Dialogue
John Wilson
(American, 1922–2015)
1955
Medium/TechniqueLithograph
DimensionsFramed: 62.2 x 39.4 cm (24 1/2 x 15 1/2 in.)
Credit LineEleanor A. Sayre Fund
Accession number2014.55
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPrints
Collections
Wilson’s period in Mexico City (1950-56), where he sought inspiration from artists such as José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaros Siqueiros, solidified his own commitment to addressing social justice in his art. While there, he made a number of lithographs with the left-leaning Taller de Gráfica Popular (People’s Graphic Workshop), including this street scene from 1955. Wilson felt a greater degree of freedom from racial prejudice in Mexico, but was keenly aware of concurrent developments at home: In 1954, the Supreme Court struck down segregation in public schools, and the following year saw both the murder Emmett Till and the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott, sparked by the defiance of Rosa Parks and orchestrated by a young Martin Luther King, Jr.
InscriptionsIn graphite, l.l.: 47/50 "Dialogue"; l.r.: John Wilson 1955ProvenanceAcquired directly from the artist by Polish-born American photographer Bernice Kolko (1905-1970), who worked in Mexico during the 1950s [her photographs were shown in the exhibition "Women of Mexico" at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, in 1955]; to her grandson, Richard Kolko; to Martha Richardson Fine Art, Boston; 2014, sold by Martha Richardson to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 29, 2014)
CopyrightEstate of John Wilson
