A marble bust of Christ's face in agony: the face is vertically elongated, and other features are exaggerated, including deeply inset eyes and full lips. On the hairline is a crown of thorns carved in relief.

Man of Sorrows

1950

Marion Perkins (American, 1908–1961)

United States

Carved directly from a marble block, Man of Sorrows depicts a black Christ wearing a crown of thorns, with his eyes closed tightly and lips pursed in intense, contained agony. Chicagoan Marion Perkins was a leading figure at the South Side Community Art Center as a playwright and social activist as well as an artist. When asked to comment on Man of Sorrows while exhibiting it at the Art Institute in 1951, he left little ambiguity about his intentions for the work: “The reflection of the suffering of the Negro people in this head of Christ is an acid test of American democracy."

Marble

African American artists

Chicago Artists

African Diaspora

Arts of the Americas