John Wilson at the Met

"That arresting image was made from a tiny portrait of the artist's brother, expanded to monumental public proportions, that announced the Met's "Witnessing Humanity" exhibit, a Wilson retrospective that continues through February 8. In the picture, the brother's brow is steadfast, his gaze grave and alert, mouth and chin resolutely composed; perhaps no Black face has ever so effectively stared down the self-regard of Manhattan's Museum Mile."

"Wilson considered drawing to be the power source for all figurative art-a belief derived from his lifelong investigations into masterpieces from Asia, Africa, and the Americas as well as Europe. Over and over, whether in two dimensions or in three, and across a spectrum of media, Wilson the draughtsman demonstrated a line's capacity to bear weight like a girder, or to allow, like a tightrope, an emotion to dance gracefully, almost weightlessly."

The Metropolitan Museum removed a large façade banner reproducing John Wilson's tiny 1942 portrait of his brother, which had announced the "Witnessing Humanity" retrospective. The enlarged image presented the brother's steadfast brow and grave, alert gaze, confronting Museum Mile's self-regard. The original small portrait now sits inside galleries 691–693 alongside over a hundred Wilson paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings. Wilson regarded drawing as the power source for figurative art, informed by study of masterpieces from Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe. His mark-making—charcoal, litho ink, clay cutter, brush—creates weight, texture, and an urge to touch.

Read at The Nation