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John Biggers (1924 — 2000)
Life Dates
Born 1924, Gastonia, NC
Died 2000, Houston, TX
Education
| 1941 | The Hampton Institute, Hampton, VA (later Hampton University) | 1948 | B.S. and M.S, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA | 1954 | Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA |
Selected Museum Collections
The Adept New American Museum, Mt. Vernon, NY
The African-American Museum, Dallas, TX
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR
Atlanta University Collection of African American Art at Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA
The Collection of the City of Houston, Houston, TX
California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC
Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
Palmer Art Museum, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Paris Public Library, Paris, TX
The Paul Robeson Cultural Center, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, New York, NY
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Department of Fine Arts, Texas Southern University, Houston, TX
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
Solo Exhibitions
| 1951 | Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA | |
| 1962 | Paintings by Dr. John Biggers, Jewish Community Center, Houston, TX Drawings of West Africa: Dr. John Biggers, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX Illustrations, Fort Worth Art Center, Fort Worth, TX |
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| 1963 | Drawings by John Biggers, Dallas Public Library, Dallas, TX; Shreveport Public Schools, Shreveport, LA; Houston Jewish Community Center, Houston, TX; Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, TX; Lubbock Museum of Fine Arts, Lubbock, TX | |
| 1967 | Huston-Tillotson College, Austin, TX | |
| 1968 | John Biggers: One Man Show, Winston-Salem State University, Fine Art Department, Winston-Salem, NC; River Oaks Garden Club, Houston, TX | |
| 1969 | John Biggers, Graceland College, Lamoni, IA | |
| 1975 | The Art of John Biggers, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX | |
| 1978 | The Web of Life in Africa: An Exhibition of Drawings and Paintings by John T. Biggers, African-American Cultural Center, Dallas, TX | |
| 1980 | Ceremonies and Visions: The Art of John Biggers, Laguna Gloria Museum, Austin, TX | |
| 1983 | John Biggers: Bridges, California Museum of African-American History and Culture, Los Angeles, CA Boats and Bridges, Sutton’s Black Heritage Gallery, Houston, TX |
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| 1984 | Dr. John T. Biggers, Traditional African American Art Gallery, Texas Southern University, Houston, TX | |
| 1987 | John Biggers: Patchwork Quilts and Shotguns, Transco Gallery, Transco Energy Company, Houston, TX Selected Prints of John Biggers, 1950 to the Present, Balene, Inc., Houston, TX |
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| 1989 | John Biggers: Paintings and Drawings: 1949 - 1988, Delta Fine Arts Center and Sawtooth Center for Visual Arts, Winston-Salem, NC | |
| 1990 | Five Decades: John Biggers and the Hampton Art Tradition, Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA John Biggers: Selected Works, Pyramid Gallery, Little Rock, AR |
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| 1991 | John Biggers: Mural Sketches, Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University, NC | |
| 1993 | John Biggers: Cultural Legacy from 1950 - 1992, Northeast Texas Community College, Mount Pleasant, TX John Biggers: Paintings and Drawings, Fayetteville Museum of Art, Fayetteville, NC |
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| 1995 | The Art of John Biggers: View from the Upper Room, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT; Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA; Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA | |
| 1999 | Five Decades of Drawings by John Biggers, Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA | |
| 2001 | Remembering John Biggers (1924 - 2001): A Memorial Exhibition, The National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston, MA | |
| 2004 | John Biggers: My America, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY |
Group Exhibitions
| 1943 | Young Negro Art, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY | |
| 1944 | 3rd Annual Exhibition of Paintings, Sculptures and Prints by Negro Artists, Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA; 1947, 1950, 1953 Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture by Art Departments of Virginia Colleges, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; 1945 |
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| 1945 | Tenth Exhibition of the Work of Virginia Artists, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD | |
| 1950 | 25th Annual Exhibit of Works by Houston Artists, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955 12th Annual Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX |
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| 1951 | Student-Faculty Art Exhibit of Drawings, Ceramics, Sculpture and Paintings, State Capitol Building, Austin, TX | |
| 1952 | Fifth Southwestern Exhibition of Prints and Drawings, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; 1989 Texas Contemporary Artists, M. Knoedler & Company, New York, NY; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX |
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| 1953 | Painting Sculpture Ceramics from Texas Southern University, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX Integration: The Use of Painting and Sculpture with Architecture in Daily Life, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX |
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| 1954 | Drawings and Paintings by John Biggers and Jack Boynton, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Architectural League, New York, NY | |
| 1956 | Howard University Art Museum, Washington, DC | |
