"Archibald John Motley Jr. (October 7,1891-January 16,1981)

Was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.At the age of two was taken by his parents to Chicago when they decided to move north to seek better employment.The family finally settled in the Englewood neighborhood (then a predominately white immigrant community)on Chicago's south side.His father,Archibald Sr.was a pullman porter,while his mother Mary F.Motley was a school teacher.His only other sibling was his sister Flossie Motley.In 1909 at the age of eighteen,after having spent a few years working with for his father and the Michigan Central Railroad,he entered Englewood High School.Here Archibald met his future wife,Edith Granzo.Much of their early relationship was secretive,due to the fact that Edith was German-American and they were seeing each other at a time when interracial relationships were considered unacceptable.Archibald graduated from Englewood High School in 1914 and enrolled in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.He receive high grades despite his demanding class and work schedule.To help offset his school tuition,he cleaned statuary in school galleries.After graduating in 1918,Archibald found difficulty in acquiring employment as an artist because of his race.Nonetheless,he began his career as an artist.Some of his most popular works emerged in this period including Portrait of My Father (1921),Mending Socks (1924),and The Octoroon Girl (1925).In 1924,he married Edith,who helped him financially during the rest of the decade.That support enabled him to focus completely on his work which had begun to receive recognition from various institutions.In the Winter of 1928, for example,Archibald had his first one man exhibition at The New Gallery in New York.The exhibition was a major success and led to a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1929,allowing him and his wife to move to Paris for a year to work on his art.After completing a series of Paintings in Paris,the Motleys to their home in Chicago in 1930.A few years later,in the midst of the Great Depression,he found work with the Federal Art Project (FAP),a New Deal program created to provide artists with employment.In 1933He and Edith gave birth to their child,Archibald Motley 3.After the death of Edith in 1948,he put his artistic career on hold to supporthis family.Despite his early success he now went to work as a shower curtain painter for nine years.Archibald returned to his art in the 1960s and his new work now appeared in various exhibitions and shows in the 1960s and early 1970s.He died in Chicago.