Michael Biggs Background
Michael Biggs (26 August 1928 – 1993) was an English-born Irish sculptor, stone carver, and letterist. Michael Biggs was born in 1928 in Stockport. He attended St. Columba’s College in Dublin and Trinity College Dublin in 1946-49, but did not graduate.
Biggs studied with Joseph Cribb from 1948 to 1951. Biggs became well-known as a carver, letterist, and engraver after attending Eric Gill’s artist’s community in Ditchling, Sussex. He also worked with Elizabeth Rivers.
Career
One of his most notable works was the Gaelic typeface used by Dolmen Press. He also created the lettering for the Irish pound’s Series B banknotes. In 1989, he was elected to the prestigious artistic institution Aosdána.
In Ireland, Michael Biggs is best known as a liturgical artist who carved inscriptions, sculpture, and church furnishings. He began his career as a gravestone cutter and continued to do so throughout his life.
Biggs eventually carved some of the most significant Irish memorials honoring her heroes, including the Memorial Wall at Arbour Hill Cemetery, where the leaders of the 1916 Rising were executed.
Biggs was born in Stockport, Cheshire, England on August 28, 1928. When Michael was two years old, his father, Claude, who was a pianist and organist, moved the family to Ireland. Marjorie Bigg, Bigg’s mother, was an accomplished needlepointer. Evan Gill (brother of Eric Gill), a friend of Biggs’ father, introduced Michael Biggs to an artists’ community founded by Gill in Ditchling, Sussex. Eric Gill, the well-known printmaker and type designer (Gill Sans, Aries, Perpetua), eventually became a significant influence on Biggs and his work.
Michael received a music scholarship to St. Columba’s College in Ireland while in high school. He was a Sizarship student at Trinity College (a competitive scholarship). Biggs was drafted into the British Army in 1946 because he was born in England. Following his military service, Biggs happened upon a book on lettering and decided to become a stone carver. He moved to Ditchling right away to study lettering with Eric Gill, who wanted to create a self-sufficient community of craftspeople. Biggs arrived in Ditchling after Gill had died, but he was able to study under Gill’s apprentice, Joseph Cribb.
Biggs’ first job was to carve a memorial plaque to honor a donor to Trinity College’s New Moyne Institute. Michael Biggs met and married Frances Dooley, a symphony violinist, in 1953. For a time, the Biggs collaborated on lettering projects, and Frances designed stained glass and tapestry. Biggs quickly began receiving commissions from churches for sanctuary furnishings, metalwork, and, eventually, stone sculpture. Biggs had a separate workshop built for him to work on lettering and sculpture.
Biggs hired assistant Tom Glendon from 1968 to 1974. Many new churches were being built at the time, giving Biggs’ workshop the opportunity to create altars and other stone carvings. Biggs is well-known in Ireland for his stone carving and lettering.
A Gaelic Alphabet, written with Liam Miller, was one of Biggs’ most important contributions to the Dolmen Press. Miller commissioned Michael Biggs to cut the 18 distinct letters used in the Irish (Gaelic) alphabet. Biggs’ original wooden letters are housed in Special Collections and Archives at Wake Forest University’s ZSR Library.
Relationship
Michael Biggs married Frances Dooly, a violinist, artist, and stained-glass and tapestry designer; they had five children. He later converted to Roman Catholicism and was buried at St. Patrick’s Church in Enniskerry.
