Terry Taggart was born in 1942 but was abandoned at an early age and raised in an orphanage, The St. Righteousness School for Children. It was here that he developed an early interest in art. The Nuns had cheap copies of all the paintings of the Virgin Mary by Raphael and the Fat Ladies by Peter Paul Rubins. These paintings glowed with the glorious color of soft flesh and heavenly pink in an otherwise dreary existence. He knew at an early age he wanted to be an artist
His first formal art education was at the University of Oklahoma. He was awarded a BFA in 1964 with a concentration in drinking. The next three years was spent in Columbus, Ohio freezing to death while earning an MFA in 1967. The school got cheap labor from his teaching and he got his MFA meal ticket. His first official job was as an Associate Art Professor at The University of Guam. As Terry tells it, he spent two years there trying to explain the Renaissance. Guam at the time was not known as the center of the art world.
He relocated to New Your City in 1969 and secured a studio in a cheap, run down building in the art district of SOHO. The following year he became famous and had his first retrospective show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His paintings are still cheap masterpieces but upon his death will be worth millions. His works may be found in all the major collections but most of his pieces are under his bed.