Vital’s bust was created during his time as an art student at TSU. Under the instruction of Professor Carroll Harris Simms, artists would create self-portraits embellished with decorations like spirals and accentuated crown pieces, like in Vital’s sculpture. These busts are inspired by Nok terracotta sculptures and Ife busts, which Simms saw during his travels to Western Africa. Vital later became a member of TSU’s art faculty.
Renfro’s painting displays an image of a working man dressed in overalls from behind. The man is wheeling bricks towards a construction site. His bones and muscles are made visible in the composition, perhaps to highlight the physical demands of his labor. Dr. Biggers taught his students to portray the human form with care and detail, particularly oft-neglected features like hands and feet.
Gabriel's senior notebook includes her written philosophy of art, photographs of the artist’s works and her process, and a copy of her senior exhibition brochure. As a part of the Texas Southern art curriculum under Dr. John T. Biggers and Professor Carroll Harris Simms, students would create these notebooks to explain their artistry and showcase the works they created as students.
Sauls’ drawing is a portrait, completed in pastel, of a person with curly hair wrapped in a green robe. As a part of the curriculum at TSU, art students are required to create portraits. Some opt for self-portraits, while others begin to create images of those including family, friends, and peers. A variety of portraits created with different mediums can be found in the permanent collection.
This small ceramic vessel created by Professor Carroll Harris Simms has a green hue, with a brown base and white-glazed lip and interior. Simms believed pottery to be an equally important artistic pursuit to sculpture and was encouraged to hear pottery was held in the same regard in West Africa.
Jesse Sifuentes’ “Greater Hornbill” was created using the slab method, which was taught to students of Carroll Harris Simms. This method entails layering evenly rolled clay mixed with sand as artists build up their figures, working from the bottom layer to the top. Sifuentes frequently features hornbills, unique birds found in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia, in his art.
Taylor's maquette shows a mother tightly embracing one or two children. The theme of the mother and child was a recurring motif amongst the students of Professor Carroll Harris Simms, the ceramics instructor at TSU. Simms worked alongside Dr. Biggers to build TSU's art program.
This terracotta sculpture features a mother gorilla with a child clinging to her back. The mother’s head, face, and body are adorned with spiral embellishments. A common theme featured in Texas Southern University’s permanent collection of terracotta sculptures is the relationship between mothers and their children.
Oliver created this notebook for an undergraduate English course. The notebook, which he made and bound by hand, includes the artist’s interpretation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s play, Faust, a Tragedy, and several original illustrations to accompany his writing.
Set against a background of shotgun houses, Black people engage in a struggle to break free from chains and physical limitations. Extreme musculature and angel wings suggest supernatural strengths. A motif in Settles’ work is the power and beauty of Black hair.
Randolph’s painting shows a mother in an African dress wearing her child on her back with a chitenge. The wall is graffitied with words like pig, power, and love, and an image of a Black power fist. The work contrasts the African aesthetic of the figures with the African-American political graffiti, expressing an idea of global Blackness.
This painting by Roy Vinson Thomas is a landscape piece depicting a tree stump and mushrooms in cubist style. Cubism depicts forms using multiple geometric shapes to create depth. Many works in Texas Southern's permanent collection, particularly from the late 1970s, use this art style.
This sculpture is of a mother wrapping her arms around a childlike figure. The artist uses geometric shapes and line work to decorate the bodies and facial features and animate their embrace. Parental protection and the mother-child relationship are frequent subject matters displayed in students' work at Texas Southern University.
This painting by Jesse Sifuentes shows a landscape scene featuring cactuses. Several TSU art alumni have recalled that Dr. John Biggers taught them based on themes more than techniques. Many works from the 1970s use geometric styles, perhaps a reflection of lessons from the time. Sifuentes went on to become a ceramics professor at Texas Southern.
Randolph’s painting shows giant pearls, embedded in oversized shells, in front of a group of three Black women. The pearls reference the beauty of the women, whose hair extends out from their heads to form a unifying pattern between them. Towards the bottom, a leaf fan implies regalness, while the small mask indicates African heritage.
