Presented by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Held in conjunction with the concurrent landmark exhibition at The Met, “Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson”, this panel explores the working process of the American artist John Wilson (1922-2015), with a focus on his iconic portraits of Martin Luther King Jr., in etchings, drawings, and his 1986 memorial statue of the civil rights leader housed in the United States Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer Farrell is the Jordan Schnitzer Curator of Drawings and Prints at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She joined the department in 2014 after holding curatorial positions at the Yale University Art Gallery, the University of Virginia, and the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program. She is the co-curator of “Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson.”

Napoleon Jones-Henderson is a founding member of the AfriCOBRA collective, whose works—from tapestry and sculpture to public art—are grounded in Black pride, Pan-Africanism, and community uplift. He has served as executive director of the Research Institute of African and African Diaspora Arts and taught at MassArt and Emerson College.

Dr. Leslie King-Hammond is an artist, curator and art historian, and the founding Director of the Center for Race and Culture at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she is Professor Emerita. She is the co-curator of “Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson.”

Joseph E. Norman is an artist and a printmaker known for his lithographs that navigate themes of American history, racial injustice, memory, and personal narrative. He is a Professor of Art at the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art and was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Johnson & Wales University. His work is in the collections of MoMA, MFA Boston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Gallery, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

James Stroud is an artist and the founder and master printer at Center Street Studio. Stroud studied printmaking with Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17 in Paris and received an MFA in painting and printmaking at the Yale School of Art.