<I>Old Man</I>
date: label: Date
content: 1946
name: label: Created by
content: John Biggers, American, 1924 - 2001
notes: label: Caption
content: Old Man reflects John Biggers’s early interest in social realism, an art movement best known for illustrating social and economic injustice. His interest in this style may have been partially influenced by his art professor at Hampton University, Viktor Lowenfeld, a Jewish immigrant who began teaching there in 1939 after fleeing the Nazi occupation in Austria. While at Hampton, Lowenfeld became Biggers’s mentor. In 1946 Biggers followed Lowenfeld to Pennsylvania State University and earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in art education and a doctorate in education.
label: Caption
content: Biggers painted Old Man while living in Pennsylvania. The work reflects the extreme poverty and substandard living conditions many African Americans experienced because of racial discrimination.
label: Description
content: This is an oil painting depicting the figure of an old man. Wearing a long black coat and a narrow brimmed brown hat, he has shoulder length white hair. He holds a stick or cane with his right hand out in front of him and carries a wrinkled paper bag in his left hand. In the background are wooden structures. Made of wooden boards, they have peaked single roofs and tilt slightly. A partial window is visible behind the figure's left shoulder. The ground is represented by undulating waves in brownish-purple that flow under the figure's feet. The painting is signed by the artist in the lower left corner "Bigger 6-46."
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Art
label: Topic
content: Communities
label: Topic
content: Men
label: Topic
content: Poverty
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Visual Arts
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Gerald and Anita Smith
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2012.162.2
objectType: label: Type
content: oil paintings
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Artists Rights Society
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: oil on canvas
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D (frame): 51 1/2 × 20 1/2 × 2 3/4 in. (130.8 × 52.1 × 7 cm)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (unframed): 46 7/8 × 24 5/8 × 1 in. (119 × 62.5 × 2.5 cm)