“The Snuff Dipper” painting by Archibald Motley, Jr. depicts an older Black woman in a blue and black checkered blouse.
Gray hair peeks out from her black feathered hat, and a straw or toothpick is tucked in the corner of her mouth.
Today, it may seem like a simple portrait, but in 1928, it was a revolutionary piece of art. Back then, demeaning images of Black people were more common.
“There’s dignity in this everyday woman, just like you would paint the Mona Lisa,” said Danny Dunson, director of curatorial services at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, which owns the painting.
The piece is currently on view as part of “Paris in Black: Internationalism and the Black Renaissance,” which opened at the museum on Saturday and runs until early 2027. The exhibit features works by Black American artists who lived in Europe from the 1890s to the middle of the 20th century and beyond. Escaping racism back home, they refined their craft abroad and shaped the “New Negro Movement,” a cultural and intellectual rebirth that included the Harlem Renaissance, as well as “awakenings” in Chicago and other cities.
Like Motley’s portrait, the art of the moment re-imagined Blackness and asserted racial pride.
“These people knew their value,” said Dunson, who also oversees community partnerships at the museum.
That self-confidence can serve as a guide for Black Americans facing discrimination today, no matter where they live, Dunson said.
“You can decide, maybe I’m going to leave, maybe I’m going to come back,” he said. “But if I’m sitting here, my mental place is not sitting in oppression. I’m someplace else.”
Archibald Motley, Jr. is one of several Chicagoans and School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni included in the exhibition. Visitors will also see William Harper’s tranquil “Countryside Landscape,” an oil painting from the early 1900s; William Edouard Scott’s colorful “Haitian Turkey Market” oil painting from 1934; and Ellis Wilson’s detailed “African Mask” oil paintings from the mid-century period.
The African themes in the artists’ paintings were often inspired by their exposure to other cultures abroad, Dunson said.
“When Black Americans were able to get to Paris, they were able to connect with Africa in a way they would not have been able to while being subjugated through the Jim Crow era in the United States,” he said. “They got to meet people from Senegal. They got to meet people from Nigeria. They got to work and perform together.”
Another highlight of the exhibition is a 1963 portrait of Chicago Defender founder Robert S. Abbott, painted by Chicago artist William McBride.
The show also features artists from outside the Windy City. There are sculptures by Augusta Savage, photos collected by W. E. B. Du Bois and paintings by Henry Ossaway Tanner.
Notable Harlem Renaissance figures Langston Hughes and Josephine Baker have their own dedicated rooms. Among Hughes’ artifacts is his original, hand-sewn infant gown from the turn of the 20th century. Baker’s crimson room provides a portal to the 1920s, with archival footage and colorful posters on display.
“She was the Beyoncé of the time,” Dunson said.
“Black in Paris” also showcases works by and depictions of Black queer artists. A standout is Tylonn Sawyer’s “The Cakewalk (Strata Drawing).” The 2023 lavender pencil drawing portrays William Dorsey Swann, a formerly enslaved man who is known as the first self-proclaimed drag queen.
“That’s new for this museum,” Dunson said of the queer representation.
In the basement, visitors will learn about writer James Baldwin, as well as Black musicians, singers, dancers, actors and fashion icons. There is also a replica of a French cafe that pays homage to Chez Haynes, a Parisian soul food restaurant owned by the late Chicago native Leroy Haynes.
Dunson said he hopes to support programming for the exhibition with a $10,000 crowdfunding campaign. Like other cultural institutions, the DuSable museum is navigating a challenging financial landscape, he said.
“We are persevering as we always have,” he said. “I think Black institutions, special institutions, and niche institutions that represent smaller groups always need more support and money and in-kind partnering. The bigger government funds are at-risk for everyone. They’re even more competitive.”
Supporting Black-owned institutions also ensures Black history is presented through a Black perspective, Dunson said.
“As a Black curator, that’s very important to me,” he said. “It is from us, by us and to the world.”