Archibald John Motley, Jr.
Archibald Motley was a painter that made big contributions to the Harlem Renaissance. Motley was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 2, 1891, and died in 1981. Even though his work was very popular in the Harlem Renaissance, he never lived there. He lived in a white neighborhood in Chicago for most of his life. Because his family had money, he went to the Art Institute of Chicago. After winning a Guggenheim fellowship in 1929, Motley left for Paris. He went to the Louvre and was exposed to the paintings from the European Renaissance in the 1500s. Motley was greatly inspired by the sophistication and the deep meaning that was put into the paintings. In his own paintings, he liked to include crowded nightclubs or social gatherings. He also wanted to give it the sophisticated look just like the paintings he saw in the Louvre. He was greatly influenced by the Jazz culture during the 1920s. He always had African Americans in the paintings and wanted to keep a modern flair to them. Motley was awarded the Harmon Foundation award in 1928. He was one of the first African Americans to have a one-man exhibition in New York City. Archibald Motley, a great man, lived to be one of the most memorable people from the Harlem Renaissance.