Hale Aspacio Woodruff was an artist and art educator known for his murals, paintings, and prints from Cairo, IL. "Native Forms," the first panel in the Art of the Negro mural series, illustrates the range, diversity, and function of art in traditional African societies.
John Woodrow Wilson was a famous painter known for his creative portraits and stylistic approach to social justice. "Black Despair" shows a Black man in a state of anguish with his arms crossed over his head, facing downward, loooking into his lap, resting his body on a table or desk. His right fist sits above his head, and he is wearing a military uniform.
Portraying the brutality of war in the mid-twentieth century, McCowan, a veteran, integrates the wall’s architectural elements (a fire hose and extinguisher) to highlight the tension of the scene. The mushroom cloud above the fire hose highlights Cold War-era anxieties.
Irene V. Clark was a diasporic folklore artist from Washington, D.C. "Five Centuries Ago" depicts Black warriors preparing for battle. In the lead is a man on a horse holding a weapon with an animal by his side. He faces the warriors who follow him as they march under a dark blue sky.
Mills paints a compelling and complex commentary on violence against indigenous people in the United States. In the foreground, a lifeless indigenous person floats next to a wrecked canoe. In the center, a white woman prepares to fire a cannon, still smoking from its last round. Behind her, a stoic Black woman holds one white baby and shelters another white child within her cloak. In the background, a faceless indigenous person reaches towards the scene.
Renee Stout is an artist and sculptor from Junction City, KS. Lunch at the Bush White House is a conceptual gothic painting that explores the intersection of Stout's critique of the Bush administration and numerology from an atmospheric perspective. Above a plantation-like landscape, Stout depicts a heart impaled by an ornate fork.
Word’s painting is a partial pre-study of his Hannah Hall mural. The painting, featuring a family in a small room with a fireplace, washboard, mounted gun, and radio, is done in a geometric style frequently seen in the art of Biggers’ students from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Word’s full mural design includes adjacent panels depicting a church, an abstract figure with a bubble-like head, and an homage to the Wizard of Oz.
The red and orange-hued apocalyptic scene shows the moments after an explosion. In the middle, a dying woman’s soul leaves her body. The mural appears to have been left unfinished, as the baby, one hand, and parts of the foreground and background are not painted in.
Mark Hewitt was an artist from Boston, MA. Spirit of 366th depicts a portrait of a young Black man from the 366th infantry in an Army uniform. The soldier looks into the distance of a shining light while dark-hued clouds of brown, black, and purple gather overhead.
Geraldine McCullough was a renowned painter and sculptor from Kingston, AR. The Black Knight depicts an abstract figure riding a creature like a horse. The figure is primarily black, with a twisted torso, and has masquerade-like attributes. The creature is predominantly black, with both ominous and mythical characteristics.
Michaux, a war veteran, was given the opportunity by Dr. Biggers to paint this mural during his first year as an art major. Reflecting on the devastation of the then-recent World War II, the mural depicts terror, hunger, and human compassion.
Evans’ mural features a self-portrait of the artist below the muscular arms of two angels. Above, an open book radiates light onto the setting. Evans is a founding member of Otabenga Jones & Associates, an artists’ collective founded by four former TSU students.
