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A bright and cartoonish painting of an urban barbecue at which somewhat caricatured figures of all different races and types are gathered around a brick grill, with colored lanterns, dancing, and general partying. Though some of the vignettes are piquant (he does not shy from classism, sexism, etc.) the overall painting manages to remain fun and light. The whole scene is dominated by soft greens and blues, which is common in his other work as well.

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A bright and cartoonish painting of an urban barbecue at which somewhat caricatured figures of all different races and types are gathered around a brick grill, with colored lanterns, dancing, and general partying. Though some of the vignettes are piquant (he does not shy from classism, sexism, etc.) the overall painting manages to remain fun and light. The whole scene is dominated by soft greens and blues, which is common in his other work as well.
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Tarnport (tarnport@mastodon.green)'s status on Thursday, 30-Jan-2025 20:48:10 JST Tarnport

Archibald Motley. Barbecue II, 1960.
Out of season, but dream with me a little, with the documentarist of the Harlem Renaissance and master of the diversity in human skin tones. To some people, this is a vision of a colorful kind of heaven.
His first barbecue #painting was made in 1934, and makes for interesting comparison. Here he was 69 years old, and though he lived to be 90, by this time he'd seen a great deal of change in NYC, and also what it meant to be non-white in America.

In conversation about 19 hours ago from mastodon.green permalink