User:Horse DeWormer/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Archibald Motley

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
Motley was an influential painter in the Chicago African-American art scene; his work features in the Art Institute's museum collection, and his style is an interesting blend of romanticism and social realism. I think his paintings contribute heavily to Chicago's culture and history.

Evaluate the article
The introduction to the article lists Motley as a contributor to the Harlem Renaissance, though it also states that the artist never actually lived in Harlem. There are certainly noticeable parallels between Motley's work and the Harlem Renaissance movement, particularly the connection to jazz music and the intricate portraits of black urban life, but the article does not elaborate on why Motley was considered an honorary member of the movement. This might be confusing to the reader, especially if one is unfamiliar with the Chicago and New York art scenes. More information on Motley's inclusion in the Harlem Renaissance would be useful.

The "skin tone and identity" section provides some background on Motley's attending majority white schools and the disconnect he felt from both the black and white neighborhoods due to his mixed ancestry. This is partly why he was inspired to get in touch with the black community through his paintings, which intended to shed a positive light on African-American life during a time of racial tension and ignorance. Light-skin subjects often featured in his work, as a reference to his own background and to call attention to the unique experience of mixed-race people. However, in this same section, Motley's work is described as "using colorism and class to subvert stereotypes," which seems to imply that he was in fact perpetuating another stereotype -- that darker-skinned black people are less cultured or that lighter skin equals higher social standing. Earlier in the article we are given the impression that the skin tones Motley chose to paint were a reflection of his own background and a celebration of an under-represented group, though it could be seen as a devaluation of dark-skinned people by omission. Whether or not the artist was prejudiced in this way is unclear, as the "colorism" seems to be the author's personal take on Motley's work. In the description of the 1924 Mulatress portrait, the woman's "sharp features" are said to be controversial as they feed into the stereotype that black women are defiant, angry, or over-emotional; this is a possibility, but pointing this out seems to imply that black women must be painted with soft or smiling features or else fit a stereotype (while white women can be painted with any expression), which could limit the range of human emotions available to the portraitist.

There is also the statement toward the beginning of the "skin tone" section which claims "Motley reinforces the association of higher social standing with "whiteness" or American determinates of beauty" (should probably be "determinants"); this again seems like a personal opinion, since Motley was supposedly depicting his own surroundings. It is unfortunately true that the closer a mixed black family is to "whiteness" the more respect they earn from white upper-class society, but mixed people still had a significant disadvantage to whites, and it could also be argued that Motley was simply painting the community he felt most connected with. Of course, he could have painted working-class or poor communities without stereotyping, but this was not his area of specialization. An article on the "colorism" in Motley's work would be a helpful addition.