| 1958 | Ford Foundation Invitational Art Exhibit, Fort Worth Art Center, Fort Worth, TX; 1959 | |
| 1960 | Life in West Africa, City of Philadelphia Commercial Museum, Philadelphia, PA | |
| 1965 | Houston Baptist College, Houston, TX; Architectural League, NY Creativity and the Negro, Burpee Center, Rockford College, Rockford, IL |
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| 1966 | New Art Faculty Exhibition, Wisconsin Union Galleries, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI | |
| 1968 | Sphere of Art in Texas, University of Texas, San Antonio, TX Benin, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX Festival of the African Peoples, International Art Show, Los Angeles Sports Arena, Los Angeles, CA |
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| 1969 | Twelve Black American Artists, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI | |
| 1970 | An Exhibition of Black American Art from Times of Slavery to the Present, Muskingum College, New Concord, OH First Annual Black Arts Festival: Operation Breadbasket, 2413 Dowling Street, Chicago, IL |
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| 1971 | Texas Painting and Sculpture: The Twentieth Century, Pollock Galleries, Owen Arts Center, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX Home Folk Africa, Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston, MA |
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| 1972 | Reflections: The Afro-American Artist, Benton Convention Center, Winston-Salem Delta Fine Arts, Inc., Winston-Salem, North Carolina | |
| 1975 | Exhibition of Afro-American Art Collection, California State Museum of Science and Industry, Los Angeles, CA | |
| 1976 | Two Centuries of Black American Art: 1750 - 1950, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY Bearden, Biggers, Gilliam, Hayes, Stovall, Erwin, Hill, Taylor Art Gallery, North Carolina AT&T State University, Greensboro, NC |
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| 1978 | Great Kings of Africa, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA Fire! An Exhibition of 100 Artists, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX |
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| 1980 | Houston Area Exhibition: Recapitulation 1928 – 1960, Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, Houston, TX | |
| 1983 | Images of Texas, Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas, Austin, TX; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX; Amarillo Art Center, Amarillo, TX | |
| 1985 | Fresh Paint: The Houston School, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Inc., P.S.1, New York, NY; Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, OK America at Work: Realism Between the World Wars, Transco Energy Company, Houston, TX |
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| 1986 | Artists Select: Contemporary Perspectives by Afro-American Artists, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ | |
| 1989 | Black Art- Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African-American Art, Dallas Museum of Art, TX; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC; California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, NC; Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, Houston, TX; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY Forerunners and Newcomers: Houston’s Leading African American Artists, Art Gallery, University of Houston, Clearlake, TX Messages from the SouthSewall Art Gallery, Rice University, Houston, TX The Private Eye: Selected Works from Collections of the Friends of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX |
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| 1990 | Tradition and Innovation: A Museum Celebration of Texas Art,Museum of Fine Arts, Houston | |
| 1991 | Black Heritage, Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas, Austin, TX Dishman Art Gallery, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX Forerunners and Newcomers Revisited: Houston’s African American Artists in the Lead, Dishman Art Gallery, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX |
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| 1992 | Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s-40s by African American Artists - From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ; Long Beach Museum, Long Beach, CA; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England; New York State Museum, Albany, NY; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; Philadelphia Museum, Philadelphia, PA; Baltimore Museum, Baltimore, MD; Gibbs Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR; Fine Arts Museum of the South, Mobile, AR; The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; The Art Insititute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; The Saint Louis Museum, St. Louis, MO; The High Museum, Atlanta, GA. Free Within Ourselves: African-American Artists In the Collection of the National Museum of American Art, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT; IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, NY; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN; The Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA |
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| 1994 | The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African-American Art, San Antonio Museum, San Antonio, TX; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX; Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, GA;Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN | |
| 1996 | In the Spirit of Resistance: African-American Modernists and the Mexican Muralist School, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; African American Museum, Dallas, TX; Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC; Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH; The Mexican Museum, San Francisco, CA | |
| 1997 | Revisiting American Art: Works from the Collections of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY | |
