Details

Subject(s)

• Motley, Archibald John Jr. 1891-1981—Criticism and interpretation [Browse]
• African Americans in art [Browse]
• Ethnicity in art [Browse]
• African American art—Themes, motives [Browse]

Series

• New Black studies series [More in this series]
• New Black studies series. [More in this series]
• The new Black studies series

Summary note

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.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Action note

Committed to retain in perpetuity — ReCAP Shared Collection (HUL)

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.

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Other title(s)

Project Muse UPCC books

ISBN

• 9780252041143 (hardcover ; : alkaline paper)
• 0252041143 (hardcover ; : alkaline paper)

LCCN

^^2017001124

OCLC

968346180

Other standard number

40027417139

RCP

H - S

Statement on responsible collection description

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