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.
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 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
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, 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; 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, cat. 51.
Art Institute of Chicago, Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine, Nov. 10, 2013–Jan. 27, 2014; 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–June 3, 2013, cat. 33.
Durham, North Carolina, 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).
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.).
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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