Throughout his career, John T. Biggers (1924 – 2001) focused his art’s subject matter on racial and economic injustice. As a well-educated artist, he influenced so many, including his students but also his fellow artists. Biggers started out by painting exaggerated figuration, and, by the end of his career, he painted geometric allegories. Using symbology and African cosmology, his stylistic choices changed, but his focus on empowerment of his people remained steadfast.
Having lost his father as a child, his mother sent him and his brother to Lincoln Academy, a boarding school for black children, where he acquired a position working as a “fireman” who would light the morning fires. During the mornings, Biggers found time to be alone, and he would read The New York Times book reviews and illustrate the stories. Biggers forged a connection to African culture while at Lincoln through the school’s principal Henry McDowell, a missionary in West Africa who shared lessons on African culture that would influence Biggers’ career as an artist. (READ MORE)
