Research Catalog

Archibald Motley Jr. and racial reinvention : the old negro in new negro art

Title
Archibald Motley Jr. and racial reinvention : the old negro in new negro art / Phoebe Wolfskill.
Author
Wolfskill, Phoebe
Publication
Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2017]

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library Sc E 17-1150Schomburg Center - Research & Reference

Details

Description
xiii, 217 pages : illustrations (some color); 24 cm.
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.
Series Statement
The new Black studies series
Uniform Title
New Black studies series.
Subject
  • Motley, Archibald John, Jr., 1891-1981 > Criticism and interpretation
  • African Americans in art
  • Ethnicity in art
  • African American art > Themes, motives
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and index.
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.
Call Number
Sc E 17-1150
ISBN
  • 9780252041143
  • 0252041143
LCCN
2017001124
OCLC
968346180
Author
Wolfskill, Phoebe, author.
Title
Archibald Motley Jr. and racial reinvention : the old negro in new negro art / Phoebe Wolfskill.
Publisher
Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2017]
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Series
The new Black studies series
New Black studies series.
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Research Call Number
Sc E 17-1150
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