Synopses & Reviews
Featuring more than 200 color illustrations, the catalogue
Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist accompanies the first full-scale survey of the work of Archibald Motley, on view at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University from January 30, 2014, through May 11, 2014. Archibald John Motley, Jr., was an American painter, master colorist, and radical interpreter of urban culture. Among twentieth-century American artists, Motley is surely one of the most important and, paradoxically, also one of the most enigmatic. Born in New Orleans in 1891, Motley spent the first half of the twentieth century living and working in a predominately white neighborhood on Chicagoand#39;s South Side, just blocks away from the cityand#39;s burgeoning black community. During his formative years, Chicagoand#39;s African American population increased dramatically, and he was both a witness to and a visual chronicler of that expansion. In 1929 he won a Guggenheim Fellowship, which funded a critical year of study in France, where he painted Blues and other memorable pictures of Paris. In the 1950s, Motley made several lengthy visits to Mexico, where his nephew, the well-known novelist Willard F. Motley, lived. While there, Motley created vivid depictions of Mexican life and landscapes. He died in Chicago in 1981.and#160;Motleyand#39;s brilliant yet idiosyncratic paintingsandmdash;simultaneously expressionist and social realistandmdash;have captured worldwide attention with their rainbow-hued, syncopated compositions. The exhibition includes the artistand#39;s depictions of African American life in early-twentieth-century Chicago, as well as his portraits and archetypes, portrayals of African American life in Jazz Age Paris, and renderings of 1950s Mexico. The catalogue includes an essay by Richard J. Powell, organizer and curator of Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist, as well as contributions from other scholars examining the life, work, and legacy of one of twentieth-century Americaand#39;s most significant artists.and#160;After debuting at the Nasher Museum of Art, the exhibition will travel to other museums across the country: the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; Chicago Cultural Center, Illinois; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.and#160;Contributors: Davarian L. Baldwin, David C. Driskell, Olivier Meslay, Amy M. Mooney, Richard J. Powell, Ishmael Reedand#160;Publication of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke Universityand#160;
Review
andquot;This volume gives readers an Archibald Motley who is answerable to his own present. . . . supplemented with invaluable contextual materials. . . . Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers.andquot;
Review
andldquo;Chicago, Paris, Mexico, the Jazz Age through the mid-century andmdash; itandrsquo;s hard to imagine better fuel for Motleyandrsquo;s artistic energy. This exhibition and the accompanying catalogue offer a chance to slow down and contemplate these captures of African-American culture, with the contradictions in Motleyandrsquo;s work reflecting the complications of his own identity, as well as those of his subjects.andrdquo;
Review
“Anyone with an eye for beauty will appreciate the art . . . it speaks of suffering, and it speaks of hope. This is a wonderfully crafted book both in terms of the writing, but also in terms of the beautiful illustrations rendered by Jemisin himself.” —Jim Coplen, author, The Wild Birds' Song
Synopsis
Featuring 140 color illustrations, the catalogue Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist accompanies the first full-scale survey of the work of the American painter and master colorist Archibald Motley (1891and#8211;1981).
Synopsis
Inspired by the forgotten burial ground discovered in lower Manhattan, this book tells the story of the first African American New Yorkers through 25 beautiful gouache paintings and striking prose. Opening with an essay that sets the tone, the book brings history alive with emotion through powerful imagery, and plays with size and placement of the images to convey a unique feel. It concludes with an interview with the painter where he discusses what life is like for an artist, how he views the art world’s acceptance of him as a black artist, and his feelings on artist collaboration.
About the Author
Richard J. Powell is the John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University. He teaches courses in American art, the arts of the African Diaspora, and contemporary visual studies, and writes extensively on topics ranging from primitivism to postmodernism. His books include African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, and Beyond (with Virginia Mecklenburg), Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture, and Black Art: A Cultural History. He was Editor-in-Chief of The Art Bulletin from 2007 until 2010.