A bust of Martin Luther King Jr. will be on view for the first time in 40 years, installed just in time for the holiday weekend honoring the American civil rights leader.
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which encompasses the Legion of Honor and de Young Museums, acquired Elizabeth Catlett’s “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” for display in the American galleries of the de Young Museum beginning Saturday, Jan. 18.
The a bronze portrait by Catlett was made for a 1984-85 competition led by the National Endowment for the Arts. The goal was to create a sculptural tribute to King for the U.S. Capitol, marking the first portrait of an African American in the federal building. Catlett, a pioneering Black modernist who lived in New York and Mexico, was one of three finalists in the nationwide competition along with John Wilson of Boston and Zenos Frudakis of Philadelphia.
Timothy Anglin Burgard, the distinguished senior curator and Ednah Root curator in charge of American art at FAMSF, told the Chronicle that the recorded comments from members of the judging committee (not attributed) called Catlett’s bust “the most powerful presentation of Dr. King” of the three artists, noting she “exaggerated his features slightly to convey the strength and purposefulness of a man depicted near the end of his life, with the creases and sagging flesh of a man who has lived through difficult and frustrating experiences.”…