Art Section 3 (Urban Entertainment During Prohibition)

What types of venues for popular entertainment appeared in American cities in the 1920s?

Dance halls, speakeasies, theaters, cafés, and more.

What gave the 1920s its nickname, the Jazz Age?

The prevalence of new forms of popular music.

What significant event and consequence coincided with the Jazz Age?

Prohibition and the rise of organized crime.

In what city and year was Archibald John Motley Jr. born?

New Orleans in 1891.

To what city did Motley's family relocate when he was three years old?

Chicago in 1894.

How did Motley's family's migration to Chicago differ from the Great Migration?

They were part of an earlier group of migrants who had often already built wealth and standing in their communities by the time of the Great Migration.

What was the socioeconomic status of the Motley family?

Lower middle class.

What was Archibald Motley Jr.'s mother's profession?

She had trained as a teacher.

What was Archibald Motley Jr.'s father's occupation?

He worked in a railroad buffet car.

What did Motley recall his maternal grandmother telling him about in a 1978 interview?

Her life as an enslaved person.

When did Motley recall his first experience of racism and where?

In 1918 while traveling through the South with his father.

Where did Motley study art and when did he graduate?

The prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating in 1918.

What were Motley's major artistic influences during his studies?

Historical rather than contemporary artists; he preferred "old masters" and Ashcan artists to abstract art.

What is the style and subject matter of Motley's work from the early 1920s?

Often painted in a naturalistic, academic style, focusing on intimate portraits of the city's affluent African-American community.

What type of women did Motley tend to focus on within the affluent African-American community in his early portraits?

Light-skinned, mixed-race women, whom he depicted as delicate, genteel, and pretty.

Name two early works by Motley that exemplify his focus on light-skinned women.

Mulatress with Figurine and Dutch Seascape (1920) and Octaroon Girl (1925).

What recognition did Motley receive for his work Octaroon Girl?

A medal from the Harmon Foundation.

What was the Harmon Foundation?

A white-run philanthropic organization with a mission of supporting Black artists.

What lifelong interest did Motley have regarding Black communities?

The varieties of skin color and physiognomy he found in them.

What questions have arisen regarding Motley's early preference for painting lighter-skinned individuals?

Whether he was embracing or critiquing colorism among Black Americans.

What is colorism?

When communities of color show cultural preferences for individuals with lighter skin.

How did Motley identify his own racial background?

As "Créole," a term mainly used in Louisiana to refer to a mixed-race person with both African and French ancestry.

Whom did Motley marry and where did they primarily live in Chicago?

He married an Italian American woman and lived in a primarily white neighborhood.

What was Motley's artistic commitment beyond depicting a specific racial type?

To painting diversities of appearance, skin tone, experience, and class identity, challenging stereotypical notions of "monolithic blackness."

What award did Motley win in 1929 that facilitated a trip abroad?

A fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation.

Where did Motley travel to with his Guggenheim fellowship and for approximately how long?

Paris, for about a year.

What dramatic shift occurred in Motley's art during his time in Paris?

He started more often to represent the modern nightlife of bars and clubs, and his color palette became saturated with brilliant hues.

What colors became prominent in Motley's Parisian works?

Brilliant turquoise, pink, and acid-green hues.

What did Motley express in his Parisian works?

The vibrancy of the expatriate Black American and Afro-French communities.

Name a work Motley created in Paris that depicts a nightclub catering to Black patrons.

Blues (1929), representing Le Bal Nègre.

What type of music was featured at Le Bal Nègre in Paris?

West Indian music.

Who were the typical patrons of Le Bal Nègre?

Black individuals from the United States, the Caribbean, and Francophone countries in West Africa.

After returning to Chicago in 1930, what increasingly influenced Motley's paintings?

Popular music, dance, and nightlife, depicted in cabarets, pool halls, and dance clubs.

When was Motley likely in Washington, D.C. for a teaching residency at Howard University?

1935.

What is the likely period in which Motley painted "Saturday Night"?

During his brief time in Washington, D.C. in 1935.

Describe the color palette of Motley's "Saturday Night."

Bold reds set against shades of brown, black, and gray.

What feeling does the color palette of "Saturday Night" create?

A vibrant energy.

What is another element in "Saturday Night" that expresses vibrant energy?

The restlessness of several of the figures.

Describe the dancer in the foreground of "Saturday Night."

A woman in a short red dress and daring high heels performing a dramatic dance.

Who is looking on at the dancer in "Saturday Night"?

A crowd of men and women of varying ages, skin tones, and body types.

What are some of the activities depicted at the tables in "Saturday Night"?

Groups and couples are seated drinking wine and cocktails.

Who are the figures in the upper right corner of "Saturday Night" and what are they doing?

Musicians playing piano, saxophones, and drums.

Describe the waiters in "Saturday Night."

Two white-jacketed waiters who dash around with precariously laden trays of drinks.

What compositional approach is typical of Motley's works showing music and dance, as seen in "Saturday Night"?

He interweaves and overlaps figures throughout the composition, creating a human rhythm to match the music's syncopated beat.

What action of the dancer in "Saturday Night" is echoed by a figure behind her?

Her outstretched left arm is echoed by a man drinking from a cocktail glass.

What propels one of the waiters forward in "Saturday Night"?

His manic energy with his tray.

What sense does the rhythmic movement of the people in "Saturday Night" evoke in relation to the music?

We can almost feel the bass in the music.

How does curator Denise Murrell describe works like Motley's "Saturday Night"?

