Roamings of a Leo: Archibald Motley Paintings at LACMA

I viewed an exhibit of paintings by Archibald Motley called "Jazz Age Modernist" at Los Angeles County Museum of Art last week. I had seen a few of his paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago where he studied in the 1920's. He was one of the African American artists who emerged from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's, a period of heightened artistic creativity among Black artists in New York and other cities. The description of the Motley exhibit states that his paintings are brilliant yet idiosyncratic with neon hues that are dynamic compositions. It also states that Motley interjected satire from the life of some African Americans in Chicago with hues caused by incandescent and fluorescent lighting that informed the artist's bold color choices, representing "the world in all its chromatic splendor."

Motley was born in New Orleans in 1891, lived and worked mostly on Chicago's South Side, with work in Paris and and Mexico. He died in Chicago in 1981.

Steve Appleford of the L.A. Times wrote in his review today that Curator Richard J. Powell calls Motley a "pioneering provocateur" who dealt with "subject matter that might that might have been considered politically incorrect." Motley began his career by painting portraits of his friends and family that the reviewer called "richly detailed portraits of weight and dignity." Motley shifted to painting canvases that were crowded with people engaged with the culture from strip joints to the pulpit during the Jazz period of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. In the L.A. Times article, the curator stated that Motley was one of the few African American artists who said "I'm going to have fun, I'm going to do subjects that make people laugh or smile to themselves."

Here are my photos of some of the paintings on display:

"Blues," 1929

"Portrait of My Grandmother" 1922

Grandmother at work

"Tongues (Holy Rollers)," 1929
This painting reveals a crescendo moment in a Pentecostal church service in the South side of Chicago known as Bronzeville. Motley s described as a devoted Roman Catholic but found churches like these fascinating subjects for art.

"Town of Hope," 1927. The description states that the painting's title evokes an idealized vision of small-town optimism with streams of black migrants from the south. The mood of the painting is one of unease, trepidation and upheaval

"The Plotters," 1933

"Portrait of a Cultured Lady," 1938
This is a portrait of on of Chicago's first African American art dealers, Edna Powell Gayle (1900-1984).

"Cafe, Paris," 1929
Motley was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1929-1930 and studied art in Paris where he captured the essence of bohemian life.

"The Boys in the Back Room (Card Players)," 1934

"Sunday in the Park," 1941

"The Argument," 1940

"Another Mexican Baby," 1953-54, oil on woven potato mat.

"Barbecue," 1936

"Saturday Night," 1935

"Carnival," 1937

"Black Belt," 1934
The other term used to describe the African American community of Chicago was "The Black Belt." In this and in the previous painting Motley paints a fat bald man physically absorbing the urban energy and human activity that surround him.

"Self-Portrait (Myself at Work)," 1933

"Street Scene, Chicago," 1936

"Playground (Recess)," 1940
The painting description identifies Motley's visual shorthand for African American physical features - black skin, wide red lips, and white teeth...racial stereotyping.

"The Picnic," 1936

"The Arrival at Chickasaw Bayou of the Slaves of President Davis," 1938
Motley painted this during the time he was working for the Works Progress Administration. The painting satirizes an engraving that showed the president of the Confederate States of America arriving with his entourage.