Walls That Speak: The Murals of John Thomas Biggers

CHAPTER 6. MATURE YEARS: 1983–1993

86 u CHAPTER 6 MATuRE YEARS: 1983–1993 Now I want to paint murals and draw … I want to be an artist. I’ve had thirtyfour years of apprenticeship and I’m in love with art—with the spiritual aspirations of people, of African Americans. My job is now to reach the universal through the black art experience. — Quoted in Thad Martin, “John Biggers: Artist Who Influenced a Generation” u u u houston, 1983–1989 After his early retirement from Texas Southern University in 1983, John Biggers’s production was astounding. In addition to his painting and drawings, he participated in a number of solo and group exhibitions and traveled to Europe, South America,and Africa.In the years between 1987 and 1992,he completed two murals in Texas and four major murals: two at Winston-Salem State University in Fig. 6.1 Song of the Drinking Gourds, 1987 mature years: 1983–1993 u 87 North Carolina and two at his alma mater, Hampton University in Virginia. In all of his work, he continued to develop universal symbols that transcended regional and ethnic boundaries, affirming the common humanity of all people.This may be the enduring legacy of John Biggers’s art. Song of the Drinking Gourds Song of the Drinking Gourds (fig. 6.1) is another outdoor mural, painted on the main exterior wall of the Senior Citizen Craft House in Tom Bass Regional Park outside of Houston. The building, designed by James Marshall, is set on a grassy knoll so that the mural can easily be seen from many points in the park. It has the effect of a large quilt hanging in the open air.1 Tom Bass was a Harris County commissioner who brought a sense of humanism to politics in the county. The park was named in his honor, a sign of the high regard people had for him. It was Mr. Bass who had suggested me earlier for the Adair mural. I’d always hoped to find an architect that I could work with, because I knew that’s how you get to the essence. I had pledged to do no more murals, but when I saw that pure, clean space waiting for me, I knew I had to do it. I liked the architect and his building. He used this building as a way of saying what his beliefs were about architecture. As always, finding sufficient funding for the project was a problem, so I ended up doing it for about half of what I should have charged for a project of that size. In Africa I would have painted a mural for nothing, just to paint on those African clay walls. The setting and the building and the wall filled me with thoughts of Mexico and the murals of Rivera. I would get out there at daybreak to begin work. At that hour, the deer would sometimes pass through to look. The earlier I could get down there, the longer time to paint before the heat of the day came, so I worked from 6 a.m. to noon every day. Fig. 6.2 Song of the Drinking Gourds, 1987. Exterior-quality acrylic on prepared plaster over concrete. 360 x 480 in. Tom Bass Regional Park Craft House, Harris County, Texas walls that speak 88 u This was the largest mural I’d painted so far,but I finished it in the shortest time.Teachers brought their classes to the park to watch me paint. It was truly a joyful experience.2 Coming upon this mural, surrounded by a lush green meadow, the viewer is taken by the light and airy quality of the palette. (fig.6.2) In contrast to so many of Biggers’s earlier murals, the colors of the warm orange earth and the blue sky mix on this wall without blackened tones.Biggers said:“I was afraid that I’d make it too dark—you know my palette—I go all the way to black.”3 The result is a freshness of color unlike anything seen in the artist’s previous work. Texture and pattern predominate in Song of the Drinking Gourds. It almost appears that Biggers painted directly onto the concrete block surface—so successfully did he incorporate the building texture into the smooth prepared plaster wall. The architect gave me about twelve to fifteen of the adobe-colored concrete blocks that were used in...