John Biggers (American, 1924–2001). <em>Web of Life</em>, 1958. Tempera on wood, 22 x 92 in. (55.9 x 233.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art and Florence B. and Carl L. Selden Fund, 2011.50. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2011.50_PS6.jpg)

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John Biggers (American, 1924–2001). Web of Life, 1958. Tempera on wood, 22 x 92 in. (55.9 x 233.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art and Florence B. and Carl L. Selden Fund, 2011.50. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2011.50_PS6.jpg)

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Tell me about this.

This is a scale model for a mural commissioned by Texas Southern University, a historically black university in Houston, Texas.

Biggers moved to Houston, Texas, in 1949 to found the university's art department. Some time after 1955, the university's president, African American scientist Samuel Nabril, asked the art faculty to create murals and sculpture for the campus's newly completed science building. (The new building would be named Nabril Hall in his honor.) Biggers considered Nabril's request one of the most encouraging experiences of his tenure at Texas Southern University.

Why is the painting long and narrow?

This painting by John Biggers is a study for a much larger painting -- a mural, in fact (hence the long, thin shape). The original mural was made for Nabrit Science Hall at Southern Texas University -- a long low wall! It measures 26 feet wide.

Was John Biggers prominent in the civil rights movement? (I ask because I am noticing the African and American presence and the date).

Yes, he was. He also traveled to West Africa to study cultural traditions in 1957, and afterwards he wanted to incorporate that heritage into his art. (He was African-American himself.)

He studied and taught at several historically black colleges and he made these ideas part of his teaching. He was a bit ahead of his time in encouraging black artists to look to their own cultural roots for inspiration.

What is the significance of this tree?

Biggers was interested in the cycles of nature and life and this tree ties them all together. The canvas is divided into 4 seasons, winter is at the left. Within the tree, you'll see many species in all stages of life (and death). They are then fed back into another cycle through decay and rebirth.

Hello, could you tell me about the artist of this piece?

Hi there, I definitely can. Biggers is considered one of the most important African American artists of the 20th century and is certainly best known for his murals. The work you are looking at is a study for a mural.

Biggers grew up in segregated North Carolina, attended Hampton University in Virginia where he intended to become a plumber. However, he became interested in African sculpture after taking an art class at school and began to study art.

In 1943, he was drafted into the US Navy where he made models of military machines. He moved to Houston, Texas in 1949 and was the art department chair there and that is where the large-sclae version of this mural is.

What else would you like to know?

Is the composition/subject matter of this work common to most of his paintings (e.g. the people interwoven with nature)?

Yes and no--this mural was made for the science building of the university, and that is why it explicitly includes nature. However, his murals are very busy with lots of figures so the compositions are always full, similar to "Web of Life".

John Biggers "Web of Life" reminds me of indigenous murals. Is this surrealist art?

Biggers was influenced by artists such as Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco, socialist realist artists who were part of the Mexican muralist movement.

Biggers was also looking at West African art. He had a deep knowledge of art history, and used that when creating his murals. This particular work was a study for a mural at Texas Southern University's Science Hall.

Excellent! Thank you!

Is this on canvas?

No, this work is actually on wood!

Wow, it seems dimensional, is it painted and carved?

It is painted with tempera, which does sometimes require several layers to build up, but the wood is not carved. Biggers did paint the work with many very tiny brush strokes, which probably adds to the dimensionality as well.

This is actually a scale model for the final mural, which Biggers originally planned to paint directly onto a wall and doorways but ended up painting instead on canvas. The final mural was 26 feet wide and 6 feet tall.

Web of Life

John Biggers

American Art

On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Radical Care

This work is the final design for a twenty-six-foot mural for the Nabrit Science Hall at Texas Southern University. John Biggers described its subject as “the interdependence of living organisms in the balance of nature, and the relationship of all organisms to one another through the long line of evolutionary descent.”

Biggers centered the image on an essential earth mother. Throughout, he paired oppositional references to life and death (winter and summer), male and female (the two nudes), and Africa and America (in vignettes of harvest and sowing). A leading twentieth-century African American painter and muralist, Biggers drew inspiration from the Mexican Mural Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. He also infused the composition with the kind of organic, cellular design that was so current in midcentury American art.

ARTIST John Biggers, American, 1924–2001

MEDIUM Tempera on wood

DATES 1958

DIMENSIONS 22 x 92 in. (55.9 x 233.7 cm) frame: 29 1/4 x 99 1/4 x 2 in. (74.3 x 252.1 x 5.1 cm) (show scale)

INSCRIPTIONS Inscribed on verso: "Web of Life / Mural Sketch / Nabrett Science Hall / T.S.U. Houston / John Biggers"

COLLECTIONS American Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 2011.50

CREDIT LINE Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art and Florence B. and Carl L. Selden Fund

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Radical Care

CAPTION John Biggers (American, 1924–2001). Web of Life, 1958. Tempera on wood, 22 x 92 in. (55.9 x 233.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art and Florence B. and Carl L. Selden Fund, 2011.50. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2011.50_PS6.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 2011.50_PS6.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2011

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