Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most impactful men in history and what he was able to accomplish for the African-American community during the hardest times of race relations in this country’s history. The visual of Martin Luther King Jr. by John Wilson is a piece I selected because it immediately attracts the attention of the viewer by depicting one of the most important people in American history. This piece has a lot of deeper meaning that the artist is trying to convey to the viewer. Wilson uses only charcoal making the portrait is entirely black and white. This represent the struggles that Dr. King fought for; to have white people and black people to live in harmony and in this piece of art work they are. There are also many other factors of this portrait that are able to enhance the meaning of this visual without words. The use of charcoal in areas where it is darker, lighter or missing all together each help to represent the theme of the art. While the interpretation of this piece can have many potential meanings the overall theme that is most prevalent is suffering. However, this suffering is not a bad thing. Dr. King took on this pain and suffering and used it as his motivation to take on the responsibility of lead the African-American people to equality. 

Various areas of the portrait where the charcoal is darker make many details of Dr. King stand out over others. This style of art is seen on Dr. King’s shoulders and the lower half of his face and neck, where the charcoal has been shaded more heavily. In the areas where Dr. King’s shoulders are darker represent the hardships Dr. King had and the pain of so many people that were counting on him to improve their lives resting on his shoulders. This suffering is brought on by willingness of Dr. King to take on the responsibility of creating better lives for African-American’s during the hardest times of race relations in the history of the United States. While Dr. King took this burden on as a challenge and his motivation to continue to fight for his people the weight of all that responsibility is resembled in the portrait by shading his shoulders darkly. The responsibility that was placed on Dr. King was so tremendous that still today while he is credited with leading the civil rights movement. It is also very important to remember that Dr. King is one of the few people in American history to face the type of discrimination that he and the people faced and yet he still took on the challenge and carried the civil rights movement to a point where eventually all people of color would have the same rights as those of white people. 

Along with the shading and color of the visual another very important aspect of this piece to focus on is the expression on Dr. King’s face. With closed lips and no resemblance of a smile along with Dr. King’s eyes facing slightly downward gives a great amount of meaning to the visual. This is because the look on Dr. King’s face is that of someone who is tired, suffered, and suppressed. The reason that this gives such meaning to the visual is because it is to show that all the work that Dr. King did was not easily obtainable and there was hard work and sacrifice that had to be made in order to get the colored community equality in this country. While Dr. King looks like he is suffering, this is the look of someone who is determined to get through what is undoubtedly one of the hardest challenges of his life. Getting equality for African-Americans at this time was not a task that just any person could take on, and yet Dr. King is fully willing and proud to represent his people no matter how much he has to suffer to help others.

The white in the piece also helps to resemble what Dr. King had to go through and how his preservice is what helped him get equality for African-American’s. This shows how for the work that Dr. King put forth the reward he received is for there to be equality for all people of color in this country. Harmony amongst white people and African-Americans’ is what Dr. King always wanted and in this piece those two colors are together just as Dr. King envisioned. Without Dr. King and his ability to take his hardships and use them as his motivation to led the fight for civil rights would have been a much harder and longer fight. Thankfully Dr. King was able to do exactly what was needed to grant equality to countless oppressed American’s.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will forever be one of the most important people in American history because of his ability to lead and make change through his words. While facing discrimination and having the African-American community looking to him for answers, Dr. King was able to take his pain and suffering and turn it into his motivation to lead the fight for equality in this country. These important aspects of Dr. King’s ability to fight for equality is resembled in the painting Dr. Marin Luther King Jr. by John Wilson through his use of charcoal to create depth to his art. Areas where Dr. King is shaded darkly to where there is no color at all helps to resemble how Dr. King’s suffering was his motivation to work harder and take on the responsibility to lead the African-American community. Wilson’s depiction of Dr. King is an excellent piece and reaches brilliant levels of meaning and is a thought provoking work of art. 
