Mammy 1924

This is Archibald Motley’s painting, ‘Mammy’, and it’s made with oil on canvas. Look at the way Motley builds up the image through layers of careful brushstrokes, almost like weaving a tapestry of color. The texture of the canvas comes through in places, adding a rough, tactile quality to the surface. The cool blues and whites of the sitter's dress create a striking contrast with the warm tones of her skin, headwrap and the objects she holds in her lap. Notice how Motley uses subtle gradations of light and shadow to model the form, giving it a sense of depth and volume. If you look closely you can see little flecks of color that vibrate against each other. It reminds me of Seurat, but with more soul. Motley’s work is interesting in how it walks a line between representation and something more abstract. I guess all painting does this, in the end, but Motley’s paintings in particular offer us a chance to think about how we see, how we remember, and how we make sense of the world around us through art.