Podcast appearances and mentions of john biggers

William Sarradet talks with artist and educator Dr. Estelle Voisin-Fonteneau about the loss of Eros, the architecture of sacred spaces, and the written language of patriarchal societies. "I'm very interested in the idea of the sacred within the profane. The profane comes from the word profanum which is the space before the temple and that is where most of the rituals took place. It wasn't in the temple, it was in front of the temple because only the priests or sacred virgins could go inside of the temple." See related readings here: https://glasstire.com/2025/01/12/art-dirt-talking-with-dr-estelle-voisin-fonteneau/ Art Dirt is sponsored in part by the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, which is proud to present two exhibitions for the winter: Japheth Asiddu-Kawartang and Adrian Esparza. These artists' exhibitions are complementary in the fact that they are both studies on the immigrant experience and personal identity. Visit www.amset.org for more information. This week's podcast is also supported by The Architecture of Culture: Works from the Guess Lawson Collection, which is sponsored by Gensler and runs through April 1, 2025, in Houston. Featuring icons like John Biggers and Giana De Dier, alongside rising stars, the exhibition challenges us to see art as a force for change and ignites the connection between art and activism. Talks with leaders like Vicki Meek and Harrison Guy will amplify the show's dialogue. Learn more at www.guesslawsoncollection.com.

To Sanford Biggers, the past, present, and future are intertwined and all part of one big, long now. Over the past three decades, the Harlem-based artist has woven various threads of place and time—in ways not dissimilar to a hip-hop D.J. or a quilter—to create clever, deeply metaphorical, darkly humorous, and often beautiful work across a vast array of mediums, including painting, sculpture, video, photography, music, and performance. Among his standout works are “Oracle” (2021), a 25-foot-tall cast bronze sculpture that combines a Greco-Roman form with an African mask; his “BAM” series (2015) of gunshot statuettes; and his ongoing “Codex” series of quilts, which have, over his past decade of making them, become an especially potent and ritualistic part of his art-making.On this episode, Biggers talks about the influence that musicians such as Mahalia Jackson, Ray Charles, and Stevie Wonder have had on his art; why he thinks of himself as a “material polyglot”; and why religious and spiritual works like reliquaries, shrines, and “power objects” are the bedrock of his practice.Special thanks to our Season 8 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.Show notes:[00:26] Sanford Biggers[03:55] “Sanford Biggers with Yasi Alipour”[07:14] “The Playful, Political Art of Sanford Biggers”[12:34] Moon Medicin[13:36] Mahalia Jackson[13:39] Ray Charles[13:40] Charles Mingus[13:41] Thelonious Monk[15:32] Stevie Wonder[16:06] Prince[18:00] Dick Gregory[18:01] Richard Pryor[18:02] Redd Foxx[18:47] “BAM” series[27:17] “re:mancipation”[29:05] Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture[30:08] John Biggers[31:41] “Codeswitch” at the California African American Museum[33:28] Dr. Leslie King-Hammond[33:30] Maryland Institute College of Art[37:47] University High School[38:23] Morehouse College[38:33] Art Institute of Chicago[47:34] Isamu Noguchi[47:36] Martin Puryear[49:06] “Lotus”[50:31] “Orin”[55:52] “Meet Me on the Equinox”[55:52] “Back to the Stars”

BAIA BITS: Maya Angelou And John Biggers “Our Grandmothers” Little Moments Where Knowledge Meets Art. BAIA BITS are produced in part by the generous support of our Patreon members with a special shout out to Zadig & Voltaire.

Episode Twenty-Eight features Nigel Freeman. He is the director of the African-American Fine Art department at Swann Auction Galleries. He founded the department in the fall of 2006, and since then has set numerous auction records for important African-American artists, including John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Beauford Delaney, Sargent Johnson, Hughie Lee-Smith, Faith Ringgold and Carrie Mae Weems. Many were the result of significant institutional purchases. The department has also held the single-owner auctions of the estate of Dr. Maya Angelou and the collections of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company and the Johnson Publishing Company, Swann's first white glove auction. Swann is the only major auction house with a department dedicated to African-American Fine Art. Outside of Swann, Nigel is a print appraiser on the PBS television show Antiques Roadshow. He has lectured on the subject of African-American art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem and the South Side Community Art Center in Chicago. He has also been interviewed by such magazines as The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Art+Auction, Art and Antiques, The Art Newspaper and on the BBC and National Public Radio. Nigel entered the auction world in 1997 with a background in fine art as a painter and printmaker after earning a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University in 1991, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Art from Brown University in 1989. Previously, Nigel was the associate director of Swann’s Prints & Drawings department. Enoy. https://www.swanngalleries.com/ https://www.swanngalleries.com/news/african-american-fine-art/2019/12/african-american-art-from-the-johnson-publishing-company/ https://news.artnet.com/market/johnson-publishing-white-glove-auction-1766616 https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/appraisers/nigel-freeman/ https://www.culturetype.com/2014/02/11/culture-talk-swanns-nigel-freeman-on-early-african-american-art/

This week's show takes us to Wendell for an incredible Christmas light show, then we go to Winston-Salem to see sketches by famous artist John Biggers at the Delta Arts Center, followed by a trip to the Yadkin Valley to Herrera Vineyards, Derek Long meets a Sake brewer in Asheville at Ben's Tune-Up, and Deborah Holt Noel goes on the LaZoom Comedy Bus Tour of Asheville.

A longtime Houston resident, artist John Biggers explained that he saw his art "as a responsibility to reflect the spirit and style of the Negro people." Biggers achieved recognition as an artist for his drawings and sculptures, but he is best known for his murals, which now form a rich part of Houston's visual landscape.

How did artists like John Biggers, Romare Bearden, Lois Mailou Jones, Benny Andrews, Jacob Lawrence, Augusta Savage and Charles Alston influence American art and contemporary American artists? As part of our Black History Month ArtsTalk series, Prof. Dana C. Chandler, who taught African and African American Art from 3000 BC to the present at Simmons College in Boston, for 33 years, will discuss the influence of these and other major early 20th artists, several fo whom he knew, on American art and artists.   Called "controversial", a "Black Power Artist", "activist artist" and "Outsider Artist", Chandler, 70, was born in 1941 in Lynn, MA. He is best known for the edgy, colorful, controversial and hotly-debated artistic statements of his 1960’s-1980’s works.  Because he continues to evolve, his messages change to reflect his personal evolution, he is still an interesting, provocative speaker who can speak and/or lecture brilliantly about the historical relevance of his art and his activism to the worldwide struggle for race and gender equality as well as bridge the generation gap that is confounding this country’s leadership and confronting America as we move into the “internationalist” phase of our own evolution. The show is co-hosted and produced by Dahna M. Chandler, an award-winning journalist and the artist agent for Prof. Dana. C. Chandler. (c) 2011. The Outsider Artist, LLC and BAPsody in Blue, Inc.

Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL) of Emory University recently acquired two major collections related to African American art and art history - the papers of artist John Biggers and of collector and arts patron Paul R. Jones. Hazel Biggers and Amalia K. Amaki discuss the importance of preserving papers related to artists and art history.