CHARLES ALSTON (1907 - 1977) Reverend Martin Luther King.
Cast bronze, 1973. Approximately 280x190x265 mm; 11x7 1/2x10 1/2 inches; approximately 400 mm; 16 inches high with base. One of only two "heirs" castings, aside from the edition of 6. With the artist's signature incised, lower right base edge. Stamped "96" and "HEIRS 2".
Provenance: the estate of the artist; current owner.
Illustrated: "National Portrait Gallery: Permanent Collection Illustrated Checklist", Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Press, 1987, pg.166. Henderson, Jr., Harry B. and Romare Bearden. A History of African-American Artists: From 1982 to the Present. New York: Pantheon Books, 1993, p. 271. Wardlaw, Alivia J. Charles Alston, David C. Driskell Series of African-American Art, vol. 6, Petaluma: Pomegranate, 2007, p.111, figure 15.
This impressive portrait is a great example of the artist's continued work in bronze late in his career. While the artist made work in bronze, terracotta and wood since the late 1930s, Alston's sculpture has largely gone unheralded. The original cast of the Reverend Martin Luther King was commissioned by the Reverend Donald Harrington of the Community Church of New York in 1970. The National Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian Institute commissioned a duplicate cast. In 2000, this impressive bronze by Charles Alston was the first image of an African-American displayed at the White House. Bearden/Henderson p. 270 and Wardlaw, p. 110.
