A palpable energy and sense of movement enliven Nightlife, Archibald Motley’s portrayal of a crowded cabaret in the South Side neighborhood of Bronzeville in Chicago. With stylized figures, an array of diagonal lines, and heightened colors keyed to shades of magenta and violet, the artist captured the exuberance of city dwellers out on the town. Motley created a network of gestures and glances among the people, drawing attention to the various social interactions that animate the scene.
The composition is an exploration of artificial lighting. Motley was inspired, in part, to paint Nightlife after having seen Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks (1942.51), which had entered the Art Institute’s collection the prior year.
Status
On loan to Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minneapolis for Permanent Collection
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
Purchased with funds provided by Jamee J. and 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. Edward Byron Smith, Jr.; James W. Alsdorf Memorial Fund; Goodman Endowment Fund
Jontyle Theresa Robinson and Wendy Greenhouse, The Art of Archibald J. Motley, Jr., exh. cat. (Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 1991), 123, cat. 51.
“African Americans in Art: Selections from The Art Institute of Chicago,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, 24, no. 2 (1992): 177–179, fig. 11 (ill.).
Wayne Craven, “An Awakening,” American Art, 11, no. 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, no. 2 (1999): 162–179, fig. 11 (ill.).
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, no. 2 (1999): 185–186.
Amy Mooney, Archibald J. Motley Jr. (San Francisco: Pomegranate, 2004), 88, 90, pl. 40 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), cat. 146.
Judith Barter et al., Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2013), 132–33, 224, cat. 40, fig. 28 (ill.).
Sarah Kelly Oehler, They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2013), 46–47, cat. 33 (ill.).
Denise Murrell et al., The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism, exh. cat. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2024), 18–20, 243, cat. 96, fig. 10 (ill.).
Chicago Historical Society, The Art of Archibald J. Motley Jr., Oct. 23, 1991–Mar. 17, 1992, cat. 51; New York, Studio Museum of Harlem, Apr. 5–June 10, 1992; Atlanta, High Museum, June 29–Sept. 25, 1992; Washington DC, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Oct. 10, 1992–Jan. 3, 1993.
Durham, NC, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist, Jan. 30–June 1, 2014; Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum of Art, June 14–Sept. 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, Oct. 2, 2015–Jan. 17, 2016 (Fort Worth only), no cat.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Afro-Atlantic Histories, Oct. 24, 2021–Jan. 17, 2022; Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, Apr. 10–July 17, 2022 (Washington only), not in cat.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism, Feb. 25–July 28, 2024, cat. 96.
Costella M. Gwin, by 1985 [Robinson and Greenhouse 1991, 141]; by descent to Deborah Gwin Hill, Chicago, 1985; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago 1992.
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