Edward N. Wilson, Jr. (March 28, 1925 – November 26, 1996) was an

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

sculptor. His work was featured in the landmark 1976 exhibition ''

Two Centuries of Black American Art ''Two Centuries of Black American Art'' was a 1976 traveling exhibition of African-American art organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). It "received greater visibility and validation from the mainstream art world than any other ...

''.

Early life

Wilson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in a fairly well off family; his mother was a teacher and his father was a college administrator. As a child Wilson got sick with rheumatic fever and spent his time while recovering making buildings and other structures which were among his first artistic pursuits. In 1943, Wilson was accepted to attend the University of Iowa as a student of art, yet before he was able to begin his college career he was drafted into service for World War II. Under the U.S military branch of the Air Force, Wilson was a part of a "house keeping" unit under a highly prejudiced officer who singled out Wilson and the only other black member of the unit, continuously holding them back from progressing in position, according to Wilson "to teach them a lesson". Experiences such as these became formative inspirations behind many of Wilson's socially responsive works such as ''Minority Man'' (1957), which is currently displayed at Binghamton University.

Career

While his family taught him to look outside of academics, he eventually found a home in academia which "provided a base for the thought, reflection, and stimulation in preparation for participation in the broader social and artistic struggles" of his time. Wilson was a fixture of the art department at

North Carolina College North Carolina Central University (NCCU or NC Central) is a public historically black university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by James E. Shepard in affiliation with the Chautauqua movement in 1909, it was supported by pri ...

, a

historically black college Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African Americans. Most are in the Southern U ...

. Unfortunately, the isolation of the college made him feel as though he did "not exist locally as an artist". Wilson joined the faculty of the State University of New York at Binghamton to develop a studio art program (he was the first visual arts faculty at the school) and became chairman of the art and art history departments in 1964. Wilson worked there until 1992, when he retired. He completed many public art commissions in the Binghamton area throughout his time at the school, such a three-acre memorial park in honor of President John F. Kennedy which was commissioned by the Binghamton Sun-Bulletin Fund. Much of Wilson's work was influenced by

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and believed that "the education of the American artist, whether he is black or white, should include exposure to African art, American jazz, the psychodynamics of the American scene". He saw a great vitality under American racial tensions and "'

anted Anted is the name of the coins issued by Antedios (or Anted), an ancient king of the Iceni, a Brythonic tribe who inhabited the present day county of Norfolk in Britain from approximately the 1st century BCE until the 1st century CE. Only the fi ...

to see it erupt' aesthetically".

References

1925 births 1996 deaths African-American sculptors Artists from Baltimore 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors Binghamton University faculty People from Vestal, New York Sculptors from Maryland 20th-century African-American artists {{US-sculptor-stub