This drawing combines elements of traditional African sculpture and futuristic motifs. The figures’ faces resemble Ashanti akuaba (fertility dolls). The seated mother with a child is also a common motif in African sculpture, as seen in some works from the University Museum’s collection. The figures’ hair textures suggest a more futuristic design.
In a triptych style, Williams’ mural shows three central themes: a family gathered around a newborn (religion), seated near a hearth (home), and working together in the fields (labor). Black rural life is a major subject in the Hannah Hall murals.
The mural shows fishing life along the water. In the middle and on the right, a man is doubled over from his burden, while a group of fishermen brings their catch to shore. On the left, an elderly man and other figures suggest the trials and challenges of the ancestors.
Green’s sculpture is a maquette for his terracotta, which depicts the head and upper fins of a fish. The fish is decorated with ornamental swirls, holes, and ridges. Professor Carroll Harris Simms required his students to add these additional embellishments to their sculptures.
This is an architectural rendering for the Fine Arts Building on Texas Southern’s campus. The building was dedicated as the John T. Biggers Art Center in 1995 to honor the art department’s founder. The building largely retains its original character as depicted in this image.
Hubbard, a student of Carroll Harris Simms, created “Figure With Turtle and Bird” in 1966. This terracotta depicts a bird, atop an abstract tree, surrounding a tortoise. These animals are often paired in folktales, including an Igbo tale where a tortoise fools birds and is punished by having his shell broken. The fable says this is the cause of the irregular shape of tortoise shells.
“Fertility” shows an abstract female figure with breasts, an enlarged belly, and oversized hands. Like nearly all students of Professor Simms, Thomas covered his piece in various embellishments, particularly spirals. Oversized hands are also a characteristic of John Biggers’ artwork. The piece has discolored over the years since its creation.
This watercolor painting by Joseph A. Moran features a grazing cow in the foreground and an outhouse and farmhouse in the background. Dr. Biggers encouraged students to create based on what they saw, which may have been this rural scene for this artist.
Texas Southern University students commissioned Biggers to paint this mural in the cafeteria of the student center. Composed of several distinct but interrelated images, Family Unity features several Afrocentric motifs that Biggers developed, including sacred geometry (checkerboards and spirals), shotgun houses, and husband-and-wife pairs. At the center is what Biggers called the “morning star,” which shows a couple embracing with their form suggesting a womb.
Sifuentes shows multiple generations of a family, painted in a geometric style. Sifuentes borrows visual symbols from his teacher, Dr. Biggers, including the tortoise (longevity) and the serpent (danger and rebirth). Guardian ancestors are represented by figures with angel wings.
The graphic strength of Oliver's portraits is clearly evident in these two panels. By limiting his palette to black and white, the artist underscores the powerful gazes of the figures. Because of his enthusiasm and talent, Oliver was allowed to create additional murals when empty spaces were available.
Foster’s painting is inspired by Charles White’s Sound of Silence. Third Ward is the historically Black neighborhood of Houston that Texas Southern calls home. Where White’s original features a seashell, Foster substitutes a rowhouse, the style of homes that are the heart of Third Ward. Dr. John T. Biggers, founder of Texas Southern's art department, studied under White at Hampton University.
Bilal’s senior notebook includes her written philosophy of art, photographs of the artist’s works, and a copy of her senior exhibition brochure. As a part of the Texas Southern art curriculum under Dr. John T. Biggers and Professor Carroll Harris Simms, students would create these notebooks to explain their artistry and showcase the works they created as students.
Erma Gordon's self-portrait shows the artist from three different angles. The three profiles are tied together by a light, almost translucent fabric that is worn by the frontmost figure and held by the others. This motif is used repeatedly by the artist, including in her mural. Two boys move fluidly and playfully through the background.
In this interview, Texas Southern art alumnus Elizabeth Montgomery Shelton discusses her experiences as a student in the class of 1971. She was a disciple of Professor Carroll Harris Simms and discusses learning to create clay sculptures from him. She went on to teach in Houston public schools for 37 years after her graduation from Texas Southern.
