Credit: Cocktails, about 1926. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of The Museum of Fine Art, Boston.
ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY JR.
The New Negro
Archibald Motley offered a vast perspective on urban black life that resonated with philosopher Alain Locke’s notion of the “New Negro,” in his 1925 anthology, The New Negro. The “New Negro,” according to Locke, is "the savvy, self-aware city dweller of today". Motley’s representations of modern African-Americans illustrated Locke’s ideas on black identity and race relations.
Motley painted Cocktails shortly after the publication of Locke’s book. Cocktails addresses city life and black life in Chicago specifically. The composition shows a gathering of African American women laughing leisurely over a round of drinks; Motley presents the city as "hedonistic yet progressive, hostile and indifferent yet cosmopolitan and modern."
Simultaneously, Cocktails raises questions about class and racial conflict. Placed within the larger context of the Great Migration of the first quarter of the twentieth century when millions of southern blacks migrated to northern cities for better opportunities. Competition for jobs and housing in the North became inflamed by pre-existing racial tensions and led to intraracial conflicts.
Motley’s inclusion of a dark-skinned working-class waiter within a scene of black middle-class indulgence is significant. It brings to light the problem of color and class discrimination within the increasingly socioeconomically diverse black community in Chicago. The waiter’s darker complexion also focuses attention on the physical diversity of Motley’s women, with their array of skin tones. "Cocktails, in conjunction with Motley’s later paintings of street life, demonstrates that the image of the “New Negro” conforms to no mold. It is as expressive, vibrant, and perhaps flawed, as the figures before us."
