Self-Portrait

Arts of the Americas

c. 1920

Archibald John Motley Jr. (American, 1891–1981)

Chicagoan Archibald Motley attended the School of the Art Institute at a time when many prominent art academies denied entrance to African American students. His affiliation with the school was thus of great significance to him. Around 1920, as a recent graduate, he painted a self-portrait meant to introduce him as a poised young artist, elegantly presenting himself in a dark suit jacket, crisp white shirt, and a dark tie accented by a diamond horseshoe pin. Furthermore, Motley painted this work following race riots in July 1919, which had heightened tensions in Chicago. The violence convinced him that he should use his art to influence perceptions of African Americans in a positive manner. This sophisticated self-portrait is thus an extraordinary declaration of his goals and ambitions.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Archibald John Motley Jr.
Title: Self-Portrait
Place: Chicago (Object made in)
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.: c. 1920
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed recto, top-left corner, on background, in brown pigment: "A. J. MOTLEY JR."
Dimensions: 76.3 × 56 cm (30 1/8 × 22 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Through prior acquisitions of Friends of American Art Collection; through prior bequest of Marguerita S. Ritman
Reference Number: 1995.239
Copyright: © Valerie Gerrard Browne / Chicago History Museum / Bridgeman Images

Jontyle Theresa Robinson and Wendy Greenhouse, The Art of Archibald J. Motley, Jr., exh. cat. (Chicago Historical Society, 1991), 72, cat. 6 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago Department of Museum Education, Many Faces: Modern Portraits and Identities (1997), cover ill., 24 (ill.), 25, 42 (ill.).
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. 1.
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.
Amy Mooney, Archibald J. Motley Jr. (San Francisco: Pomegranate, 2004), 4–11, pl. 1 (ill.).
Jean Sousa, Faces, Places, Inner Spaces, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2006).
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. 145.
Sarah Kelly Oehler, They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2013), 36–38, cat. 24 (ill.).
Yang Zhigang, ed., Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865–1945, exh. cat. (Shanghai: Shanghai Book and Painting Press, 2018), cat. 35.
Jordan Carter and Sarah Kelly Oehler, “Black Art Matters to This Prominent Museum,” interview by Wendy Altschuler, Forbes, June 8, 2020, https://forbes.com/sites/wendyaltschuler/2020/06/08/black-art-matters-to-this-prominent-museum (ill.).
Denise Murrell et al., The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism, exh. cat. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2024), 188, cat. 42 (ill.).

Chicago Historical Society, The Art of Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Oct. 23, 1991–Mar. 17, 1992, cat. 6; NY, Studio Museum of Harlem, Apr. 5–June 10, 1992; Atlanta, GA, High Museum, June 29–Sept. 25, 1992; Washington, DC, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Oct. 10, 1992–Jan. 3, 1993.
Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, On Process: Studio Themes, Jan. 12–Mar. 4, 2001, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, Kraft Education Center, Faces, Places, Inner Spaces, Jun. 14, 2006–Jul. 8, 2007, cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, 1910–1950, Mar. 3–June 3, 2013, cat. 24.
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 (Chicago only), no cat.
Shanghai Museum, Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865–1945, Sept. 28, 2018–Jan. 6, 2019, cat. 35.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism, Feb. 25–July 28, 2024, cat. 42.

Archibald J. Motley, Jr.; to his sister, Mrs. Flossie Motley, Chicago; to her daughter, Charlotte C. Duplessis, Chicago; [Robert Henry Adams Fine Art], sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1995.

Educator Resource Packet: Self-Portrait by Archibald J. Motley, Jr.

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