Black Artists Matter: a selection of influential African American artists from Texas A&M University Collections

Dr. John Biggers
April 13, 1924 – January 25, 2001

(Image source: The Houston Chronicle, May 31, 2016)

Artist Biography

Dr. John T. Biggers was a from Gastonia, North Carolina who settled in Houston, TX. Though he is best known for his murals, he is also respected for his prints,
drawings, and sculptures. His artistic legacy is still visible on the walls of libraries, colleges and other public buildings in Houston and throughout the southern United States.

His artistic studies started in 1941 when he attended the Hampton Institute and took an art class with Viktor Lownefeld, a Jewish refugee from Austria. In May of 1942 Biggers was drafted into the Navy where he served until 1945. He returned to school after the war at Pennsylvania State University, earning a BA in Art Education (1948), an MA in Art Education (1948), and a PhD in Education (1954). Dr. Biggers taught at Pennsylvania State and at Alabama State University before moving to Houston in 1949 where he was the founding chairman of the arts department at Texas Southern University in Houston (formerly known as Texas State University for Negroes).

After a trip to Africa in the 1950s, Dr. Biggers’ paintings transformed to represent traditional African culture. He studied African legends and myths and developed a particular interest in creation stories and matriarchal deistic systems. He received a UNESCO fellowship that took him to Ghana, Togo, Dahomey (now the Republic of Benin), and Nigeria, and his art came to honor the strength of African and African-American women as heroic survivors. With time, his murals became more symbolic and abstract. Common themes in his artwork include black culture, spiritual rebirth, and travel. Many of Dr. Biggers’ works have criticized racial and economic injustice.

In 1943 Dr. Biggers was featured in a progressive exhibit called Young Negro Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In his lifetime he won multiple awards for his drawings, including contests at both the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Dallas Museum of Art. (Sadly, there was no reception for either award at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston or the Dallas Museum of Art due to racial segregationist policies at that time.) In 1988 Dr. Biggers received the title of Artist of the Year from The Art League of Houston and an Achievement Award from the Metropolitan Arts Foundation.