Archibald Motley: Another Man of the Harlem Renaissance

Archibald Motley is considered one of the major contributors to the artwork that was produced during the Harlem Renaissance. I chose this particular painting of his because it reminds of the Cotton Club...for black people. The people in this painting are not entertaining a white crowd with their "exotic" dance moves; they are having a good time and enjoying themselves. It's like their own little world where they can escape their problems. That's why I like this painting, it shows the good times that black people had in the 1920s...it's positive and a stark contrast to pictures of young black men being lynched that often circulated around the country at the time. The painting is simply beautiful and is one of my favorites. I like the colors that he uses, especially different colors that he uses for skin tone. There are different shades of black and it makes the not so diverse crowd look diverse. The details that Motley put into the painting is also very good. Not only does he put emphasis and detail into the people, but the bar as well. It's like Motley just sat down at club and painted what he saw, it's that realistic. Another painting of Motley's that I'm fond of is Mending Socks. It is a painting of an elderly woman mending a pair of socks. I like this painting because it reminds me of my late great- great grand mama Kaiser. She was very frail like the elderly woman in this picture and I can picture her mending the socks of my great-grandmother and so forth. It's painting that reminds me of my family and a part of everyday life that I did not get to witness because it was ahead of my time. Just like the painting that talked about earlier, Motley uses great detail to draw the viewer in. The items on the table, the picture hanging on the wall, and Jesus Christ on the Cross...all very vivid details of the room in which this elderly woman is sitting in.