Katherine French, director emerita of Danforth Art, said Wilson "will be recognized as a major artist of the 20th century. I really have no doubt about that.” French has just finished curating “John Wilson: Boston’s Native Son,” a show that opens in Boston's St. Botolph Club Feb. 18.

Boston Globe art critic Sebastian Smee called him “one of Boston’s most esteemed and accomplished artists” and wrote that throughout Wilson’s oeuvre, “the impulse has remained the same: It is an impulse toward clarity, toward truth.”

Born in Roxbury, Mass., in 1922, Wilson went on to study at the Museum School in Boston and became a professor of art at Boston University. He was also part of the group that later became known as Boston Expressionists.

Wilson worked with Fernand Léger in his Paris studio, collaborated with the Taller de Gráfica Popular in Mexico, and created commemorative portraits of the late Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Notably, Wilson's bronze bust of King resides in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.