Episode 517: Archibald Motley, Tracie Hall, and Amy Mooney

by | Jul 27, 2015 | Podcast


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Oil on canvas, 31.875 x 39.25 inches (81 x 99.7 cm). Collection of Mara Motley, MD, and Valerie Gerrard Browne. Image courtesy of the Chicago History Museum, Illinois. © Valerie Gerrard Browne.

Oil on canvas, 31.875 x 39.25 inches (81 x 99.7 cm). Collection of Mara Motley, MD, and Valerie Gerrard Browne. Image courtesy of the Chicago History Museum, Illinois. © Valerie Gerrard Browne.

 

Archibald J. Motley Jr., Self-Portrait (Myself at Work), 1933. Oil on canvas, 57.125 x 45.25 inches (145.1 x 114.9 cm). Collection of Mara Motley, MD, and Valerie Gerrard Browne. Image courtesy of the Chicago History Museum, Illinois. © Valerie Gerrard Browne.

Archibald J. Motley Jr., Self-Portrait (Myself at Work), 1933. Oil on canvas, 57.125 x 45.25 inches (145.1 x 114.9 cm). Collection of Mara Motley, MD, and Valerie Gerrard Browne. Image courtesy of the Chicago History Museum, Illinois. © Valerie Gerrard Browne.

 

Archibald J. Motley Jr., Blues, 1929. Oil on canvas, 36 x 42 inches (91.4 x 106.7 cm). Collection of Mara Motley, MD, and Valerie Gerrard Browne. Image courtesy of the Chicago History Museum, Illinois. © Valerie Gerrard Browne.

Archibald J. Motley Jr., Blues, 1929. Oil on canvas, 36 x 42 inches (91.4 x 106.7 cm). Collection of Mara Motley, MD, and Valerie Gerrard Browne. Image courtesy of the Chicago History Museum, Illinois. © Valerie Gerrard Browne.

This week things get crazy. We check in from inside the Cultural Center with Tracie Hall and Amy Mooney. Together we look into the heart of the building, the city, and explore the legacy of Archibald Motley.
This weeks show is dedicated to Paul Woodrow. Our hearts go out to his family.

Motley’s show is still up. Go check it out.

UPCOMING EVENTS

August 6th, 6:00-7:00 pm, Chicago Artists and Authors Respond to the Art of Archibald Motley: Cándida Alvarez

Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, Sidney Yates Gallery, 4th Floor North

For this series of informal gallery talks, Chicago artists and authors are invited to reflect on how this modern master influences their own work. Painter Cándida Alvarez will join art historian Amy Mooney in a conversation about the space, form, and meaning in the paintings of Motley as well as her own large, abstract canvases.Presented by Columbia College Chicago in collaboration with the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events as part of the ongoing city-wide cultural program, The Art of Archibald Motley: Connect, Collaborate, & Create. Learn more about the dynamic ways that our faculty, staff, students, and community at large has engaged the themes, innovations, and vision of this African American Chicago painter at colum.edu/motley

Sunday, August 16th 4:00-6:00 pm: Archibald Motley and the Matter of Film, Part III

Chicago Cultural Center, Claudia Cassidy Theatre, 2nd Floor North

In partnership with the Chicago Cultural Center and Columbia College Chicago, Black Cinema House is proud to present Archibald Motley and the Matter of Film, a three-part film series that complements the Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center and explores how the formal and thematic concerns of filmmakers from the 1920s-1940s; including uses of light and color; images of city life; and portraits of race, align with the formal and thematic endeavors of the painter Archibald Motley. Curated by Dr. Romi Crawford (School of the Art Institute and Co-Chair of the Chicago Film Archives), each event consists of a screening followed by a brief response by a local filmmaker, artist, or scholar. The first two installments of this series will take place at Black Cinema House, while the third and final screening will be held at the Chicago Cultural Center and also in collaboration with Chicago Film Archives.

Part III: The Matter of City Life will include:

  • Manhatta (Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler, 1921)

An experimental film comprised of 65 shots, which evoke the progression of a day in New York City;

  • Études sur Paris (André Sauvage, 1928). Considered a “city symphony” film of Paris in the 1920s. It offers a poetic and experimental portrait of the city;
  • Bronzeville selections from the Don McIlvaine Collection (In collaboration with Chicago Film Archives). Short film clips shot by Chicago artist and muralist Don McIlvaine featuring scenes from the city of Chicago still under development.

 

Originating at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist was curated by Dr. Richard J. Powell, John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History at Duke. Grant support to the Chicago Department of Cultural Aff­airs and Special Events provided by the Nasher Museum of Art and the Terra Foundation for American Art; the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor; and the Henry Luce Foundation; and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art. The exhibition is on display at the Chicago Cultural Center until August 31,2015. See more on our city-wide cultural programming at http://www.colum.edu/academics/fine-and-performing-arts/initiatives/archibald-motley.html

Christopher Hudgens
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