Walls That Speak: The Murals of John Thomas Biggers

NOTES

u 123 NOTES Notes to Introduction 1. Bernard Rosenberg and Norris Fliegel, The Vanguard Artist: Portrait and Self Portrait (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1965), 281. 2. John Biggers, conversation with the author, Mt. Pleasant,Texas, October 27, 1989. 3. Francis V. O’Connor, “Influence of Diego Rivera on the Art of the United States During the 1930s and After,” Diego Rivera: A Retrospective (New York: The Detroit Institute of Arts in association with W.W. Norton and Co., 1986), 171–73. 4. Rachel Davis, Americans at Work: Realism Between the World Wars, exhibition catalog (Houston: Transco Energy Company, 1985), 15. 5. John Biggers, interview on tape with author, Houston, July 5–8, 1993. 6. Cedric Dover, American Negro Art (Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1960), 40, 91–96. 7. O’Connor, Diego Rivera, 178. 8. Dover, American Negro Art, 40. 9. Alan W. Barnett, Community Murals: The People’s Art (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1984), 24. 10. Ibid. 11. John Biggers, conversation with the author, November 19, 1993. 12. William Rubin, ed., “Primitivsm” in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern, exhibition catalog (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1984). 13. Nathan Irwin Huggins, Harlem Renaissance (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), 79–80. 14. David Driskell, Two Centuries of Black American Art, exhibition catalog (New York: Los Angeles County Museum of Art with Alfred A. Knopf, 1976), 62. 15. Huggins, Harlem Renaissance, 80. 16. Robert V. Rozelle, Alvia J. Wardlaw, and Maureen A. McKenna, eds. Black Art-Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African American Art, exhibition catalog (Dallas: The Dallas Museum of Art in association with Harry N. Abrams, 1989). 17. John Biggers, interview on tape with author, Houston, July 5–8, 1993. walls that speak 124 u Notes to Chapter 1 1. John Biggers, conversation with author, Mt. Pleasant,Texas, October 27, 1989. 2. Rebecca Felts and Marvin Moon, “Artists Series: An Interview with John Biggers,” Texas Trends in Art Education (Fall 1983): 15. 3. John Biggers, interview on tape with author, Houston, July 5–8, 1993. 4. Ibid. 5. Felts and Moon, “An Interview with John Biggers,” 11. 6. Ibid. 7. John Biggers, telephone interview with author, Gastonia, November 3, 1993. 8. John Biggers, telephone interview with author, Houston, July 29, 1993. 9. John Biggers, interview on tape with author, Houston, July 5–8, 1993. 10. Rebecca Ritter, Five Decades: John Biggers and the Hampton Art Tradition, exhibition catalog (Hampton,VA: Hampton University Museum, 1990), 9–10. 11. John Biggers, interview on tape with author, July 5–8, 1993. 12. Ritter, Five Decades, 15–17. 13. John Biggers, interview on tape with author, Houston, July 5–8, 1993. 14. Ibid. 15. Ibid. 16. Felts and Moon, “An Interview with John Biggers,” 15. 17. John Biggers, interview on tape with author, Houston, July 5–8, 1993. 18. Two Murals by John T. Biggers, program (Chicago: UTSE-CIO Center, 1946) non-paginated. 19. Ritter, Five Decades, 19. 20. Anne Felder, “History of the Negro Church,” term paper, New York University, 1956. 21. Two Murals by John T. Biggers. 22. John Biggers, telephone interview with author, Houston, July 29, 1993. 23. Ibid. 24. Viktor Lowenfeld, Creative and Mental Growth, rev. ed. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1952), 301–2. 25. John Biggers, interview on tape with author, Houston, July 5–8, 1993. 26. Ritter, Five Decades. 27. John Biggers, telephone interview, Gastonia, N.C., Nov. 3, 1993. 28. John Biggers, interview on tape, Houston, July 5–8, 1993. 29. Ibid. 30. Ibid. 31. John Biggers, telephone interview with author, Houston, July 4, 1995. 32. Ibid. 33. Ibid. 34. Lowenfeld, Creative and Mental Growth, 304. 35. John Biggers, telephone interview with author, August 14, 1995. 36. John Biggers, telephone interview with author, Gastonia, N.C., Aug. 14, 1995; interview on tape, Houston, July 5–8, 1993. 37. Letter to author from Mary Lou Hultgren, Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Va., Jan. 28, 1994. Hultgren graciously provided exact dimensions for Baptism. notes u 125 38. John Biggers, interview on tape with author, Houston, July 29, 1993. 39. John Biggers, interview on tape with author, Houston, July 5–8, 1993. 40. Stephen Carpenter, telephone interview with author, University City, PA, July 29, 1995. Carpenter graciously provided exact dimensions for the two murals and side panels. He noted that some slight damage is apparent on both Day of the Harvest and Night of the Poor. 41. John...