Traveling Retrospective Granted to Johnson Wilson, Unacknowledged Black Figurative Artist
In a poignant reflection on American life, artist John Woodrow Wilson (1922-2015) once stated that being Black in America was akin to enduring a "slow death." To combat this protracted, demoralizing violence, Wilson found solace in the creation of art.
Throughout his career, Wilson's paintings, sculptures, and prints tackled oppression head-on, often portraying racist violence, workers' rights movements, and the unique dissatisfaction he perceived within his community. One of his most memorable works, from 1945, features a Black man hunched over a desk, his hands around his head, titled Black Despair.
As his career progressed, Wilson transitioned to a more gentle, yet no less powerful mode. He frequently depicted people he knew from his native Boston and created a memorable public art piece, the first memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. to be housed in the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.
Edward Saywell, chairman of the prints and drawings department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, praised Wilson's work, stating that it was about the visibility of Black experience demanding to be seen. Saywell is one of three curators behind a Wilson retrospective currently on display at the MFA Boston.
While Wilson is celebrated locally, his fame outside Boston is less assured. This could change when the show travels to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art later this year, co-organizing institution of the event. The exhibition could solidify Wilson's place within a canon that has historically excluded him, according to Saywell.
Wilson achieved success during his lifetime, among his connections being sculptor Elizabeth Catlett, who was the godmother to his child, and Robert Blackburn, a well-known New York printmaker. However, his work has been underrepresented in surveys of Black modernism, with some potential reasons being his focus on figuration rather than abstraction, his frequent residence outside New York, his day jobs to support himself and his family, and his emphasis on people rather than formalist ideas, which was unfashionable in the eyes of art history's shapers.
Leslie King-Hammond, an art historian, suggested another factor for Wilson's omission: his focus on people was considered unfashionable by art history's gatekeepers. However, she noted that Wilson's work, with its profound exploration of the human body, continues to resonate today, as evidenced by contemporary artists who engage with his art, whether consciously or not.
Wilson was born in Roxbury, a neighborhood in Boston with a sizable Black population, to immigrant parents from British Guiana. Dismayed by the lack of representation of Black people in the art world, Wilson dedicated his career to remedying this imbalance, using social realism to critique the issues afflicting his community.
The current retrospective at the MFA Boston is a collaborative presentation with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, offering an opportunity for a broader audience to appreciate Wilson's significant contributions to American art.
Sources:
- https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/arts/design/john-wilson-mfa-boston.html
- https://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/coming-soon/john-wilson
- https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-election-in-pictures/a-survey-of-black-modernism-without-john-wilson
- https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/08/arts/design/black-figurative-painters-wilson-retrospective.html
- The current retrospective at the MFA Boston, in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, offers a platform for wider audience appreciation of John Wilson's significant contributions to modern American art.
- John Wilson's paintings, sculptures, and prints, like his 1945 work Black Despair, tackled oppression head-on, providing a poignant reflection on American life, particularly the experiences of the Black community.
- Edward Saywell, chairman of the prints and drawings department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, appreciates Wilson's work, stating that it is about the visibility of Black experience demanding to be seen.
- As a curator for the Wilson retrospective, Saywell hopes that the exhibition, to be displayed at the MFA Boston and later at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will help solidify Wilson's place within the canon of modern art history.
- Art historian Leslie King-Hammond notes that Wilson's emphasis on people andfiguration, rather than abstraction or formalist ideas, may have contributed to the underrepresentation of his work in surveys of Black modernism.
- Despite his relative anonymity outside Boston, Wilson's work continues to resonate with contemporary artists, who engage with his themes, whether intentionally or not, as a testament to Wilson's enduring impact on the art world.
- Born in Roxbury, Boston, to immigrant parents from British Guiana, John Wilson dedicated his career to creating art that responded to the lack of representation of Black people in the fine art world.
- With his lifelong dedication to education and self-development, Wilson connected with renowned artists like sculptor Elizabeth Catlett and printmaker Robert Blackburn, who helped shape his art career.
- Amidst a lifestyle that prioritized art, learning, and lifelong learning, John Wilson found solace in the creation of art, turning his pain into a powerful tool to change the narrative of Black representation in art history.
