upon graduating from the Art Institute in 1918, Motley took odd jobs to support himself while he made art. 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. Brewminate: A Bold Blend of News and Ideas, By Steve MoyerWriter-EditorNational Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). They act differently; they don't act like Americans.". While in high school, he worked part-time in a barbershop. After his wife's death in 1948 and difficult financial times, Motley was forced to seek work painting shower curtains for the Styletone Corporation. In the 1920s he began painting primarily portraits, and he produced some of his best-known works during that period, including Woman Peeling Apples (1924), a portrait of his grandmother called Mending Socks (1924), and Old Snuff Dipper (1928). A slender vase of flowers and lamp with a golden toile shade decorate the vanity. Honored with nine other African-American artists by President. [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. 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