John Thomas Biggers

John Biggers (1924-2001)

Biggers’ art career began at Virginia’s Hampton University (1941). Completing his BA, MA, and doctorate degrees under artist Viktor Lowenfeld at Penn State (1954), Biggers was inspired to represent the social realms of sharecroppers, shotgun houses, and prominent African Americans in his murals and drawings. Through a UNESCO Fellowship in 1957, earned while serving as Director of Art at Texas Southern University, Biggers traveled to West Africa, revisiting the imagery he encountered there in many of his later works.

Important Source Material:

Theisen, Ollie Jensen. A Life on Paper: The Drawings of John Thomas Biggers. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2006.

Wohlauer, Gillian. The Art of John Biggers: View From the Upper Room: Museum of Fine Arts Boston, January 18-April 20, 1997. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1997.

TAL