John Woodrow Wilson is a noted sculptor, painter, and printmaker who taught art at Boston University for more than two decades. He is best known for his powerful portraits of African American men and explores themes of class oppression and racial discrimination. His work also expresses the importance of paternal presence in family life. In Father and Son, the intimate pairing of figures provides an inspirational image of a loving father and his commitment to sharing with his child the joys of reading. A number of Wilson’s sculptures are monumental in scale. Among several commissioned works, the Muskegon Museum’s Father and Son is a study for the seven-foot sculpture installed at Boston’s Roxbury Community College (1990), and a bronze portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. graces the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. (1988). (http://www.muskegonartmuseum.org/mma-permanent-collection/)