Richard J. Powell on "Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist"
Among twentieth-century artists the Chicago painter Archibald John Motley, Jr. (1891-1981) is surely one of the most important and, also, one of the most enigmatic. Ackland regulars will recognize his painting Mending Socks (1924), a favorite of many. But this work is only one side of the artist's prolific career.
This talk will bring Motley's art into sharp focus, showing how he raised the ante on the Harlem Renaissance refrain of racial uplift via pictorial satire and a fierce visuality.
Richard J. Powell is the John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University, where he has taught since 1989.
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Tea at Two is supported in part by the generosity of Shirley Drechsel and Wayne Vaughn.