E.F. Higgins III

About

An instagram message from Adriaan Van Der Plas on Ed’s recent passing. 

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E.F. Higgins III (1949-2021) grew up in a small town outside of Chicago, IL. He majored in Fine Arts at Western Michigan University but quit school two weeks before graduating. Higgins later attended the University of Colorado to receive his BFA and then went on to receive an MFA in 1976 from the same school, majoring in Painting and Printmaking. In the same year, Higgins left for New York City where he lived and worked as a professional artist. He was a member of The Rivington School.

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While at university, his interests in painting and printmaking led him to create a number of works including play money, stock certificates, stamps, mining claims, postcards, posters, letterheads, labels, maps, and blueprints. These are all considered “non-art” or commercially produced 2-D visuals. After moving to NYC, he began extensively producing correspondence art, leading to his invention of the Doo Da Post. The Doo Da Post is a stamp created for the made-up country of Doo Da. He has created 780 editions of Doo Da stamps. Higgins continued to develop his creative language with stamp-making in his back pocket. The painting of his most recent works, The Fire Cracker Label Series, applied strong colors and graphic lettering–trademark designations that Higgins carried on from his stamp-making. This series is painted with acrylic on canvas board. These pieces incorporate a pop art aesthetic, availing imagery of the American West placed in a logotype context to portray playful renditions of folklore, nostalgia, and circumstances.