As the African American community presenting itself as they saw themselves, with the jazz aesthetic, showing vivid colors of attire and nightlife, and a vibrant, lively, energetic lifestyle.

What does Motley's "Saturday Night" reference in terms of New Negro ideology?

The new entertainments that were part of the urban, modern orientation.

Name some of the spectacles that were part of the urban entertainment scene of the New Negro era.

Song and dance variety shows, musicals and plays, comedy revues, and live jazz and blues sets.

How did Black performers contribute to the entertainment traditions of the time?

They added to the traditions of music hall and vaudeville to create new forms of music born out of cross-cultural exchange.

Name two popular blues performers of the 1920s mentioned in the text.

Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey.

What was often characteristic of the lyrics of blues music, making it a subversive genre?

They were often racy and suggestive.

Name two jazz bandleaders of the era mentioned in the text.

Duke Ellington and Jelly Roll Morton.

What type of music did jazz bandleaders like Ellington and Morton play?

Energetic dance music.

What might Black musical revues at clubs excerpt songs from?

Stage musicals like Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake's Shuffle Along (1921).

What was significant about Shuffle Along?

It was the first Broadway hit with an all-Black cast and creative team.

Who participated in the new outpouring of Black popular culture?

Not just Black audiences but many white audiences as well.

What was notable about some venues like the Cotton Club in Harlem?

They were segregated, allowing Black Americans to participate only as performers, not audience members.

What feelings are often conveyed in Motley's art, fitting the nightclub milieu?

Jubilation and energy.

What did Motley sometimes skew into in his art?

Stereotype or exaggeration.

What potentially stereotypical elements are present in "Saturday Night"?

Some figures, like the seated man at the right, are shown with thick lips and large, grinning smiles, elements historically used in negative caricatures of Black Americans.

What was the opinion of important New Negro theorist Alain Locke regarding Motley's work?

He found Motley's work too broad, fearing the subtleties of his satire wouldn't translate to white audiences who might see only minstrelsy tropes.

What was Motley's goal in his work according to the text?

To explore histories of Black representation in America, both positive and negative.

What did Motley incorporate into his work?

Both stereotypical and more nuanced representations of African-American people.

What did Motley's paintings transform complex racial dynamics into?

Paintings that express the energy, difference, and drama in Black communities with diverse individuals.

What did Motley state about the diversity of color in his group paintings in a 1978 interview?

He tried to give each individual in a group a slightly different color and individual character.

Until what decade did Motley maintain his representation of Black nightlife?

The 1960s.

Name two later works by Motley that show a continuation of his characteristic style and themes.

Nightlife (1943) and Hot Rhythm (1961).

When did Archibald John Motley Jr. pass away?

1981.

What is the current status of many of Motley's most iconic works in terms of exhibition?

They remain in private collections and have not been widely exhibited since his death.

What event in 2014 brought new attention to Motley's work?

A retrospective curated by Richard J. Powell.

In what major 2024 exhibition were several of Motley's works featured?

"The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In what state and year was Thomas Hart Benton born?

Missouri in 1889.

Where did Thomas Hart Benton first study art?

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Where did Benton study art between 1908 and 1911?

Paris.

Which prominent Mexican muralist did Benton meet in Paris?

Diego Rivera.

Where did Benton move in 1913 and what kind of work did he do there?

New York, working as a set designer and painter of movie backdrops.

How did Benton's work painting movie backdrops influence his art?

The scale required accustomed him to painting large compositions, a talent he used in his mural projects.

What was Benton's artistic goal in terms of national identity?

To foster a "national" art that would focus on themes, stories, and characters from a pluralistic American history.

What was the political affiliation of Benton's family?

Politically conservative.

What was the political leaning of Benton's great uncle and namesake?

A senator known for his nativist policies.

What political movement was Benton affiliated with in the 1920s?

The Socialist movement.

When did Benton disavow his earlier political affiliation and what did he embrace instead?

In the 1930s, he embraced more moderate politics.

Where did Benton teach from 1926 to 1935?

The Art Students League in New York City.

Who was one of Benton's notable students at the Art Students League?

Jackson Pollock.

Despite his travels, what is Benton considered in terms of artistic regionalism?

A Midwestern artist.

What type of subjects did Benton often choose to paint?

Rural or regional subjects.

Where did Benton spend the later part of his career teaching?

The Art Institute of Kansas City in his native Missouri.

Describe Benton's unique figural style.

Exaggerated and elongated forms that move toward abstraction, yet his art remained narrative and illustrative.

What kind of themes did Benton showcase in his art?

Themes from modern life and American history.

In what year did Thomas Hart Benton pass away?

1975.

What is the title of the selected work by Benton from the series America Today?

City Activities with Dance Hall.

What era does City Activities with Dance Hall dramatically represent?

The Prohibition Era.

What lens does Benton use to depict the Prohibition Era in this mural?

Urban popular entertainments.

When did Benton complete his decade-long project American Historical Epic?

1928.

What was notable about Benton's American Historical Epic?

It was one of the first artworks by a European American artist to look critically at histories of colonialism against Native Americans and enslavement of Black Americans.

How did fellow artist Boardman Robinson describe Benton's American Historical Epic?

As "extremely shocking" (meant as a compliment).

What was the sales history of Benton's American Historical Epic during his lifetime?

The panels never sold.

What trajectory did American Historical Epic set Benton's career on?

Representing narratives from a uniquely American mythology through the lens of social history.