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Archibald Motley, Sr. 18911981 Artist
There is nothing borrowed, nothing copied, just an unraveling of the Negro soul. So, why should the Negro painter mimic that which the white man is doing, when he has such an enormous colossal field practically all his own; portraying his people, historically, dramatically, hilariously, but honestly.
from The Negro in Art
Archibald J. Motley, Jr. was one of the first American painters who devoted his career primarily to African-American subject matter and one of the first successful black artists in this century.
Motleys paintings were frank representations of black life. His work ranged from sensitive portraits to stylized street and cabaret scenes.
Motley lived and painted in his family home at 350 West 60th Street for most of his life. He graduated from Englewood High School in 1914 and from The Art Institute of Chicago in 1918. During this time he worked with his father on the railroad and painted in the evenings.
In 1924, Motley married his high school sweetheart, a German-American named Edith Granzo. A year later, he received prizes from the Art Institute for two paintings, and his solo exhibition in New York in 1928 sold 22 of 26 paintings. A Guggenheim Fellowship in 1929 enabled him to study in Paris.
Throughout the 1930s and 40s, Motley participated in many important exhibitions. The year before his death, he was honored by President Jimmy Carter at a White House reception.