Pencil on paper, 1965, signed and inscribed at lower left, matted and framed under TruVue Plexiglass.

Sight size 17 3/4 x 12 5/8 in.; Frame dimensions 27 1/4 x 22 1/4 in.

From the Collection of Mr. Jonathan P. Alcott, Raleigh, North Carolina

Heritage Auctions, Texas Art, May 19, 2007, Lot 653

Born in Gastonia, North Carolina in 1924, John Biggers was one of the most significant African American artists of the 20th century. He enrolled at Hampton University in Virginia - then Hampton Institute - where he planned to study plumbing, but after taking a class taught by the influential art educator Viktor Lowenfeld, his concentration shifted. Artistic highlights of his experience at Hampton Institute are the inclusion of work in the 1943 Museum of Modern Art exhibition, Young Negro Art, a compilation of selected works by Hampton students. Biggers also became friends with fellow students and artists, Elizabeth Catlett and Charles White.

Biggers was drafted for the US Navy in 1943, which at the time was still segregated, so he was stationed at Hampton and created preparatory military models for training purposes. Upon leaving the army, he transferred to Pennsylvania State University where he completed his Ph.D. in Art Education. He went on to accept a faculty position at Texas State University for Negroes in Houston (now Texas Southern University), where he founded and chaired the Art Department until his retirement.

This work, an illustration for the book, I, Momolu, by Lorenz Graham, was completed in 1965, one year before the book was published, and depicts the main character, Imomolu.

Unobtrusive vertical crease along left edge of sheet; not examined out of the frame.