"The Space Between" The Lasting Influence of Archibald J. Motley, Jr.

With the nationally touring exhibition, Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist, the recent purchase of works by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the paintings of Archibald Motley are widely recognized as significant representations of Black modern subjectivity. His approach to portraiture, humor and the urban scene have had a lasting impact on contemporary art. As contemporary painter Candida Alvarez once commented, what interested her about Motley was “the space between,” the way he rendered and collapsed form, offering an image that was simultaneously precarious yet static, unsettling yet familiar. For this panel, I invite scholars and artists to consider the lasting impact of this American modernist within our contemporary moment, looking broadly from the work of representational artists such as Amy Sherald to the abstractions of Rashid Johnson, or perhaps more nuanced connections that have yet to be considered.