Description
Family Ark, 1992 -Black and White
by John Biggers
Off set lithograph, triptych
29.25 x 49.5 in. (74.3 x 125.7 cm.)
John Biggers (1924- 2001)
A Southern artist who lived and taught in Texas, Biggers is considered one of the nation’s foremost African American muralists. He was born in Gastonia, NC, studied at Hampton Institute (now University) and earned both a Masters degree (1948) and a Ph.D. (1954) from Pennsylvania State University. In 1949, he founded the art department at Texas Southern University and served as its chair until he retired in 1983 to focus on his own work.
Labeled a “Social Realist,” Biggers concentrated his murals, paintings, drawings and prints on the human condition.
His inspiration came from the culture of African Americans in the South as well as from African art and everyday life. His large, highly acclaimed murals often incorporated the human figure with geometric forms like those found below in Family Arc. In 1957
Biggers was awarded a UNESCO fellowship to take an artistic journey to West Africa, the culmination of which resulted in a body of work that led to the publication of his book, Ananse: The Web of Life in Africa. Selected collectors of the artist’s work include the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC; the Dallas Museum of Art; and the Hampton University Museum in Hampton, VA.
A pioneer in translating the heritage of African life into American art, Biggers developed potent spiritual symbols and geometric techniques to create a pictorial mythology. Born in 1924 in North Carolina, he began his career with realistic evocations of the black Southern experience and with murals in the Regionalist tradition of Thomas Hart Benton. After traveling widely in Africa in the late 1950s, Biggers welded archetypal motifs?e.g., Great Mother, masks, combs, water, drums?into a cosmic symbolism, producing an impressive body of paintings, drawings and sculpture that reflects his belief in the human community and its mystical interaction with the natural world. His lithograph Upper Room (1984) depicts two Southern women carrying on their wrapped heads a building?house, school, church?while alongside them a boy and girl climb toward the future on a vine?a hopeful narrative of solidarity and faith. Assembled by a variety of art scholars, this richly illustrated monograph documents a traveling exhibition that opened at Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
Make Offer – Ask Question
Extremely low offers will not be considered. Please do not make offers if you are not serious about buying this item..
