Archibald Motley Jr. and Racial Reinvention : the old negro in new negro art / Phoebe Wolfskill.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wolfskill, Phoebe, author.

Series:

The New Black Studies Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motley, Archibald John, Jr., 1891-1981--Criticism and interpretation.

Motley, Archibald John.

African Americans in art.

Ethnicity in art.

African American art--Themes, motives.

African American art.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (197 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Urbana, Chicago, Springfield, [Illinois] : University of Illinois Press, 2017.

Summary:

An essential African American artist of his era, Archibald Motley Jr. created paintings of black Chicago that aligned him with the revisionist aims of the New Negro Renaissance. Yet Motley's approach to constructing a New Negro--a dignified figure both accomplished and worthy of respect--reflected the challenges faced by African American artists working on the project of racial reinvention and uplift. Phoebe Wolfskill demonstrates how Motley's art embodied the tenuous nature of the Black Renaissance and the wide range of ideas that structured it. Focusing on key works in Motley's oeuvre, Wolfskill reveals the artist's complexity and the variety of influences that informed his work. Motley's paintings suggest that the racist, problematic image of the Old Negro was not a relic of the past but an influence that pervaded the Black Renaissance. Exploring Motley in relation to works by notable black and non-black contemporaries, Wolfskill reinterprets Motley's oeuvre as part of a broad effort to define American cultural identity through race, class, gender, religion, and regional affiliation.

Contents:

The New Negro and Racial Reinvention

The Art of Assimilation

Migration, Class, and Black Religiosity

"Humor Ill-Advised, If Not Altogether Tasteless?" Stereotype and the New Negro

Old and New Negroes, Continued : Betye Saar and Kara Walker.

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780252099700

0252099702

OCLC:

969199638