CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/9/2025

The first major retrospective of John Wilson

Perhaps best known for the bronze bust of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that he produced for the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in 1986, Boston artist John Wilson was a master draftsmam, printmaker and painter, as well as a sculptor. And yet, his work is only now getting the attention that it deserves with the opening of John Wilson: Witnessing Humanity, the first major retrospective of his work, ever. On view now at MFA Boston, it will travel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in the fall. Featuring approximately 110 works across all media, it explores the many ways Wilson called attention to racial, social and economic injustices through his art. “I am a [B]lack artist,” Wilson is quoted in the substantial, beautifully designed, clothbound exhibition catalog. “I am a [B]lack person. To me, my experience as a [B]lack person has given me a special way of looking at the world and a special identity with others who experience some injustices … I don’t sit down and think, ‘Well, I have to do a picture on [B]lack people today.’ What I’m doing to some extent in my art is exercising some of these conflicting kinds of messages that this racist world has given me. … Some of the themes I have dealt with are not because I sat down and said I wanted to make a political statement but because of emotional experiences.”