ART COLLECTOR WORLD MAGAZINE - James Wilson Edwards

ART COLLECTOR WORLD : James Wilson Edwards

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James Wilson Edwards

James Wilson Edwards would be forgotten today if it was not for the Black collector, Lewis Tanner Moore. Edwards and Hughie Lee-Smith were both artists at the art center, Princeton Group Arts. They were brought to Princeton by a group of Princeton citizens to help bridge the white and black communities together. Rex Goreleigh started the art center in 1947, and was also the director. When the center closed in 1954, Rex started the Studio-On-The-Canal in Princeton which provided art classes for multi-racial Princeton area residents as well as launching gallery exhibits throughout the 1950's. Goreleigh's own art is quite inspirational and he is a powerhouse artist in his own right.

Also included in the exhibit is famed sculptor Selma Hertense Burke who created a bronze relief of Frankin Delano Roosevelt. The last artist in the exhibit is a printmaker, Wendell T. Brooks. He was also a faculty member at The College of New Jersey from the years 1971 to 2009.

James Wilson Edwards

Together, these artists make up the exhibit entitled, " Retrieving the Life and Art of James Wilson Edwards and A Circle of Black Artists." The goal at the Arts Council of Princeton exhibit was to help "restore Black Artists and arts communities to their rightful places in American national and regional histories." It was like walking into a time vault to view this all but forgotten artist and his colleagues. The curators, Judith K. Brodsky and Rhinold L. Ponder, luckily were able to piece together parts of Edwards life through his wife and children and the plethora of pictures that opened a virtual window into his art.

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