Art Institute of Chicago

Nightlife

Archibald John Motley Jr. · 1943

Provenance

Ownership history

Costella M. Gwin (1935–1985; born Costella Maria Dotson), Chicago, by 1985 [Robinson and Greenhouse 1991, 141]; by descent to Deborah Gwin Hill, Chicago, 1985; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago 1992.

Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

Exhibition history

Chicago Historical Society, The Art of Archibald J. Motley Jr., Oct. 23, 1991–Mar. 17, 1992, cat. 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.
Art Institute of Chicago, <a href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/1399/art-and-appetite-american-painting-culture-and-cuisine">Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine</a>, Nov. 10, 2013–Jan. 27, 2014, cat. 40; Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Feb. 22–May 18, 2014.
Art Institute of Chicago, <a href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/1567/they-seek-a-city-chicago-and-the-art-of-migration-1910-1950">They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, 1910–1950</a>, Mar. 3–June 3, 2013, cat. 33.
Durham, NC, 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), no cat.
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.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism, Feb. 25–July 28, 2024, cat. 96.
Seattle Art Museum, Beyond Mysticism: The Modern Northwest, Mar. 5–Aug. 2, 2026, cat.

Literature

Published references

Jontyle Theresa Robinson and Wendy Greenhouse, The Art of Archibald J. Motley, Jr., exh. cat. (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, no. 2 (1992): 177–179, fig. 11 (ill.).
Wayne Craven, “An Awakening,” American Art, 11, no. 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, no. 2 (1999): 162–179, fig. 11 (ill.).
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, no. 2 (1999): 185–186.
Amy Mooney, Archibald J. Motley Jr. (Pomegranate, 2004), 88, 90, pl. 40 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), cat. 146.
Judith Barter et al., Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 2013), 132–33, 224, cat. 40, fig. 28 (ill.).
Sarah Kelly Oehler, They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 2013), 46–47, cat. 33 (ill.).
Denise Murrell et al., The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism, exh. cat. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2024), 18–20, 243, cat. 96, fig. 10 (ill.).

Comparables