Archibald Motley

Archibald John Motley, Jr., was an American visual artist. Motley is most famous for his colorful chronicling of the African-American experience in Chicago during the 1920s through 1940s, and is considered one of the major contributors to the Harlem Renaissance or New Negro Movement, a time in which African-American art reached new heights not just in New York but across America—its local expression is referred to as the Chicago Black Renaissance. Born in New Orleans and raised in Chicago, Motley studied painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago during the 1910s, graduating in 1918.