By 1929, Archibald Motley had begun to develop a reputation as an artist, attracting critical praise along with patrons actually willing to purchase his work. Born in New Orleans in 1891, Motley was raised in Chicago and continued to live there after graduation from the city’s School of the Art Institute. He was therefore not a true Harlem Renaissance member like painters Romare Bearden and Aaron Douglas, and he even felt that certain New York African-American artists were as “jealous of me as they can be.” Following a major New York gallery show in 1928, Motley sensed that Harlem-based artists were displeased that a Chicagoan had been featured in a solo exhibit on what was essentially their turf.
In Black and White
Motley’s frequent sense of disenfranchisement stemmed from various factors. He was of African-American, Creole and Native American descent, yet he grew up in a primarily white neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. He later married his white high school sweetheart, a union which at the time was not favorably viewed by either African-Americans or Caucasians. Due to his own mixed heritage, Motley was relatively light-skinned, and throughout his life he would always take keen note of the many nuances in skin tone among people of color. And while Motley generally focused on portraying African-Americans in his work, he was unhappily aware of the fact that most of his early critical and financial support came from whites.
In Motley’s Guggenheim application, he expressed beliefs that further artwork portraying “the Negro” would “bring about better relations…between the races, white and colored.” In the summer of 1929, Motley and his wife Edith headed for France on a one-year Guggenheim Fellowship. Initial racist comments followed shortly after their arrival, with Motley being called something less than desirable by two young Americans in Paris. Fortunately, this bigotry remained limited to the visiting Americans and the Motleys found the French to be far more hospitable.
Paris Life
During Motley’s sojourn abroad, he visited the Louvre often, contemplated Parisian passersby and observed the city’s various night clubs and cafes. Significant paintings from the period were Café, Paris, Dans la Rue, and the captivating Blues. Blues is a nightclub scene, combining jazz musicians and patrons dancing in a tightly-composed arrangement. In Blues, Motley made a point to not include any African-Americans, even though the painting is often considered to be an example of African-Americans in art. Motley had found a club called The Petite Café that was frequented by Africans, West Indians and French, and he celebrated their range of skin tones, making sketches and watching the action quietly from the sidelines.
Motley seemed to prefer keeping to the sidelines in general while in Paris, avoiding contact with other African-American artists in Paris like Palmer Hayden and Hale Woodruff. Motley stayed clear of the well-established painter Henry Ossawa Tanner as well, even though Tanner was also married to a Caucasian woman. Tanner had moved to France to escape American racial strife, however, and Motley may have felt that Tanner was hiding from reality and not proving himself on native ground.
When Motley’s wife Edith returned to the States for medical reasons, he felt lonely and missed her intensely, but he did not stray far from his Montmartre studio during her absence. He worked diligently instead, producing the kind of paintings cited in his Guggenheim application, namely African-American themed scenes like Sharks (Playing Poker) and Spirituals. He also did portraits of a strikingly dark Senegalese boy and a Haitian model dressed in a traditional costume of Martinique. When Edith came back to Paris, Motley painted her portraits too—both in the nude and in a stylish cloche hat and fur wrap. The candid nude did not bother Edith, but she reportedly refused to allow Motley to exhibit the more dour dressed-up painting.
No Place Like Chicago
Motley incorporated French inspiration into his style, but he did not seek French critical approval. All of his Paris works were sent back to the United States for exhibit there, particularly in Chicago. And while Motley would insist that his time overseas had only minimal influence on his work, there does seem to be more of a sleek, smooth, coolly hot power to the paintings done during and after the Guggenheim period.
The Guggenheim Foundation gave Motley the option of continuing his fellowship when its term came to an end, but Motley did not accept the offer. He had not been liberated by the expatriate lifestyle and was frankly just eager to leave, later recalling: "I wanted to be home. I can't find any place like Chicago. You know, I love this place."
Sources
- New Negro Artists in Paris – Theresa Leininger-Miller (Rutgers University Press, 2001)
- Oral History Interview with Archibald Motley – Smithsonian Archives of American Art
- Archibald Motley – PBS Online
