The Octoroon Girl was meant to be a symbol of social, racial, and economic progress. 01 Mar 2023 09:14:47 Many critics see him as an alter ego of Motley himself, especially as this figure pops up in numerous canvases; he is, like Motley, of his community but outside of it as well. 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. These direct visual reflections of status represented the broader social construction of Blackness, and its impact on Black relations. ", "Criticism has had absolutely no effect on my work although I well enjoy and sincerely appreciate the opinions of others. It was this disconnection with the African-American community around him that established Motley as an outsider. Unlike many other Harlem Renaissance artists, Archibald Motley, Jr., never lived in Harlem. Is the couple in the foreground in love, or is this a prostitute and her john? His mother was a school teacher until she married. Men shoot pool and play cards, listening, with varying degrees of credulity, to the principal figure as he tells his unlikely tale. Behind the bus, a man throws his arms up ecstatically. That trajectory is traced all the way back to Africa, for Motley often talked of how his grandmother was a Pygmy from British East Africa who was sold into slavery. But Motley had no intention to stereotype and hoped to use the racial imagery to increase "the appeal and accessibility of his crowds. Its a work that can be disarming and endearing at once. [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. He studied painting at the School of the Art Ins*ute of Chicago during the 1910s, graduating in 1918. . Picture 1 of 2. 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. 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. The figures are more suggestive of black urban types, Richard Powell, curator of the Nasher exhibit, has said, than substantive portrayals of real black men. The mood in this painting, as well as in similar ones such asThe PlottersandCard Players, was praised by one of Motleys contemporaries, the critic Alain Locke, for its Rabelaisian turn and its humor and swashbuckle.. He viewed that work in part as scientific in nature, because his portraits revealed skin tone as a signifier of identity, race, and class. She is portrayed as elegant, but a sharpness and tenseness are evident in her facial expression. In the beginning of his career as an artist, Motley intended to solely pursue portrait painting. 1, Video Postcard: Archibald Motley, Jr.'s Saturday Night. In titling his pieces, Motley used these antebellum creole classifications ("mulatto," "octoroon," etc.) $75.00. Motley Jr's piece is an oil on canvas that depicts the vibrancy of African American culture. Despite his decades of success, he had not sold many works to private collectors and was not part of a commercial gallery, necessitating his taking a job as a shower curtain painter at Styletone to make ends meet. 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. 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. Content compiled and written by Kristen Osborne-Bartucca, Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Valerie Hellstein, The First One Hundred Years: He Amongst You Who is Without Sin Shall Cast the First Stone: Forgive Them Father For They Know Not What They Do (c. 1963-72), "I feel that my work is peculiarly American; a sincere personal expression of this age and I hope a contribution to society. ", "And if you don't have the intestinal fortitude, in other words, if you don't have the guts to hang in there and meet a lot of - well, I must say a lot of disappointments, a lot of reverses - and I've met them - and then being a poor artist, too, not only being colored but being a poor artist it makes it doubly, doubly hard.". He felt that portraits in particular exposed a certain transparency of truth of the internal self. That year he also worked with his father on the railroads and managed to fit in sketching while they traveled cross-country. "[16] Motley's work pushed the ideal of the multifariousness of Blackness in a way that was widely aesthetically communicable and popular. Motley graduated in 1918 but kept his modern, jazz-influenced paintings secret for some years thereafter. 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. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Archibald-Motley. 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. Thus, his art often demonstrated the complexities and multifaceted nature of black culture and life. (Motley 1978), In this excerpt, Motley calls for the removal of racism from social norms. He goes on to say that especially for an artist, it shouldn't matter what color of skin someone haseveryone is equal. Archibald J. Motley, Jr., 1891-1981 Self-Portrait. In 1917, while still a student, Motley showed his work in the exhibition Paintings by Negro Artists held at a Chicago YMCA. 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.. I just couldn't take it. First we get a good look at the artist. Archibald J. Motley Jr. Photo from the collection of Valerie Gerrard Browne and Dr. Mara Motley via the Chicago History Museum. A slender vase of flowers and lamp with a golden toile shade decorate the vanity. His daughter-in-law is Valerie Gerrard Browne. There he created Jockey Club (1929) and Blues (1929), two notable works portraying groups of expatriates enjoying the Paris nightlife. The full text of the article is here . Archibald Motley Self Portrait (1920) / Art Institute of Chicago, Wikimedia Commons 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." Alternate titles: Archibald John Motley, Jr. Naomi Blumberg was Assistant Editor, Arts and Culture for Encyclopaedia Britannica. 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. 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. She covered topics related to art history, architecture, theatre, dance, literature, and music. "[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. You must be one of those smart'uns from up in Chicago or New York or somewhere." 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. They act differently; they don't act like Americans.". Proceeds are donated to charity. But because his subject was African-American life, he's counted by scholars among the artists of the Harlem Renaissance. Above the roof, bare tree branches rake across a lead-gray sky. 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? Joseph N. Eisendrath Award from the Art Ins*ute of Chicago for the painting "Syncopation" (1925). 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. 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. She holds a small tin in her hand and has already put on her earrings and shoes. A woman of mixed race, she represents the New Negro or the New Negro Woman that began appearing among the flaneurs of Bronzeville. 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. Near the entrance to the exhibit waits a black-and-white photograph. Archibald John Motley, Jr. (October 7, 1891 - January 16, 1981), was an American visual artist. In his paintings of jazz culture, Motley often depicted Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood, which offered a safe haven for blacks migrating from the South. The long and violent Chicago race riot of 1919, though it postdated his article, likely strengthened his convictions. She wears a black velvet dress with red satin trim, a dark brown hat and a small gold chain with a pendant. Archibald J. 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