John Woodrow Wilson was an African-American social realist artist. John Woodrow Wilson was born in Boston, Massachusetts in the year 1922. Wilson was inspired to create art because when he visited nearby museums as a teenager he didn’t see anyone that looked like him.
Wilson wanted to show that people of color could also be beautiful and often portrayed people of color in his artwork. As a social realist artist Wilson’s goal was to show racial injustice and to show the dignity and pride of persons of color.
Wilson took art classes at his local boys club where he was mentored by current art students that were attending the School of the Museum of Fine Arts located in Boston. After the student’s showed some of Wilson’s fantastic works to the faculty and they were impressed giving Wilson a scholarship immediately.
Wilson went on to earn a B.F.A. from Tufts University. The artist also won awards and fellowships that allowed him to study abroad in Paris, France with modernist Fernand Leger.
The artist taught at the collegiate level at Boston University.
You may have seen John Woodrow Wilson’s most renown work, a bronze sculpture of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which is located in Washington D.C. on the capital rotunda. Wilson beat out many other artists for this prestigious commission. The work is the first image in the picture gallery.
The artist was an outstanding and prolific printmaker.
John Woodrow Wilson passed away just a few days ago in late January of 2015. The artist was 92 years old.
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Some other artists who worked in a similar style include Elizabeth Catlett, Robert Gwathmey, Jacob Lawrence, Charles White and Jack Levine.
John Woodrow Wilson is included in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art located in New York City.
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