Artist john biggers biography

Images of washpots and cleansing water would become important symbols in John Biggers' artwork in later years. Education John's education played an important role in his decision to become an artist. Rather than teaching from the traditional Eurocentric perspective, Lowenfeld encouraged his students to explore the imagery of their own cultures.

By placing value in the legends, art, and music of Africa, Lowenfeld opened the doors to a previously hidden treasure of symbols and culture which would become increasingly visible in John Biggers' works as he refined his artistic style. Career Upon graduation, John Biggers was invited to help build the art department at Texas Southern University, where he served as professor for more than 30 years.

True to his own educational background, John Biggers encouraged his students to paint what they experienced in their lives; to develop a style that would help them to express their personal understanding of life, culture, and history. Upon graduation, he moved to Houston and founded the art department at Texas Southern University formerly Texas State University for Negroes , where he taught for 34 years.

Biggers was influenced by a college art instructor who was a Jewish refugee and who encouraged students to manifest their artistic and cultural heritage in their works. Biggers was recently honored by a major retrospective of his work that traveled to seven art museums across the country. It was unprecedented for a major museum to take such interest in student artwork, let alone work by African-American students.

Despite the discouraging response, he continued to dedicate himself to his work as a painter, sculptor, and muralist. After basic training, he was sent back to the Navy training school that had been established at Hampton, where he created two murals. However, Biggers was outraged at having to serve in a segregated military, and became deeply depressed.

When the war ended, he spent a month in the naval hospital in Philadelphia before being given an honorable discharge. In Biggers enrolled at Pennsylvania State University, where Lowenfeld had accepted a teaching position. During his years at Penn State, Biggers first began to achieve some recognition for his work. The following year, , he was asked to establish an art department at Texas Southern University, a black college that had been founded just two years earlier.

Biggers accepted the position as head of the art department, and taught at Texas Southern for more than 30 years. The mural, which portrayed African-American women as symbols of heroic struggle and survival, established a theme that Biggers would explore again and again in his work. In the early s Biggers also won purchase prizes in competitions sponsored by the Dallas Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston — despite the fact that both institutions were segregated at the time.

Artist john biggers biography

At the Dallas Museum of Art, a reception planned for him was mysteriously cancelled. At the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Biggers could not attend the awards reception, because it fell on a day when the museum was closed to blacks. In Biggers made a trip to Ghana that would change his entire philosophy of life and art. At the time, very few African-American artists had traveled to Africa to study.

Nevertheless, the people they met welcomed them like long-lost family members. Over the years, Biggers had developed a system of visual icons, imbuing them with mythical meanings. But in Africa, the women walked and danced with a certain joy. And even though they might be doing common labor, there was a certain dignity that the people had. For Biggers, the process of assimilating what he had seen in Africa into his artistic practice was extremely difficult.

Ananse was published in , just as the civil rights movement in the United States was gathering momentum, and black Americans were beginning to take pride in their African heritage. The book, reissued in , made an invaluable contribution to the growing consciousness of African history and culture. Throughout the ls and s, Biggers continued to teach at Texas Southern, participated in solo and group exhibitions, and created murals, including several on the Texas Southern campus.

Biggers retired from teaching at Texas Southern in , having received numerous awards for his teaching and academic achievement. As the s progressed, Biggers began to receive more recognition for his work. In the early s, Biggers was asked to create several murals for Hampton University, where he had studied almost 50 years prior. The process of creating the murals at Hampton was documented in an independent video called John Biggers: Journeys A Romance.

Mural painting has to do with wall design and storytelling has to do with content. I try to blend both. Biggers died on January 25, , at his home in Houston. He was 76 years old. A new work of art was commissioned to honor the work and life of John Biggers. Warlaw, Alvia J. Afterward, Biggers began to study art. Du Bois and Alain Locke. In , Biggers was drafted and joined the U.

Navy , which was segregated , like the other armed services. He remained stationed at the Hampton Institute and made models of military equipment for training purposes. In that same year, his talents were recognized when his work was included in a landmark exhibit Young Negro Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in art education in In that same year, he married Hazel Hales.

His works can be found at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia , primarily in the campus library. Biggers was hired to be founding chairman of the art department in at Houston 's Texas State University for Negroes now Texas Southern University. Biggers retired from Texas Southern University in From to Biggers painted four murals in African-American communities in Texas, the beginning of his work in murals.

Most are still in place. Thinking of the YWCA as a place for African-American girls and women to be empowered, Biggers was inspired to draw from his mural for his doctoral thesis. It honors the sacrifices and endeavors of African American women on behalf of their families and communities, and human rights for women of all races. The mural was revolutionary, symbolizing the sociological, historical, and educational influences of heroic women.

With it, he was one of the first African-American artists to visit Africa. Biggers described his trip to Ghana and Nigeria as a "positive shock" and as "the most significant of my life's experiences. He adopted African design motifs and scenes of life from his travels as important elements of his subsequent work. Biggers returned to Africa again in , and People call it "bush," you know, that's a name sort of like the hunter.

I don't care for that name for the country people because country people have a great traditional culture. And these cultures are all over the country. They are beautiful.