A Life on Paper: The Drawings and Lithographs of John Thomas Biggers

CHAPTER FIVE: Developing and Integrating the Iconography, 1974–1983

J Developing and Integrating the Iconography: 1974–1983 Fitting the Pieces Together Chapter Five ohn Biggers once said, “I’m not a talker, I’m an artist. I express my ideas through my art. My thoughts just come out. They don’t follow any logical order .”1 While Biggers’s analysis may have been true, it was a bit of an understatement . John Biggers wrestled with complex ideas and philosophical inquiry throughout his life and he did enjoy talking about and sharing his thoughts. He was now on a quest to integrate his understanding of African mythology and art with his life as a black Southern male of the mid-twentieth century. Out of that inquiry, he hoped to create a new form for his art that would express an integration of these two worlds. Piece by piece, Biggers began to create a metaphoric language that would speak to the human spirit of matters of importance: birth, life, love, family, hope, transformation, regeneration, and ascension. But assembling this quilt of ideas did not come easily. Following the 1969 trip to Africa, Biggers became ill. He was unable to think or work creatively for several years after the trip. Guiding his art program took all his energy. In a strange and depressing episode on campus, Web of Life (1962) was carelessly damaged ALife.indb 75 7/24/06 2:17:04 PM 76 Developing and Integrating the Iconography: 1974–1983 and several of his students’ murals were destroyed in the process of remodeling a hallway to create a window to the new computer lab. Fortunately, the murals had been previously photographed for publication. This damage to the murals was devastating to the morale of students and faculty and aroused vigorous student protest. Biggers had to be hospitalized and was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the throat.2 He stopped smoking and made an effort to control his drinking, but the internal discontent continued. In his intent to find a new form for his art, he remarked that “he felt it was his art that was making him sick.”3 In 1974, the students at Texas Southern University asked him to paint a sixtyfoot mural for the new Student Center. He attended an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, African Art of the Dogon, which began to stir his imagination again. He knew that he had to move away from figuration to successfully integrate African sculptural forms with his ideas. He just did not know how he would do it. Biggers spoke of that struggle: I was bruised like Jacob wrestling with the angels while doing this. Over a period of several years, I tore up drawing after drawing, started over and over again, but nothing was right. Finally, I did some ten-foot drawings and felt that I was learning something. I rushed over, put that drawing up and left it there for a long time. Gradually I worked out the rest of the images… with great difficulty… it was never conceived as a whole, but progressed from drawing to drawing as the images came. Finally I broke away from the Web of Life (1962).4 The first drawing for the mural Family Unity was Upper Room (1974) (fig. 57). Drawn in black and sepia conté crayon, it was rendered in a figurative realism, but with a hint of the geometric abstraction to come. Two women lift up a shacklike structure with their hands and shoulders. Inside the house a table and a bed can be seen and an open window beyond. Children climb a ladder held by a third woman’s broad shoulders. Her strong hands support the others. It is a haunting ALife.indb 76 7/24/06 2:17:10 PM 77 Developing and Integrating the Iconography: 1974–1983 image graphically describing the many women raising families as single parents, supported only by each other. The truth and universality of that drawing resonated with viewers. Discussing these drawings, Biggers commented that “I wanted to honor those marvelous women, our mothers and grandmothers, who had carried us through life by the sweat of their own physical labor and love.” 5 figure 57 Family Unity Original drawing, far left side. Conté crayon on prepared plaster wall 1974 ALife.indb 77 7/24/06 2:17:17 PM 78 Developing and Integrating the Iconography: 1974–1983 figure 58 Holy Family Conté crayon on paper 1974-1978 The second...