John Wilson: Martin Luther King Series
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Martin Luther King, Jr., 2002 |
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January 14, 2009 - March 1, 2009
About the Artist
A second new exhibition showcases renowned painter, sculptor and printmaker John Wilson. Raised in Roxbury and educated at the Museum School, Wilson went on to study with Férnand Leger in Paris and with the muralist José Clemente Orozco in Mexico. During his long career, Wilson has achieved great success with shows at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and commissions for public sculpture.
About the Exhibit
The Danforth Museum of Art is pleased to present a print suite illustrating the short story "Down by the Riverside" by Richard Wright, as well as several prints commemorating Martin Luther King—particularly appropriate during a month in which we honor the accomplishments of this great civil rights leader.
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Richard Wright Suite by John Wilson |
Synopsis of "Down by the Riverside" by Richard Wright
"Down by the Riverside" (previously unpublished), the second short story in the 1938 and 1940 editions of Uncle Tom's Children, dramatizes the tragic death of a black man, Brother Mann, who uses a stolen boat during a Mississippi flood to take his pregnant wife to a hospital for the child's delivery. On the way to the hospital, Mann is discovered by the owner of the boat, a white man, who tries to shoot him, but Mann, in self-defense, kills the owner. When Mann reaches the hospital, he finds his wife dead. Later he is drafted by the military men in charge of rescuing flood victims. The first house to which he is sent, with a black companion, both of them on another boat, happens to be that of the owner of the stolen boat, whose family recognizes Mann. Although he considers killing them, their house suddenly tilts, the axe in his hand does not fall over their heads, and he ends up rescuing them. Once the boat safely reaches the hill, they tell the authorities that Mann is a murderer. As he flees down the riverside, he is shot to death.
The Mississippi Quarterly, Spring 1993, by Yoshinobu Hakutani
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