A study of two african american artists work between 1924 and 1958

1. C O M P A R A T I V E A N A L Y S I S O F
H A L E W O O D R U F F &
A R C H I B A L D J O H N M O T L E Y J R .
W O R K S ( 1 9 2 4 – 1 9 3 9 ) & ( 1 9 3 9 – 1 9 5 8 )
African American Art
Curation

2. C A I R O , I L L I N O I S
( 1 9 0 0 - 1 9 8 0 )
Hale Woodruff

3. “Mutiny Aboard the
Amistad”
- 1939
One of three in a series this
picture depicts the beginning of
the Amistad Voyage to America
and the uprising of the slaves on
that ship. Woodruff uses a
bright and vivid color palate to
parallel the intensity of this
historical scene. As contrast to
his earlier works he starts to
stray from the classic European
proper forms of depicting the
human body and instead lets
the character and color express
the movement of the piece.

4. “Amistad Slaves on
Trail at New Haven”
-1939
The second piece of the three
utilizes the same color palate
and vivid stance as the others
keeping it in tone in the series.
The stoic stances of the
characters on trail are
completed by this intense color
sense and help draw the viewers
eye to where Woodruff wants
them to be. The subtle shifts in
body stance and facial feature
create a sharp split in the room
clearly seperating the two
parties at suit.

5. “Return to Africa”
- 1939
Third and final image in the
series now hanging in the
Talladega College once more
holds true to the theme and
intense color choice of
Woodruff. This one however he
creates a bit more of a depth,
utilizing foreground and
background while the others
remained a bit more foreground
and present. Facial features and
body language shift in each
scene leading to an almost
relieved and joyous culmination
in this last piece bringing the
story full circle.

6. “Caprice”
- 1954”
Woodruff begins to shift his
style after his series with
Talladega College and Amistad
Slaves to this tamer colored
impressionistic art form.
Caprice still manages to create
an interesting contrast of color
but presents a much more
subtle tone and intent. I believe
these tonal shift may be
contributed to and aging
Woodruff and return from
assimilation in the French
culture.

7. “Black and White”
-1958
Woodruff continues to
experiment with this tame shift
in his pieces from the more
popular earlier pieces. Black
and White reflects his return to
high contrast pieces using
largely if not all black and white.
Even in his expressionistic
pieces you can still make at
figures and movement.

8. N E W O R L E A N S , L O U I S I A N A
( 1 8 9 1 – 1 9 8 1 )
Archibald John Motley Jr.

9. “Mending Socks”
- 1924
Motley seem to kick off his
career with pieces depicting of
his surrounding African
American subjects. His realistic
approach side stepped the
themes of glorifying the pieces
subject like many other artist of
this period did. Mending Socks
seemed to be a second of two
famous pieces of his
grandmother, both following
this realistic style.

10. “Blues”
-1929
Blues strikes a Motley in curious
transition to a little bit different
style then the earlier stated
realism. One of his earlier pieces
concentrated on action rather
than individual. Brighter colors
and happier movement could
easily reflect Motley’s hertitage
from New Orleans as Jazz and
Blues become a sweeping
popularity for the black
community around this time.

11. “Barbcue”
- 1936
Barbcue, to me, is a piece were
Motley solidifies his style of
action and vivid color. Focusing
less on details of the individual
the movement and activity
creates the interest and eye
‘catchingness’ of this piece.
Motley’s pieces reflect more and
more of the general good times
way of life of his subjects.

12. “The Picnic”
- 1936
Picnic, like Barbcue, reflects
that happy go lucky feel of life
but creates more depth and
detail then seen in some of his
previous pieces. A little more
cluttered and congested of a
piece he appears to focus more
on the scene and setting in this
piece, letting it create the
atmosphere more so with the
character instead of rather than.

13. “Hot Rhythms”
- 1961
A piece much later in his
professional career Hot
Rhythms shows much in one
piece leaving little to no room
for an environment, leaving the
viewer to draw context clues
from the characters themselves.
The color and theme still reflect
that of his earlier works; an
obsession with music,
atmosphere and surrounding
characters.

14. Comparative Analysis
• Born on separate ends of the United States, Woodruff and Motley do share a number of significant similarities
and differences (a major reason while I picked them). Both create a movement and environment in an
experimental way of using vivid color and action. While most pieces from either remain relatively flat and void of
a background depth, there still remains this understanding of some sort of foreground and subject focus.
However, Motley is certainly more reflective of his surroundings and allows the movement and color to create
viewer understand, while Woodruff uses more color contrast and detail, especially in his Amistad series, to depict
a scene. Both start out with experimentation with self portrait and observation of their surroundings but after his
trip to France Woodruff’s pieces drift back to tamer colors and expressionistic style. In his later years, Motley
continues to explore “people as scenes” and subjects from the early Prohibition era. His pieces underline a certain
joy to everyday-life living that was common to find in this post World War America as Woodruff drifts, like
previous stated, to a European expressionistic style. Woodruff’s stylistic change could also be attributed to his
pursuit of a teacher role, creating a more guideline and professional life style for him to portray in his pieces as
instead Motley continued to live through the more spirited side of American culture, were ethnic awareness,
music, and ‘activities of the prohibition’ were much more abundant to depict and mold his pieces.