Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist at the Whitney

Archibald Motley (b. Amer 1891-1981) is an African Amer. painter during the Harlem Renaissance whose paintings & portraits transcends race by painting whites/blacks in harmonious social settings, until the end of his painting career.  The self-portrait that confronts you as you enter his retrospective depicts an artist of ambigious race.  There is a portrait of his black father, mixed race mother and white wife in the same room.  The rubesque nude of his wife is direct & unabashed.  There are several other portraits of women, both black & white in the same gallery.  Note a regal, black woman in purple dress with the title "A Woman of Culture."  The portraits in the following gallery show social settings of people of mixed races enjoying themselves.  His maternal grandmother was born a slave and Archibald listened to her talk about her life.  He was raised in an affluent middle class white suburb of Chicago.  He married his high school girlfriend, a woman of German heritage whose parents disavowed the couple.  Motley was the 1st African Amer to have a 1 man exhibit in NYC in 1928.  He commented on race as to its influence on an artist "I say that racism is the 1st thing that they have to get out of their heads.  Forget about this damned racism.  That means nothing to an artist."  There are colorful, exciting jazz scenes that are vibrant and celebretory.  Motley experienced racism later in life while traveling by train in the south.  His experience was reflected in subject matter.  He painted the handling of slaves landing from British East Africa.  The final painting in the gallery "The First 100 Years" (1972) clearly depicts hateful racial persecution and hatred.  This retrospective of Motley's paintings are noteworthy for his skill as an artist and for his focus on skin tones rather race.