| 1999 | Locating the Spirit: Religion and Spirituality in African-American Art, Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries, Atlanta, GA; North Carolina Central University Art Museum, Durham, NC; Fisk University with Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN; Hampton University, Hampton, VA; Howard university Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Transatlantic Dialogue: Contemporary Art in and Out of Africa, Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago, IL |
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| 2000 | African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; The Appleton Museum of Art, Florida State University, Ocala, FL Our New Day Begun: African American Artists Entering the Millennium, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, Austin, TX; University Museum, Texas Southern University, Houston, TX |
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| 2001 | African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VIII, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY; Texas Southern University Museum, Houston, TX A Spiritual: An Exhibit of Prints by: Dr. John Biggers and Three of His Former Students - Charles Criner, Earlie Hudnall, and Harvey Johnson, The Longview Museum of Fine Arts & the City of Longview, TX Curator’s Choice: Works on Paper from the Hampton University Museum Collection, Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA |
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| 2002 | African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, IX, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI; Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL; Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN; International Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Memphis Books Museum of Art, Memphis, TN; Montgomery Museum of Art, Montgomery, AL |
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| 2003 | African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, X, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY African-American Masters, Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, New York Historical Society, New York, NY; Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, TN; The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinatti, OH; Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH; The Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT; Spelman College Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT; Spelman COllege of Fine Arts, Atlanta, GA Painting History: The Making of the Murals of Charles White and John Biggers, Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA Something All Our Own: The Grant Hill Collection of African American Art, Orlando, FL; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA; Texas Southern University Museum, Houston, TX; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Nasher Museum of Art, Duke university, Durham, NC |
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| 2004 | Ascension: Works by African American Artists of North Carolina, Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC Embracing the Muse: Africa and African American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY |
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| 2005 | Syncopated Rhythms: 20th Century African American Art from the George and Joyce Wein Collection, Boston University Art Gallery, Boston, MA Eye Contact: Painting and Drawing in American Art, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, NY | |
| 2006 | In the Hands of African American Collectors: The Personal Treasures of Bernard & Shirley Kinsey, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA | |
| 2007 | The Harmon & Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art: Works on Paper, The College of Wooster Art Museum, Wooster, OH | |
| 2008 | Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; University of Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville, VA; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA African American Art: 200 Years, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY | |
| 2010 | African American Art: Highlights from the Hervy Hiner Collection, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, TX |
Awards
| 1950 | Purchase Prize, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX Purchase Prize, Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA |
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| 1951 | Schlumberger Prize, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX | |
| 1952 | Purchase Prize, Neiman Marcus Company and Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX Stipend, Ella Lyman Cabot Trust, Cambridge, MA |
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| 1953 | Purchase Prize for prints, Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA
Purchase Prize for sculpture, Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA |
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| 1957 | UNESCO Fellowship for study in West Africa | |
| 1963 | Excellence of Design Award, Chicago Book Clinic, for Ananse: The Web of Life in Africa Excellence of Design Award, Southern Book Competition, for Ananse: The Web of Life in Africa Best Texas Book Design, Dallas Museum of Art, for Ananse: The Web of Life in Africa |
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| 1964 | Professor Award for Outstanding Scholarly and Academic Achievement, Minnie Stevens-Piper Foundation, TX | |
| 1968 | E. Harris Harbison Award for Distinguished Teaching, Danforth Foundation, St. Louis, MO | |
| 1972 | Distinguished Alumnus Award, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA | |
| 1981 | Mayor’s Award for Outstanding Contributions as Visual Artist, Houston, TX | |
| 1988 | Texas Artist of the Year, Art League of Houston, Houston, TX | |
| 1992 | VanDerZee Award, Brandywine Graphic Workshop of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA | |
