One of Boston’s most esteemed and accomplished artists, John Wilson committed his life and work to the exploration of African American experiences. Though best known for his drawings, paintings and prints, Wilson developed a sculptural practice late in his career. “Back in the late 1960s,” the artist recalled in a later interview “I started to feel that the two-dimensional illusionistic images I was creating as a painter and printmaker were inadequate. I decided to try sculpture and chose to work in clay.” Eternal Presence was the artist’s first major sculpture. A monumental bronze head with African-American features and closely cropped hair, this piece is loosely based on sketches Wilson made of his daughter’s friend Roz. However, as its title suggests, Eternal Presence is not a portrait. Rather, in Wilson’s words: it is “a large existential black head.” “How do you sum up what a black person is… what the community is about in one head? How do you sum it up? Well that is what I was doing.” Though Wilson began sketching ideas for a monumental sculpture in the 1970s, work on Eternal Presence began in earnest in 1982 when the artist was awarded a commission to create a major work for the grounds of National Center for Afro-American Artists in Roxbury, ultimately installed in 1987. According to Wilson, the form was inspired in part by the large stone Buddha sculptures in the MFA collection, which he studied as a student at the Museum school in the 1940s. When discussing the ideas behind Eternal Presence, Wilson also referenced the monumental Olmec heads, he visited in Mexico in the 1950s. The version is one of two casts of the clay maquette for this project, the other is in the collection of the DeCordova Museum. The maquette was cast at the Paul King Foundry in Rhode Island.

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