Nightlife

1943

Archibald John Motley Jr.
American, 1891–1981

Chicago painter Archibald Motley represented the vibrancy of African American culture, frequently portraying young, sophisticated city dwellers out on the town. Nightlife depicts a crowded cabaret in the South Side neighborhood of Bronzeville, with people seated around tables and at the bar. The clock reads one o’clock, and the place is still hopping with drinkers and dancers. Two bartenders serve customers and restock the well-lit display of liquor, and couples dance furiously in the background to music provided by the jukebox at the right. The strange head atop the jukebox may be a peanut-vending machine known as “Smilin’ Sam from Alabam’”; when a coin was inserted into the head and the tongue was pulled, the machine would dispense peanuts. Motley unified the composition through his use of repeated forms and a pervasive burgundy tone that bathes the entire scene in intense, unnatural light. (The artist had seen Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks at the Art Institute the year before and was intrigued by his use of artificial light.) The stylized figures are tightly interconnected; they are arranged along a sharp diagonal that compresses the space into a stagelike setting. The dynamic composition and heightened colors vividly express the liveliness of the scene, making Nightlife one of Motley’s most celebrated paintings.

On View: American Art, Gallery 263

Artist: Archibald John Motley Jr.
Title: Nightlife
Origin: United States
Date: 1943
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed and dated lower right: A. J. MOTLEY / 1943
Dimensions: 91.4 × 121.3 cm (36 × 47 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Restricted gift of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Field, Jack and Sandra Guthman, Ben W. Heineman, Ruth Horwich, Lewis and Susan Manilow, Beatrice C. Mayer, Charles A. Meyer, John D. Nichols, and Mr. and Mrs. E.B. Smith Jr.; James W. Alsdorf Memorial Fund; Goodman Endowment
Reference Number: 1992.89
Copyright: © Valerie Gerrard Browne / Chicago History Museum / Bridgeman Images

African Americans in Art: Selections from The Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, 24, 2, (1992), 177–179, fig. 11, 177.
Wayne Craven, “An Awakening,” American Art, 11, 2 (Summer, 1997), 42–44.
Amy M. Mooney, “Representing Race: Disjunctures in the Work of Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 24, 2 (1999), 162–179, fig. 11.
Andrea D. Barnwell and Kirsten P. Buick, “A Portfolio of Works by African American Artists Continuing the Dialogue: A Work in Progress,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 24, 2 (1999), 185–186.
Amy Mooney, Archibald J. Motley Jr. (San Francisco: Pomegranate, 2004), 88, pl. 40 p. 90.
Judith A. Barter et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2009), cat. 146.

Chicago Historical Society, The Art of Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Oct 23, 1991–Mar 17, 1992, no. 51; traveled to New York, Studio Museum of Harlem, Apr 5–Jun 10, 1992; Atlanta, High Museum, Jun 29–Sep 25, 1992; Washington DC, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Oct 10, 1992–Jan 3, 1993, cat. 51.
Art Institute of Chicago, Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine, Nov 10, 2013–Jan 27, 2014; traveled to Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Feb 22–May 18, 2014, cat. 40.
Art Institute of Chicago, They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, 1910–1950, Mar 3–Jun 3, 2013, cat. 33.
Durham, North Carolina, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist, Jan 30–Jun 1, 2014; traveled to Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum of Art, Jun 14–Sep 7, 2014; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Oct 19, 2014–Feb 1, 2015; Chicago Cultural Center, Mar 6–Aug 31, 2015; Whitney Museum of American Art, Fall 2015–Spring 2016 (Fort Worth only).

Archibald J. Motley, Jr., 1943. Costella M. Gwin, by 1985; by descent to Deborah Gwin Hill, Chicago, 1985; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago 1992.