"John Thomas Biggers"(1924-2001)

Twentieth century artist was an educator,painter and muralist.His travels in Africa in the 1950s

influenced the depiction of social and cultural themes in his works.John was born Gastonia,North Carolina the youngest of seven children,John enrolled in Hampton Institute where he initially studied plumbing.He found his true love was art and soon changed his major.He trained with Viktor Lowenfeld at Hampton and received his first notoriety in 1943 when the 19-year-old student artist was featured in the exhibit Young Negro Art in New York's Museum of Modern Art.That same year he was drafted into the U.S. Navy.In 1945 John was committed to a Navy mental hospital Pennsylvania for issues relating to anger and depression.Later that year he was dishonorably discharged.Upon leaving the Navy,John followed his mentor Viktor to Pennsylvania State University where he developed his specialty working with murals.John earned a master's in art education in 1948 and a P.h.D. in 1954 from Pennsylvania State University,while still working on his dissertation,he became an art instructor Texas Southern University,becoming a founding member of its  Arts Department faculty.He continued to work at Texas Southern University until his retirement in 1983.In 1957 John was invited in the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) tour,on that he became one of the first black artist of the era to embrace an integration of Africa and Africa American influenced in his work.By the 1980s and 1990s he began incorporation themes of birth and rebirth as he incorporated more feminine concentrations into his works.John retired as a full faculty member at Texas Southern in 1983 so that he could more fully devote himself to creating new pieces of art.He began working with his brother James Biggers in the early 1990s.The two painted murals at Winston-Salem University in North Carolina and Hampton University in the late 1990s he created murals across his hometown of Houston Texas.Towards the end of his life,diabetes hindered his ability to create works of art.He finally lost his battle with diabetes an died in Houston.