Artist, sculptor, ranch heiress. Biggs, an heiress of the Waggoner Ranch, attended Miss Wright's School in Pennsylvania. She attended Columbia University in New York and the Sorbonne University in Paris to study painting and sculpture. Her first model was her housekeeper, a woman who was half black and half American Indian. The sculpture, named "Enigma," was chiseled out of black Belgian marble, displayed in a Paris art gallery, and received excellent reviews. In 1938, she returned to the United States and exhibited "Enigma" as part of a 31-piece sculptural exhibit in New York City. Her busts of Vice President John Garner, movie star Victor McLaglen, movie producer Louis Mayer, and Phillips Petroleum Company president Frank Phillips were just a few of the pieces in her show. As early as 1945, her art work had been exhibited in Los Angeles, at the World's Fair in New York and Washington, as well as Paris. President Truman posed for her, and he was so proud of how well the bronze portrait turned out. "Riding Into the Sunset," a life-size bronze statue of Will Rogers on his horse Soapsuds at the entrance to the Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum in Fort Worth, is her most well-known sculpture. Replicas are also on the grounds of Texas Tech University in Lubbock and at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma. President Eisenhower, Sid Richardson, W.T. Waggoner, Amon Carter, Jacqueline Cochran, Jimmy Robinson, Jack Chrysler, Bob Hope, Knute Rocknea, and Herbert Marcus were among the most prominent people she sculpted. The Waggoner Room at the Red River Valley Museum houses the largest collection of her work. A replica of her studio, and an award-winning documentary about her life and work, are on exhibit there.
Artist, sculptor, ranch heiress. Biggs, an heiress of the Waggoner Ranch, attended Miss Wright's School in Pennsylvania. She attended Columbia University in New York and the Sorbonne University in Paris to study painting and sculpture. Her first model was her housekeeper, a woman who was half black and half American Indian. The sculpture, named "Enigma," was chiseled out of black Belgian marble, displayed in a Paris art gallery, and received excellent reviews. In 1938, she returned to the United States and exhibited "Enigma" as part of a 31-piece sculptural exhibit in New York City. Her busts of Vice President John Garner, movie star Victor McLaglen, movie producer Louis Mayer, and Phillips Petroleum Company president Frank Phillips were just a few of the pieces in her show. As early as 1945, her art work had been exhibited in Los Angeles, at the World's Fair in New York and Washington, as well as Paris. President Truman posed for her, and he was so proud of how well the bronze portrait turned out. "Riding Into the Sunset," a life-size bronze statue of Will Rogers on his horse Soapsuds at the entrance to the Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum in Fort Worth, is her most well-known sculpture. Replicas are also on the grounds of Texas Tech University in Lubbock and at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma. President Eisenhower, Sid Richardson, W.T. Waggoner, Amon Carter, Jacqueline Cochran, Jimmy Robinson, Jack Chrysler, Bob Hope, Knute Rocknea, and Herbert Marcus were among the most prominent people she sculpted. The Waggoner Room at the Red River Valley Museum houses the largest collection of her work. A replica of her studio, and an award-winning documentary about her life and work, are on exhibit there.
Bio by: Debbie Gibbons
Family Members
Advertisement
See more Biggs or Waggoner memorials in:
Advertisement
