John Thomas Biggers (April 13, 1924 – January 25, 2001)[1] was an African-American muralist who came to prominence after the Harlem Renaissance and toward the end of World War II.

His mother also sent John and his brother Joe to Lincoln Academy, an American Missionary Association school for African-American children in Kings Mountain, North Carolina.

His life took a dramatic change of course when he took an art class with Viktor Lowenfeld, a Jewish refugee who in 1939 had fled from Nazi persecution in Austria before World War II.

[2][3] He also began to learn the work of Mexican muralists Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Diego Rivera; and American regionalists Grant Wood, Reginald Marsh, Thomas Hart Benton, and Harry Sternberg.

[7] Biggers received a mural commission by the Young Women's Christian Association of Houston in 1952, for the Blue Triangle branch.

Thinking of the YWCA as a place for African-American girls and women to be empowered, Biggers was inspired to draw from his mural for his doctoral thesis.

Under the auspices of UNESCO, he and his wife Hazel traveled to Ghana, Benin, Nigeria and Togo to study West African cultural traditions first-hand.

"[11][12] Biggers credits Lowenfeld with influencing his artistic development, giving him a larger perspective on the anguish that people have suffered because of race or religious beliefs.

[4] When Biggers studied African myths and legends, he was particularly drawn to the creation stories of a matriarchal deistic system, contrasting with the patriarchal images of the European world.

As his ideas and images of Africa melded with memories of his rural Southern life, his work became more geometric, stylized and symbolic.

[10] Robert Farris Thompson notes how Biggers gives iconic treatment to household items associated with everyday domestic life.

[14] The recurring symbol of the simple shotgun with a woman standing on the porch can be interpreted not only as the simplest type of housing but also as a reference to women, through whom all creation comes.

[17] In 1996 Biggers was invited to create the original design for the Celebration of Life mural in North Minneapolis, a predominantly African-American community.

The mural was completed by a number of local Minnesota artists, including a few of considerable reputation such as Seitu Jones and Ta-coumba Aiken.

On October 8, 2009, Swann Galleries set an auction record for any work by Biggers when they sold the painting Shotguns (1987), acrylic and oil on canvas, for $216,000 in a sale of African-American fine art.

A stellar representation of the shotgun-style houses found in Southern black communities, the painting had been widely exhibited and was considered a culmination of Biggers's work.