The Artist at Work: Symbolism in Archibald Motley Jr.'s Stunning Self-Portrait
Yarra Berger is a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in the History of Art and Architecture. Her research focuses on organized labor, decolonial movements, and identity formation in 19th to early 20th century American art and visual culture.
Archibald Motley Jr. was an influential American painter celebrated for his vibrant depictions of Black American life in the early 20th century. Based in Chicago, Motley was a dynamic figure in the Harlem Renaissance who challenged stereotypical images of Black Americans throughout his career. While he first gained widespread critical acclaim for his innovative portraits, he later would become known for his jazz genre scenes. His diverse body of work explores themes of joy, identity, community, and resilience.
Motley was born on October 7, 1891 in New Orleans, Louisiana. His family relocated to Chicago during his early childhood, where his father worked as a Pullman car porter. Motley became interested in art at a young age and began sketching portraits of local Chicago residents. As a young adult, Motley attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Upon graduating in 1918, Motley hoped to work as a portraitist, though he found it difficult to find paid work as a Black artist. At this time, Motley began painting portraits of his family and friends that would later receive positive recognition. By 1928, Motley had won multiple awards for his work and was the first Black artist to hold a solo exhibition in New York City. The next year, Motley was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship and traveled to Paris with his wife. Motley returned from Paris as an established artist and fixture in the Chicago art scene. While he began to experiment with exhibiting new material in the 1930s, Motley marked his artistic development with the second self-portrait of his career. Painted in 1933, Self-Portrait (Myself at Work) features Motley as an accomplished artist reflecting on his craft.
In Self-Portrait (Myself at Work), Motley deliberately uses symbolism to convey his elevated status as a critically acclaimed working artist. Below is a breakdown of the objects he uses and what they represent in this work:
Painter's smock, detail from Self-Portrait (Myself at Work), Archibald Motley Jr., 1933. Image: Yarra Berger, 2024.
Motley is wearing a traditional painter’s smock, which signals that he is a professional artist by trade. The beret that he is wearing similarly references his recent trip to Paris, France, and likely indicates the artistic experience that he gained there.
Death mask, detail from Self-Portrait (Myself at Work), Archibald Motley Jr., 1933. Image: Yarra Berger, 2024.
A death mask is a type of plaster cast made of an individual after their death. Traditionally, these were created to preserve the likeness of the deceased and served both memorial and artistic purposes. This plaster cast, or death mask, directly references Motley’s academic training at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where Motley would have studied portraiture using masks like these to better understand facial features and the diversity of human expression or emotion.
Statuette, detail from Self-Portrait (Myself at Work), Archibald Motley Jr., 1933. Image: Yarra Berger, 2024.
This statuette seems to reference a large granite statue that Motley would have seen while growing up in Chicago. The original statue was placed on the facade of the Chicago Board of Trade and was designed to represent the concept of industry. Motley has decided to place this figure in front of his palette and is either referring to his own industriousness as an artist, or is asserting that painting itself is his trade.
Crucifix, detail from Self-Portrait (Myself at Work), Archibald Motley Jr., 1933. Image: Yarra Berger, 2024.
This Crucifix directly references Motley’s own religious faith. Motley was a proud Catholic and often featured the Crucifix in his portraits of his family members as symbols of their piety, discipline, and devotion.
Elephant sculpture, detail from Self-Portrait (Myself at Work), Archibald Motley Jr., 1933. Image: Yarra Berger, 2024.
This statue of an elephant with an upturned trunk is typically a symbol of luck or prosperity. This indicates Motley’s own recent string of luck in his career that has led him to his current success.
Much of Motley’s work explores themes of racial diversity and identity. Motley himself was a multiracial Black artist with Creole ancestry. Motley grew up and attended school in a predominantly white neighborhood in Chicago. Raised Catholic, his family attended weekly service at a local Irish Catholic church. Motley later stated that these childhood experiences led to him feeling separated from other Black Chicagoans, as he grew up with Italian friends and neighbors. As a boy, Motley began sketching members of the Black community as a way to connect and spend time with them. Many of his early portraits featured multiracial subjects as he grew increasingly interested in exploring the plurality of race and experiences of Black Americans.
Motley had a complex relationship to his Black artistic contemporaries, as he often felt that the Black community was unduly critical of his work and did not offer him the same support as his white patrons. Though he is widely remembered as an important artist operating within the wider Harlem Renaissance, Motley generally disliked the New York art scene and once stated that, “There was no Renaissance.” Critics of Motley have debated his use of racialized caricature to depict Black subjects in some of his work. Still, Motley maintained his desire to positively transform the depiction of Black Americans in the United States.
Like the figures he represents, Motley was a nuanced individual who pushed the boundaries of American portraiture. His diverse skill as a painter allowed him to create new visions of Black subjecthood while questioning the validity of fixed racial categories. His art remains a vital part of the conversation surrounding race, identity, and cultural expression in American history.