Ed Dwight is as close to a true Colorado hero as any living human might be.
He was a barrier-busting aviator, becoming America’s first Black astronaut candidate in 1962, before being diminished in that job because of his race. He pivoted from there to highly impactful gigs in tech, then hospitality, real estate and, the career for which he has become most famous, a sculptor whose work has been in serious demand for four-plus decades.
He is a left-brain, right-brain success story — a can-do guy who actually did it all and made a place for himself in history. At the age of 92, he is still coming up with fresh ideas from his base in Denver.
“Ed Dwight: Casting a Legacy,” a new exhibition at History Colorado’s downtown headquarters, captures much of that narrative in photos, text and compelling video. The show also takes advantage of Dwightap talents by displaying a sampling of his bronze sculptures.
Few exhibits transition so easily between explaining how history and art overlap, but the curators here had a head start — both aspects are crucial to keeping this tale interesting — and making sure the exhibition resonates widely.
Thatap because the theme of the show is not success as in any given endeavor; itap about survival, reinvention, dare and dedication. It is admirable that Dwight thrived, but it is genuinely inspirational that he pivoted with such finesse.
And made it look easy: “Each and every one of us should keep an open mind about what we can achieve, no matter our age or our station in life,” reads a quote from Dwight on the museum’s wall. Itap a simple philosophy, and this show provides evidence to back up its wisdom.
Of course, every pivot needs to have its pivotal moment, and this exhibit, organized by Gwendolyn Lockman and Acoma Burns, lays those out in consumable, chronological chapters. They do not include every aspect of Dwightap life, but they hit the highlights.
Crucially, the show summarizes Dwightap experience with the country’s space program, where he attended the Aerospace Research Pilot School and graduated as an astronaut candidate. President John F. Kennedy personally supported his advancement.
“But NASA leadership did not support sending a Black man to space in the 1960s, and did not choose Dwight,” according to the exhibit text. “When President Kennedy was assassinated in late 1963, Dwight lost his strongest advocate.”
Dwight picked himself up. He worked for IBM, developed real estate and, in a move some Coloradans may remember nostalgically, opened a chain of Rib Cage barbecue restaurants. He began making art on the side.
The key transition happened unexpectedly. In 1975, then-Colorado Lt. Governor George Brown — the first black person to hold statewide office — asked Dwight to create a bronze bust of him that could be displayed in the State Capitol. Dwight had never attempted the complicated, multi-stage task of making a bronze, according to the exhibit.
But he figured it out, and the game changed.
Dwightap bronzes are technically sophisticated and artfully rendered. More importantly, they have told stories that many people did not know.
There was a series on Black cowboys and military and frontier heroes. The exhibit includes Dwightap bust of Corporal Clinton Greaves, a Buffalo Soldier who was born enslaved and went on to win the Medal of Honor for his bravery in the U.S. Army. Dwightap style, on display here, was to recreate in detail the head and shoulders of his subjects and then to extend the form to include just one other appendage that reveals their character. In this case, we see Greaves head, and also one of his extended arms gripping a rifle.
There is Dwightap series on Black jazz and blues masters, such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus. One notable inclusion in the show is his bust of Bessie Smith and, again, Dwight chose to replicate her face and head in detail, adding only one outstretched arm, this time clutching a microphone.
There is also his series of Black liberation heroes. Among them: Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks and Frederick Douglass. The exhibition also includes photos of larger-than-life public sculptures Dwight produced across the U.S., including statues of Martin Luther King Jr. and a grouping of characters at the Texas African American History Memorial in Austin, Texas. His most important work may be the “Tower of Freedom,” which stands at the International Memorial to the Underground Railroad at the U.S.-Canada border near Detroit.
It is important to understand this: Museums today, in the 21st century, are all about noting the contributions of important figures in Black history, but that was not necessarily the case when Dwight began doing this work with verve, intention and credibility. His statues are important because they actually started the trend and opened doors for other artists and exhibitions to follow.
“Ed Dwight: Casting a Legacy,” compact enough to fill just one large room at the museum, is not a complete picture of the man. It presents him in heroic terms, as the groundbreaker he has long been. If Dwight has shortcomings or struggles, we do not get a true glimpse of them; he is almost superhuman. A richer exhibition that dared to go in those directions might make him more relatable to everyday visitors.
But spending time in an exhibition that marks his transformations and tells us so much of what is important about the man is both exciting and uplifting. It makes you want to do more with your own life.
“Ed Dwight: Casting a Legacy” continues through Feb. 28 at the History Colorado Center, 1200 Broadway. Info: 303-447-8679 or historycolorado.org.
Ray Mark Rinaldi is a Denver-based freelance writer.
