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Moonlight and High Cotton batik on cotton 2006 11" x 18" unframed, 18" x 24" framed

Artist Biography:

Leo Twiggs was born in St. Stephen, South Carolina. He received his BA Summa Cum Laude, from Claflin University (with Arthur Rose), later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and earned his MA from New York University studing with Hale Woodruff. He was the first African American to receive a doctorate in Art Education from the University of Georgia and was named an Outstanding Young Man of America for his accomplishments in teaching art to disadvantaged African-American students. Twiggs’ batik paintings have won international recognition and numerous awards. Several of his paintings have been selected by the U.S. State Department to hang in American Embassies in Rome, Togoland, Senegal, and Sierra Leone among other places.

Twiggs has had over 65 one-man shows and his works are represented in numerous public and private collections. His 1997 exhibit, Commemoration Revisited at Hampton III Gallery in Greenville received national attention. Twiggs was the first visual artist to receive the Verner Award (Governor’s Trophy) for outstanding contributions to the arts in South Carolina and received the National Art Education Association Southeastern Regional Award in 1981. In 1994, he was selected to appear in the WIS-TV, Southern Bell African American calendar and he was inducted into the S.C. Black Hall of Fame in 1998. He was inducted into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame in 2003 and he received the Governor’s School Leadership Award and the “Scottie” Award from the S.C. Arts Alliance in 2007.

He has juried numerous exhibits in New York, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina and has written articles and reviews of artists and art shows for many catalogues and books.

Leo Twiggs

Orangeburg

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About the Work:

“Every artist must create out of his own being, out of his own encounter with the world. I was born in the South, and needless to say, the things I remember, the scents the atmosphere, all act to shape the imagery I use in my paintings.”

Batik is an ancient wax resist process traditionally used to decorate textiles. The process begins by applying wax to the surface of cloth, usually silk or cotton, and dipping it in a cold water dye solution. I began experimenting with batik as a painting medium in 1964. From the outset, my aim was to control the viscosity of the dyes and orchestrate the crackles to make them work as plastic elements in the design of my paintings. It is a long and tedious process, but, like jazz, it embraces improvisation and contemplation, important elements in my creative efforts.