Harvest

John Biggers was raised in Gastonia, North Carolina, where he was introduced to art at a young age; his first semester at Hampton University in 1941 convinced him to pursue art as a profession. The mentors who taught at Hampton, like Viktor Lowenfeld and Elizabeth Catlett, encouraged his interest in Black culture and poverty in the Jim Crow South. For the rest of his career, Biggers used his technical skills in drafting, lithography, and oil painting to depict subjects fatigued and despairing, diverging from his mentor Catlett’s decision to focus on resilience.

Biggers received multiple advanced degrees and then founded Texas State University’s Art Department in 1949. The following decade, he traveled through West Africa on a UNESCO fellowship, a trip which resulted in an illustrated book aiming to capture Africa’s essence. Biggers’s art brought together symbols from his Southern childhood, the advice and influence of his art mentors, and African heritage from his international travel to create a distinctive style.